Earl Grey, Lavender and Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake

This flavour combination seemed so right at the time of conception. 

I love Earl Grey tea, I love dark chocolate and I like lavender.  You would think combining them all would work great, with the slight citrus and tea hint from the Earl Grey working well with the dark chocolate, and the notes of floral aniseed from the lavender providing an interesting contrast. 

To be honest the former pairing, I think, would have worked very well, and initially that was what I intended to do for a long time, but in the process of finding a cake base for what was initially going to be the ‘Earl Grey and Dark Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake’, I came across this recipe called Lemon-Lavender Pound Cake.  When I saw the lavender I instantly thought ‘hmmmm sounds good, let’s add that in too’.

Sometimes less is more.  I really should have stuck with the initial concept because the cake was exceptionally lovely – so soft and full in the mouth.  A very satisfying cake that was brought down with just too many flavours that I thought could work together cohesively, but ended up sitting apart from each other completely. 

I’m talking specifically about the lavender.  I’ve cooked with lavender before where it was the sole flavour in some cupcakes I made about a year ago.  It worked really well on its own as the main flavour, but when it is paired with other flavours, lavender can become a bit of a problem.  I think it’s because the flavour of lavender is so unique, floral and prevalent that it risks drowning out all the other flavours rather than complementing them in any way.

I’m glad I only used 1 tbsp rather than the ⅓ cup specified in the recipe.  I think that would just have killed the cake completely!

I’m curious though about making the original recipe.  It looked so good in the picture that I’m wondering if that amount worked well because it was paired with the lemon (a flavour that can hold it own).  I’ve seen this pairing before so maybe the lemon provides enough of a contrast to be able to take such a hit of lavender.  Will need to try that out sometime.

Baked in the 7" round cake tin

This batter made a lot of cake with the recipe giving enough for two loaf tins.  I used a 2lb loaf tin and 7” round cake tin and I wouldn’t use anything smaller than that.

Like I mentioned the cake itself was fantastic.  A soft but sturdy cake with a rich flavour (from all that butter no doubt!) and delicious thick crust.  I will give the recipe as I made it but please think about omitting the lavender completely or drastically reducing it further – maybe to about a ¼ tsp.

I have to mention though that this cake really improved in flavour by the second day.  I don’t know how it did that but it just did.  The lavender just didn’t seem as overwhelming when I tasted it the next day and the cake was just as soft and scrummy.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it had cooled down a lot?  I’m not sure but I liked it much more and so did the family.  So maybe this just needs time to develop its flavours and you might want to give it a try with the lavender.

Earl Grey, Lavender and Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake (adapted from Desserts for Breakfast)

·         100ml milk infused with 3 teabags of Earl Grey Tea (preferably overnight)

·         6 large eggs

·         1 tsp vanilla paste

·         450g plain flour

·         300g caster sugar

·         2 tsp baking powder

·         ¼ tsp salt

·         1 teabag Earl Grey Tea cut open and contents used only

·         375g butter, very soft

·         125g dark chocolate (60%), chopped small (or chocolate chips if you have them)

·         1 tbsp lavender (seriously optional but worth it on the second day)

Preheat oven to 180C, prepare two loaf tins.  Combine milk, eggs and vanilla paste together in a measuring jug.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and the loose Earl Grey from the teabag and whisk carefully until mixed well.

Add the softened butter to the flour mixture and beat until the mixture becomes lighter and creamy.

Add the milk mixture gradually to the flour/butter mixture, whisking thoroughly after each addition.

Using a spatula, mix in the lavender and chocolate, trying not to over mix now that the flour has been incorporated.

Divide the batter into the two loaf tins and bake for about 30 minutes then add a foil cap on top of each loaf to prevent them from browning too much.  I baked mine for an additional 25 minutes before they both passed the skewer test.

The Blue Lady Cake

Hope everyone had an amazing time over Christmas!

I thought about making this cake for a long time before finally getting around to it.  When I saw these blue chrysanthemums in my parents’ dining room I knew the time had come.

I am absolutely mad about tea.  I love all kinds; black, green, white, oolong, Rooibois, tisanes, herbal.  Two of my favourite everyday type teas is Earl Grey and Lady Grey which are both black teas infused with citrus (the latter is slightly softer with less sharpness from the citrus).  I used to always use the Twinnings brand until I discovered my local tea shop’s version.  Their take on the Earl Grey is called the Blue Lady and is a black tea infused with orange, lemon and grapefruit with a smattering of blue cornflowers.

It really is quite lovely and ever since tasting (and seeing) it, I’ve wanted to base a cake on it.  I wasn’t sure exactly how it would come together but I knew that I wanted it to have those bright cornflower blue petals on it.  The picture below isn’t doing those blue petals justice – they really are a vibrant blue but I couldn’t find any locally and thought that visually, the chrysanthemums would work well too. 

When I saw those flowers in my parents’ house an idea of sorts formed and I knew that I was going to make a soft sponge infused with a sugar syrup made from the Blue Lady tea and the citruses used in it.  First thing was to crystallise those blue chrysanthemum petals which took almost two days to dry!

I then grated the zest of one orange, one lemon and one grapefruit and incorporated that into the sponge cake.  

I made the syrup using the juice from the citruses, the Blue Lady tea and about 50g of sugar and used it to soak the sponges when I started layering them on top of each other (if you soak them too early then they might become a little difficult to handle when stacking them).  The syrup was a gorgeous deep burnt orange colour which imparted some of that beautiful colour to the soaked sponge.

I made two 8” round cakes which I then sliced in half to make four layers.  This sponge recipe does dome quite a bit so you will have to slice the dome off to flatten them.  It’s adapted from the American Test Kitchen Fluffy Yellow Cake recipe which is fast becoming my standby sponge recipe.

I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream flavoured with a little of the citrus syrup and honey (my choice of sweetener with Earl Grey tea!).  We’re not overly keen on icing of any kind so used as little as possible which is why the whole cake is not covered – you might want to double the SMB icing recipe if you want to cover the whole cake and have some for decorating.  

The top was decorated with the blue crystallised petals and some icing sugar coloured with blue powdered colouring and sifted through a stencil.  Unfortunately I only had a light blue colour which didn’t make the same impact as a darker blue colour would have.  All in all it was a lovely soft citrus flavoured sponge iced with silky buttercream flavoured with honey.  The decorating could definitely have been neater but I got a late dinner invite to my sister’s so things became rushed towards the end.  Decorating is something that I need to work on though!

 

The Blue Lady Cake

·         350g plain flour

·         20g cornflour

·         1 ½ tsp baking powder

·         ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

·         Pinch of salt

·         300g caster sugar

·         200g sunflower oil

·         250ml milk

·         Zest of 1 lemon, 1 orange and 1 grapefruit

·         7 small egg yolks

·         3 small egg whites

·         50g caster sugar (for egg whites)

Preheat oven to 180C, prepare two 8” round cake tins.

Sift flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and 300g sugar together.

Whisk together the oil, milk, citrus zest and yolks.

With an electric beater, whisk egg whites until foamy (About 30 seconds) then add the 50g sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Gradually pour oil/milk mixture into flour mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.

Add ⅓ of the egg whites into the batter to loosen, then fold in the rest of the whites gently, keeping as much air in as possible.

Pour batter into cake tins and bake for about 30-40 minutes checking to see if done (use the skewer test).  If the top begins to brown too quickly then use a foil cap placed over the top.  Leave the cakes to cool, then refrigerate to make them cold and more manageable when cutting.  Make the syrup.

When the cakes are sufficiently cool, slice off the dome on top to make the cakes as flat as possible, then slice each layer into half to make four layers in total.

Blue Lady Sugar Syrup

·         Juice of 1 lemon, 1 orange and 1 grapefruit (about 200ml approx)

·         1 tbsp Blue Lady loose tea

·         100g granulated sugar

Put all ingredients on a medium flame and heat until sugar has dissolved.  Lower the heat and let simmer for around five minutes to make a syrup that’s not too thick.  Sieve the loose tea away and retain the syrup for dousing the cake.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

·         3 egg whites

·         150g granulated sugar

·         250g butter, cut into small cubes and softened

·         2 tbsp honey

·         1 tbsp BL sugar syrup

Heat the whites and sugar on a bain marie until the sugar has dissolved.  I don’t use a thermometer for this, just clean fingers to feel that there are no more sugar granules present.  The minute you feel there are no more sugar granules take off the heat.

Whisk the whites and dissolved sugar until a soft meringue forms (around 5 minutes with an electric whisk).  The bowl should have cooled down but if it hasn’t then wait a while until the bottom of the bowl feels more neutral than warm before adding the butter.

Add the butter cubes in one or two chunks at a time, whisking to fully incorporate before adding the next chunk.  You might not need all the butter but you will need most of it (sometimes I use it all and sometimes I have 3-4 small cubes left over).  Once the buttercream icing has become silky you can add the honey and syrup and whisk in well.

Assembly

Take the cake layers, I try to use the one that looks the thickest as the bottom layer, and spoon over the sugar syrup.   

Spread over the SMB icing with a spatula in a fairly thin layer (or thicker if you really like icing) and top with the next cake layer.   

Repeat the whole process with all the layers.  

 I got a piping bag and piped around the cake where the layers met to just make things slightly nicer on the sides.   

If you want to fully coat the cake in icing then double the icing quantity in order to do so.   

I decorated the top with icing sugar mixed with royal blue powdered food colouring and sifted over a stencil.  I also added the crystallised blue petals over the top.  Dried blue cornflowers would be ideal too if you have any.