Cardamom Cream Cake

In celebration of our friend/fam's birthday, I made him this Cardamom Cream Cake posted on the New York Times (with a little tweak). It was the least I could do considering how much he has done for us over the past few years. He is my walk buddy, fellow cardamom craver, co-cook, and toddler wrangler when we simply don't have enough hands. We love to tease him, but that's only because we love him.  

This cake is made up of simple vanilla cake that you soak in cardamom infused milk. There's a unique twist with the ricotta based filling. Lastly, the frosting is mascarpone based which is I always love but you could also do cream cheese if you prefer. 

The only thing I changed about this recipe was the frosting; it required mascarpone, butter, and Greek yogurt. It felt like too much so I went with a simple mascarpone frosting from the Chocolate, Almond, and Pear cake from this recipe on Twigg Studios. I already had the heavy cream because of the ricotta filling so no sense in buying more ingredients.  

Here is the review:

• This cake is best for cardamom lovers. 
• It is not super sweet which is the general preference. 
• Be generous with the milk-soak - that's what really punches up the flavor. You could easily double it if you want to make sure you have enough to brush all sides of the four (4) cake layers. 
• We could not taste a difference between the ricotta filling and the mascarpone exterior. I would be tempted to skip it all together next time. 
• Other reviewers warned about going easy on the rose water - I was too conservative and could not smell it which is okay, better than then too much.  
• It cuts beautifully and can last in the fridge a night or two before serving.

The consensus was to lean full in next time and treat this like a tres leches cake - there's already enough milk product in it! My favorite recipe is the tres leches from Cooks Country. I would make the same milk soak infused with cardamom instead of the heavy cream. A little cinnamon in the cake batter. And a pinch of rose water in the whipped cream frosting (which I never use the corn syrup). I cannot wait to give it a shot!