White chocolate and cardamom cake with rose, strawberry and yoghurt filling and a giveaway

One day I had the urge to bake a layer cake. I've been baking a lot of biscuits and small treats recently and I was craving cake. Proper cake. I was sent some spice drops from Holy Lama to review and I started thinking about how I could incorporate them in a cake. I chose flavours that I knew would pair well and came up with this recipe for white chocolate and cardamom cake with a rose, strawberry and yoghurt filling. I used my usual 'weigh your eggs' sponge method and added in cardamom spice drops, sour cream for extra lightness and chopped white chocolate as I was too lazy to melt the white chocolate. Plus it adds a different texture to the cake and everyone enjoyed the white chocolate bits.  I was initially going to fill the cake with a cream and mascarpone cheese filling but decided to use low fat greek yoghurt instead to cut back on the calories and preparation time. 

The spice drops come in a lovely box which clearly labels the spice. The spice drops themselves are easy to use as it has a pipette and it's easy to measure drop by drop. The cardamom flavour was strong in smell, taste and intensity. The box said that 1 drop ~ 1 cardamom pod so I used 10 drops. The rose spice drops smelt absolutely amazing and I used 5 drops for my filling which in hindsight was perhaps a little too much. These are a great alternative to grinding up spices and it's so easy to use. I can't wait to try the other flavours! 

The cake itself was very well received. The flavours worked really well together and visually it looked beautiful. The sponge was light and you can clearly taste the cardamom. The rose and strawberry filling was light and fragrant and helped cut through the 3 layers of cake. I'm glad I chose a yoghurt filling as a cream filling might have been too heavy but would definitely be indulgent. 

I'm sending this to Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers. The theme this month is Floral so I hope the rose extract counts. 

As strawberries are in season, I'm also sending this to Simple and in Season hosted by Ren from RenBehan. 

This also fits in nicely with Celebration Cakes & Bakes hosted by Jenny from Mummy Makes Cakes.

I'm also sending it to Four Seasons Food guest hosted by Tina from the Spicy Pear this month. The challenge is usually run by Anneli from Delicieux and Louisa from Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is The Colour Red and there's a lot of red strawberries in this cake! The rose extract is colourless but roses make me think red too. 

It's also my entry to the Rix Aga Inspired Recipe competition where the theme is strawberries. 

I have a Baker's Spice Drop Kit to giveaway to 1 lucky reader which contains 

• Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon extract
• Cardamom extract
• Ginger extract
• Nutmeg extract

Terms and Conditions

Entry is via the rafflecopter widget below. 

This giveaway is open to all readers over 18 with a postal address in the UK.
Closing date is 14th July 2014 at 12 midnight GMT.
The winner will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter and will be contacted by email.
I am running this competition on behalf of Holy Lama Spice Drops who will be sending out the prize directly. By entering you are giving me permission to pass your email address on to them so they can contact you for delivery of the prize.
All entries will be checked and verified.

 white chocolate, self raising flour, caster sugar, cardamom spice drops, rose spice drops, eggs, fat free greek yoghurt, sour cream, strawberries 

 adding in the sour cream and cardamom spice drops (dark green) 

 adding in chopped white chocolate 

 For the filling - fat free greek yoghurt mixed with strawberry jam and rose extract 

 adding in the strawberry jam to the yoghurt 

 spread filling on top of the cake  

 add a layer of strawberries - I used the ends and smaller strawberries for this, reserving the rest for the top layer decoration 

 repeat with the next 2 layers 

 decorate with fresh strawberries on top 

 add a sprinkling of icing sugar 

 The cake held it's shape after a slice had been cut 

 delicious 3 layer cake 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

For the cake

weigh your eggs in their shells and use the same amount of butter, sugar, flour. My eggs weighed 265g (4 eggs) so my recipe is

265g butter

265g caster sugar

265g self raising flour

4 eggs weighing 265g in their shells

200g white chocolate, chopped

10 drops of cardamom spice drops (you can use 10 cardamom pods) 

150mls sour cream 

For the filling

500g fat free greek yoghurt

3 - 4 tablespoons strawberry jam (adjust to taste) 

5 drops of rose spice drops (you may want to use less - adjust to taste)

For the decoration

Fresh strawberries

Icing sugar for dusting 

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Grease and line 3 x 20cm sandwich tins.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
• Stir in sour cream and cardamom spice drops.
• Add chopped white chocolate.
• Divide batter evenly into 3 cake tins (I weigh mine to make sure they are the same size)
• Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Turn out on a wire rack and allow to cool completely before decorating. 
• To make the filling, stir the yoghurt in a bowl.
• Add in strawberry jam and rose extract and swirl it gently.
• Spread between the cake layers, adding a layer of fresh strawberries on top.
• Decorate the top with more strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar. 

Disclaimer: I was sent the spice drops for review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a paid post. 

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