Earl Grey Tea Cake With Dark Chocolate and Orange Zest
Updated Aug. 1, 2022
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¾cup/180 milliliters heavy cream
- 2teaspoons loose Earl Grey tea
- ¼cup/30 grams confectioners’ sugar
- ½cup/115 grams mascarpone or softened cream cheese (see Tip)
- ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon loose Earl Grey tea
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- 2teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (from 1 large orange)
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- ½cup/120 milliliters whole milk, at room temperature
- ¼cup/45 grams chopped dark chocolate
For the Frosting
For the Cake
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)
391 calories; 23 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 42 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 26 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 194 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the frosting: In a small saucepan, bring ½ cup/120 milliliters heavy cream to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir in the tea, remove from the heat, cover and let stand for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. Strain the tea through a fine-mesh sieve, discarding the solids, and chill the remaining cream until completely cold, at least 1 hour.
- Step 2
Prepare the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan and line with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, tea, baking powder and salt.
- Step 3
In large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the orange zest and beat to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the flour mixture on low, until just combined, then beat in the milk. (Don’t overmix.) Add the chocolate and fold it in using a spatula. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake just until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool for about 15 minutes. Then tip the cake out onto the rack to cool completely.
- Step 4
To finish the frosting, add the remaining ¼ cup/60 milliliters cream and the confectioners’ sugar to the tea cream. With an electric mixer on medium, beat the cream mixture until medium-stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the mascarpone and beat just until stiff peaks form. (Do not overmix.) Top the cake with the frosting to serve. Store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days; let come to room temperature before serving.
- If using cream cheese instead of mascarpone, because it has a thicker consistency, whip the cream cheese with the confectioners' sugar first, then add the whipped tea cream.
Private Notes
Comments
To PB. Cream doesn’t like to whip. It is inherently lazy. Wants to lay around. Think how you feel after too much cream although getting close to that line is such pure joy. Here’s what you do. Shock the cream into action by super-chilling the bowl and blades. Works every time. Want faster? Pinch of cream of tarter or couple teaspoons plain sugar. Also, tell the cream you love it. It’s a highly emotional ingredient. Good luck.
First try: Cake tastes delicious w/o frosting. However, as an Earl Grey lover, there is ZERO taste of EG's unique flavor in the cake. Second try: For cake, doubled EG dry leaf (2 TBSP) & steeped it in the 1/2 C of milk. I made a buttercream frosting by steeping 1 TBSP of EG loose leaf tea in 4 TBSP cream. Excellent! NOTE: Recipe says nothing about when to mix dry ingredients with flour, & suddenly Step 3 says "beat in the flour mixture..."
Tried making this and the cake came out fantastic, but when I made the frosting the cream refused to whip (it remained completely liquid) even after 30 minutes+ of trying to whip it with a kitchen aid... any ideas what I did wrong? I thought I followed the recipe pretty closely.
I hate chocolate with orange. My husband hates tea flavoured things. This is our favourite cake. It vegan-ises fairly easily as well. I swap dairy for relevant alternatives (vegan double cream, soya milk, vegan cream cheese) and 6 tbsp lightly beaten aquafaba for eggs (flax egg works too, but not as consistent). Reduced milk by 5-10ml and increased baking time by 10-15 mins. Works a treat.
I did what I cook to bring out the earl grey. I steeped both the whipping cream and whole milk in tea, as well as adding (ground) tea leaves to the cake. I made this twice and the second time without chocolate, which I think worked out better. Still, even with the different types of adding tea, the flavor is light in the cake by itself, though the aroma was great. The added whipped frosting helps, as well as taking out the chocolate. Overall delicious but probably would not make this again.
we made this recipe with the cream cheese, and honestly, i think it made it taste better. the heavy cream really made it seem like a tea cake, but the frosting was the perfect level of sweetness. the cake and frosting complimented themselves. we did follow her tip and just cut open tea bags, which made the cake really strong. that was kinda a good thing, though. it definitely got a 5 stars from us!