Fresh chai cake
When my friend Jeanne got back from two years in India, she taught me to make chai. This year, since Jeanne was back in LA for a vacation that coincided with her birthday, I got the idea to make a chai cake, which she ended up helping bake. I found this recipe for chai cake with honey ginger cream, which was apparently the cake of the month for an online baking club at one point, and is therefore well documented in various cooking blogs. I decided to make the cake according to the instructions, but instead of the suggested tea bags, use loose tea and fresh spices according to the proportions Jeanne had shown me for authentic Indian chai.
I purchased the tea and spices at Samosa House/ Bahrat Bazaar, so they were nice and fresh. She specifically uses Red Label tea if she can get it. We infused the milk with loose tea and spices, then strained it. (For actual chai, you steep the tea leaves in water and then add some milk, but here we wanted chai-infused milk as a cake ingredient). She uses fresh ginger and leaves the skin on since it will be strained out anyway. Jeanne also removed the seeds from cardamom pods to make the ground cardamom for the batter; we ground the seeds in my little Mr. Coffee grinder.
The fresh spices made the cake extra special. It really did taste like chai, and the fresh cardamom was fragrant and lively. It was a good recipe in general: the cake was tender, the frosting just the right level of sweetness and tang. I think it also helped that I used a local wildflower honey in the frosting: it wasn’t overly sticky, and had a complex, almost bittersweet edge to it that kept the cake from being cloying. I was also excited to find an unbleached cake flour, and I used organic butter, milk, and cream cheese. I’m not very fond of cream cheese, but I did like this frosting. Also, Haägen-Dazs Five ginger ice cream seemed made for this cake. It’s still listed on their website, but I have not seen it in stores lately, unfortunately. I made a two-layer cake because for some reason I just couldn’t get my mind around a three-layer one, but I think the three-layer one would have been nice.
Fresh Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Cream
Adapted from Sky High:Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne
Makes a 8-inch 3-layer cake or a 9-inch 2-layer cake; makes about 12 servings
1 and 1/3 cups milk
4 tsp loose black tea, Red Label brand preferred
A tablespoon-sized chunk of fresh ginger
3 whole cloves
Seeds from 3 cardamom pods
Half a stick of cinnamon
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 and 3/4 cups cake flour
2 cups sugar
4 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature
Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour the bottoms and sides of the cake pans.
In a small saucepan bring the milk to a simmer over low med-low heat. Add the tea, chunk of ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, and cardamom seeds. Remove from heat and steep for 5 minutes. Strain. Let the chai milk cool completely.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/3 cup of the chai milk.
In a large bowl, the flour, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, and salt. Add the butter and the remaining chai milk, and mix with an electric mixer on med-low speed.
Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture in three additions, scraping the between additions. Divide the batter evenly among the pans.
Bake the cakes for 26-28 minutes, or until a cake tester (for instance, a clean toothpick) inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans. Cool completely on a wire rack. (I made the cake the night before the party and wrapped the layers in foil, then unwrapped and frosted them the next day. This seemed fine).
To assemble the cake place one layer flat side down a serving plate and top with 2/3 cup of icing. Spread to the edge and repeat with second layer. Place third layer on top and spread the remaining ginger cream on top, allowing it to drizzle down the sides of the cake like icicles.
Honey-Ginger Cream
2 and 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
6 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup of honey
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
Place all the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse to blend together, then scrape the sides of the bowl and pulse until smooth. (I used my hand mixer, but I think a food processor would work better if you have one.)
Yummy! The cake was delicious!!!