The Cake Slice April 09: Chai Cake with Honey & Ginger Cream

Wow! This cake is A-MAZ-ING! Regular readers will know I love my cakes and desserts with a bit of spice, well this cake definitely ticked that box. The cake layers were light and fluffy with a strong warming spiciness thanks to the use of a generous amount of Chia tea infused milk as well as some added cinnamon and ground cardamom. It’s a spicy taste sensation! If that wasn’t enough the cake is filled and topped with a sweet and creamy cream cheese frosting flavoured with sweet honey and freshly grated ginger. This may sound like a lot of flavours, but they all worked together in harmony. The spiciness coming in first, followed by the honey and ginger swooping in and cleansing your palate, ready for another bite. It’s truly fantastic.

I used blossom honey which added a nice subtle floral sweetness and went with the fresh ginger perfectly. I was really surprised how much the small amount of ginger shone through. I plan to use fresh ginger in icing again; I bet it would be wonderful in the frosting for a carrot or chocolate cake.

The only changes I made to this cake were to reduce the amount of sugar in the cake batter from 500g to 350g as I thought 500g was a bit excessive. The resulting cake was still perfectly sweet. I might try reducing the icing sugar in the cream next time too as the honey made it more than sweet enough. The only problem I encountered was when making the honey and ginger cream. The resulting cream was quite thin and oozy, even after an hour in the fridge so unfortunately the sides of my cake look a little patchy – didn’t stop it tasting amazing though!
I loved how tall the cake turned out and the contrast between the pale creamy icing and the dark spicy cake within. Click here to view the blogroll for the other Cake Slice Bakers cakes.

For those who don’t know, Chai tea is an Indian spiced tea comprising of strong Black Assam tea mixed with a combination of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, citrus and cardamom. It is traditionally brewed with milk and served strong.

Chai Cake with Honey & Ginger Cream
For the Chai cake
300ml milk
6 Chai tea bags
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
330g American cake flour OR 270g plain flour with 50g cornflour
500g caster sugar (I only used 350g)
4½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp salt
220g butter

For the honey & ginger cream
310g icing sugar
175g cream cheese
75g butter, softened
175g runny honey
1 tsp fresh grated ginger

Method – cake layers
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the base of three 8inch/20cm cake tins with greaseproof paper.
Heat the milk until just hot, either in a saucepan or the microwave, add the tea bags and leave to infuse for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cardamom in a large bowl.
Remove the tea bags from the milk, squeezing out all the moisture.
Place the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and 75ml of the milk into a jug and beat together until combined.
Add the remaining milk and the butter to the flour and beat well until a smooth batter is created.
Add the egg mixture, in thirds, beating well between each addition.
Divide the batter between the three cake tins and bake for 26-28 minutes until risen and springy to the touch.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tins and leaving to cool completely before filling and covering with the honey and ginger cream.

Method – cream
Place all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth.
Transfer to a bowl and chill for an hour before using to fill and cover the cake layers, allowing any excess to drizzle down the sides.
Decorate as desired.
Make one triple layer 8inch/20cm cake