On a cold  day, nothing warms up my soul than the smell and taste of spice. Spices are a part of my heritage..they are built into my palate, they spell the word comfort to me…even more than chocolate. They can take me back in time when I woke up to the sound of the mortar and the pestle every day as a little girl. My mother would fill up jars of freshly ground cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander or nutmeg after dry roasting them and the house would smell wonderful for hours. Spices are a constant in my kitchen too and consciously or otherwise I play around with them in my cooking and my recipes. If you are reading this blog for a while, you know that I love to pair them up in my desserts too.

I was a bit unsure of whether I should call this a chocolate cake in the first place. The obvious reason for that is that there is no chocolate in it. The cake and the streusel use cocoa powder. In the era of the ‘chocolate chunk’ baked goods this would be rather old-fashioned or out of place….is what I thought. But one bite into the cake and I immediately loved it. It has all the qualities of a good chocolate cake minus the richness. It’s moist and light and the crumble or streusel totally compensates for a frosting. The spice is subtle in the cake but shines through in the topping.

A cake like this is hassle free and easy. It’s easy to make and easy to store and carry in your lunchboxes. If you adore spice, this is certainly delicious. A dollop of whipped cream or ice cream with a few berries on the side makes it a lovely dessert. My husband who is not a lover of rich, frosted cakes went in for seconds which was a pleasant surprise considering the fact that he stays away from most of the sweets at home.

You could leave out the spice if you want a plain chocolate cake. It would still taste good with the crumble on top but the spice takes it to a different level. The cake is best served warm or at room temperature.

Spiced Chocolate Streusel Cake
Serves 6-8

1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup castor sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
125g butter, melted, cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the streusel topping
1/2 cup plain flour
50 g butter, chilled and chopped into cubes
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup pecans or any nut of your choice, finely chopped
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a 18 cm round cake pan. Line base with baking paper. Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and spices into a large bowl. Add in the sugar. Combine buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla in a jug. Make a well in centre of flour mixture. Pour in buttermilk mixture. Using an electric mixer, beat on low-speed until combined. Increase speed to high. Beat for 3 to 4 minutes or until thick and creamy. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

To make the crumble topping, place all the ingredients in a bowl. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the mixture until the mixture contains large and small crumbs.

Sprinkle the crumble topping over the cake batter in the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove gently from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.