Use code "shopnow" to enjoy 10% off first purchase Free local shipping when you spend over $60

The Gryphon Blog

Visit Tea Store
Tags
Categories

Unwinding on a Saturday afternoon – How to bake an Earl Grey Lavender mini cake

February 22, 2020

Earl Grey Lavender Mini Cake

It’s Saturday afternoon and we are in the mood for some sweet treats. Instead of heading out to a café to chill over tea and desserts with our besties (with the coronavirus going on and all…), our team decided to take things into our hands by baking a cute mini cake using one of our best-selling Artisan Selection Tea – Earl Grey Lavender!

Our best-selling Earl Grey Lavender tea
http://www.gryphontea.com/earl-grey-lavender.html

A cake with tea baked into it? That’s right! That’s one thing that we love about our artisan teas – you can do wonders with it – bake tea-infused pastries and desserts or simply cold brew the tea and liven things up with some fresh ingredients for a refreshing mocktail.

Now to get started, here’s what you will need:

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour

Makes 2 double-layer mini cakes

INGREDIENTS:

For the Earl Grey Lavender Mini Cake:

  • 4 sachets of Gryphon Tea’s Earl Grey Lavender
  • 1 stick of salted butter
  • 4 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1 cup of granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of whole milk
  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon of loose lavender flowers for garnish

For the Chocolate Buttercream:

  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 5 cups of icing sugar
  • 1 cup of cocoa powder
  • ½ cup of whole milk
  • ½ teaspoon of table salt
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

EQUIPMENT:

  • KitchenAid
  • 2 x 12cm cake pans
  • Piping Bag
  • Piping Tip
Cake mix all ready for some baking in the oven

RECIPE:

For the Earl Grey Lavender Mini Cake:

  1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 180°C.
  2. Prepare 2 cake pans by buttering the pans and lightly dusting with all-purpose flour. Set aside.
  3. Heat up 1 cup of whole milk in the microwave until hot, add the Earl Grey Lavender tea bags to the hot milk and let it steep for at least 10 minutes. Discard the tea bags and set the tea-infused milk aside.
  4. In a mixing bowl, cream together unsalted butter and granulated sugar on high speed.
  5. Add the eggs, one at a time.
  6. Then add in pure vanilla extract and mix well.
  7. In a separate bowl, combine the all-purpose flour and baking powder.
  8. To the butter mix, add ⅓ of the flour mix, then ½ of the tea-infused milk. Repeat until all combined.
  9. Pour half of the cake mix into the prepared cake pans.
  10. Bake at 180°C for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  11. Once the cakes are baked, let them cool for about 10 minutes in the pans, then carefully remove and put the cakes onto a plate and trim off the crusty sides.
  12. Repeat the above for the second double-layered cake.
Waiting for the cakes to be baked

For the Chocolate Buttercream:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add room temperature butter. Beat on high speed for about 5 minutes until the butter is soft and almost doubled in volume.
  2. Add ⅓ of the icing sugar, beating it in between and repeat until all combined. Lastly, add in the table salt and cocoa powder.
  3. The buttercream will be very thick at this point, turn the mixer to low speed and stream in half a cup of milk.
  4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. If you would like a thinner consistency, add more milk. For a thicker consistency, you may wish to add cornstarch to the buttercream – start with ½ teaspoon of cornstarch per cup of sugar in the recipe, and increase from there if necessary, to 1 teaspoon per cup. Do take note not to use more than this because you will risk tasting the cornstarch in the finished buttercream.
  5. Separate the chocolate buttercream into 2 portions – one in a bowl and another in a piping bag, and refrigerate the chocolate buttercream for piping later.
Spreading the chocolate buttercream to layer on the cake

To finish off,

  1. Place one slice of cake on a serving dish, spread some chocolate buttercream evenly on top of the cake.
  2. Layer the second slice of cake on top
  3. Pipe the cake with the refrigerated chocolate buttercream and garnish with loose lavender flowers.
  4. Repeat for the second double-layered cake.
  5. Refrigerate for 15 minutes and enjoy!
Piping the chocolate buttercream
Garnished with loose lavender flowers

Mmm… We love how our kitchen is now filled with the scent of earl grey and hints of lavender… Time to put on a pot of refreshing artisan tea to pair with our fresh bakes. Steeped in whole milk and added to a regular vanilla cake recipe, this mini cake tastes divine without being too over the top. The flavour is light and sweet – just perfect for afternoon tea.

If you’re staying indoors recently or you just simply have to satisfy your sweet tooth, why not give our Earl Grey Lavender Mini Cake a try! Do remember to tag us on social media @gryphontea when you do so as we would love to see your version of the Earl Grey Lavender Mini Cake!

Cheers,

LX

Leave a Reply


Top