Apple & Earl Grey Cake

If you like tea, especially the Earl Grey one… well, you’re in the right place. 

Personally, I’m a huge fan of this blend and I think that it’s perfect for cakes, cupcakes and buttercream. Around the Web, you can find plenty of recipes of stuff flavoured with Earl Grey, but if you don’t have much time for the kitchen adventures or you have unexpected guests in your house… you need to try this recipe. It’s pretty simple, fluffy and super delicious!

Also you can go on an experiment spree and change the fruity ingredients! First time I made this cake, I put in the batter a lot of banana slices and blueberries. It wasn’t actually an Earl Grey flavoured version, but it was amazing anyway.

INGREDIENTS:

240g plain flour

135g caster sugar

15g baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs (lightly beaten)

250ml milk

100g butter (melted)

3 Earl Grey tea bags

150g apples (grated)

8-10 cardamom pods

white pepper

lemon juice

METHOD:

First of all, you need to prepare the Earl Grey & cardamom milk. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it comes to a boil, then remove it from the heat and add the tea bags and crushed cardamom pods. Leave for an hour until cool and flavourful - if you don’t have much time, leave it for the time of preparing other ingredients, then put the saucepan in a bowl with water and ice cubes. You must be sure that the milk isn’t too hot, otherwise it could partially cook the batter.

Preheat the oven to 180℃.

In a small mixing bowl, mix grated apples, a pinch of white pepper and a few drops of lemon juice together. Put it aside for a while - the apples should lose a bit of juice.  

Next, sift the first 4 dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Give them a little whisk and make a well in the centre of the mixture. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract and start whisking. Then pour slowly the flavoured milk (remember to remove the cardamom pods first) and finally the melted butter, still whisking. The texture should be a bit more dense than a pancake batter.

Finally, squeeze out excess juice from the apples, put them into the bowl with the batter and whisk again.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pan (my cake pan is 24cm) and put the mixture in it. Bake for 25-30min.

You can serve it in different ways:

- hot/warm with vanilla ice cream 

- warm/cold, dusted with icing sugar
- with sweet cream cheese and fresh, crunchy apples
- with vanilla sauce

Release your creativity! There’s only one rule: you can’t miss a cup of hot Earl Grey!

Song of the day: Sia - You're never fully dressed without a smile