Earl Grey + Lavender Cake

Earl Grey + Lavender Cake

I’ve had a beautiful weekend followed by an even better week. It’s not a sentence one normally hears or says, I know, but once you hear my reasons, you shall agree.

My parents travelled for a few days, and I turned 3 again and ate all the junk food and candy I could get my hands on, ordered take out, ate in bed, and cancelled the gym. I have a feeling my parents are not leaving me unattended for a while now.

But apart from all that, in between the Cheetos, pizza and Netflix, I also made a head start on a couple of projects and we’ve been very busy in the kitchen experimenting. We have a few new collaborations coming up and also the new feature that I discussed earlier, “In Your Kitchen”, is about to be launched, but more on all this later.

For now, let’s talk about this beauty – Earl Grey and Lavender Cake.

Its not enough to just drink tea, we can now eat it too! This perfectly moist-but-also-crumbly teacake is perfect with a cup of tea. The glaze has the lavender in it, and of course some purple colouring, because, well, why not? Garnish with a few dried lavender buds, and this cake transport you back to colonial England.

It is a large cake, bakes fast and requires minimum effort. If you aren’t a fan of the lavender, you can use a simple vanilla buttercream with perhaps some lemon zest too.

Note: use the tea bags! Strangely enough, the flavour is a lot more stronger and better from tea bags rather than the high quality loose leaves!

The Recipe
Serves 8

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup Milk
  • 3 Earl Grey teabags
  • 1/2 cup Butter, soft
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/2 tbsp Vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups Flour
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Loose Earl Grey tea
  • 100g Icing sugar
  • 2-3 tsp Milk
  • 2 tbsp Butter, soft
  • 1/2 tsp Lavender Extract
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
  • Dried lavender buds for garnish
  • a few drops Purple food colouring

Instructions

  • Gently warm the milk, but not boil. Remove from heat and add in the 3 tea bags. Cover and steep for at least 30 to 40 minutes.
  • Squeeze out the tea bags for remaining liquid and discard. Pour the milk back into the ½ cup measurement and add more plain milk if required to fill.
  • Heat the oven to 180°C.
  • Grease and flour a 10 inch cake tin.
  • Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and Earl Grey tea leaves together.
  • Whisk the butter and sugar in a separate bowl until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time followed by vanilla extract.
  • Add the flour mixture to the batter, alternating with the milk tea, three times.
  • Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 25 minutes.
  • Remove the cake from the oven and allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
  • Whisk the icing sugar, butter, milk, lavender and vanilla extract together for a thick consistency. Then add the purple colouring.
  • Pour the icing over the cake and smoothen with a wet spatula. Sprinkle dried lavender buds over.

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The recipes are tried and tested, some are adapted from various places, and a few are passed down; but every one of them comes straight from the heart.