I went down to DC to visit family this weekend and we were invited to a birthday party. Not wanting to go empty handed, I decided to give the gift of food, so I baked a cake.
I wanted to make a cake with a unique and delicate flavor and I didn't want to just make vanilla cake (though nothing is wrong with a good, vanilla cake). I remembered having earl grey ice cream for the first time this summer for the Van Leewen Ice Cream Truck and I loved the flavor. It was gentle, but not flowery. So I settled on flavoring my cake with the tea.
5 teabags of early grey tea
3/4 cup whole milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1 tbsp lemon zest (about half a lemon)
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
- Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a small sauce pan, pour in the milk. Turn the stove to medium until the milk starts to bubble. Reduce the heat of the milk to low and add in the 5 teabags. Let the tea steep in the simmering milk for about 15 minutes. Be careful not to burn the milk.
- Remove the milk from the heat and add 2 tbsp of sugar. Mix the sugar until it dissolves into the milk tea. Let it cool down. Then, place it into the fridge to chill.
- Cream together the butter and 1/2 cup of sugar. Add one egg at a time waiting for each one to be full incorporated before adding the next.
- Add in the milk tea mixture. Make sure that it is NOT HOT, otherwise this will cook the eggs.
- Add the vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Mix in half of the dry mixture into the wet mixture and let it fully incorporate. Add in the rest of the dry mixture and let it mix in fully.
- I used two 9x9 square cake pans. Make sure to butter each pan, line it with parchment paper (just on the bottom) and then flour the edges so that the cakes will come out easily. Don't fill the cake pans more than 1/4 of the way. This cake will rise.
- Tap the filled cake pans on the counter to even out the batter and to get out the air bubbles that might have formed.
- Place them into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. They should be brown on the top and a toothpick should come clean out of the center when the cakes are done.
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| Perfection! |
- Let them completely cool before you frost them.
Now, for the icing! If you want to frost the cake completely, double this recipe. I went for a rustic look and am personally not a huge fan of frosting so I just made enough to barely cover the cake.
Ingredients for Lemon Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks of butter, very softened
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)
1 tbsp lemon zest (about 1/2 a lemon)
pinch of salt
- Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix with hand mixer until the ingredients come together to make a creamy frosting.
- Spread the frosting to cover the top of the bottom layer of the cake. It should be a thick layer. Your probably want it to be about 1/2 inch thick.
- Place the second layer of the cake on top. Frost the whole cake with as much frosting as you like. If you are properly frosting a cake, this video is great.
Et voila! I sprinkled a little cinnamon across the top for decoration, but you can put whatever you want on it. Enjoy!
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