Hi gee,
Probably you have already done this: a good starting point is download the SD card simplified specification from
www.sdcard.org and read it.
Here you'll easily find the basic commands to detect SD card type, initialize it and write/read data.
I started this way and in less than two days I built my application from scratch, complete with file system (I used FatFs open source module). My task was easier, since I accessed SD card through Nios and spi port; so it was simply a matter of sending the right command sequences.
With a CPLD it will be much more challenging. Good luck!
Cris