Inspired by the fabulous Gingerbread Chai cake that was featured on our episode of Amazon Prime's Ready Set StartUP, we thought we would give you a cheeky recipe! In the show they did a buttercream icing, but we also love a drizzle of caramel!
Curious about the episode? Watch it here!
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 250g unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons Gingerbread Chai
- 213g light brown sugar
- 85g runny honey
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons nutmeg, 2 teaspoons ground cardamom, and 1/2 teaspoon cracked/ground black pepper
- 240g plain flour
- 227g natural, full-fat yogurt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the Caramel:
- 1 tin (397g) condensed milk
- 400g dark brown sugar
- 110g unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150ml double cream
How to make the tea-infused butter (prepare ahead of time):
- In a saucepan add the butter and tea blend and heat gently while stirring until the butter is melted.
- Take off the heat and leave to cool for half an hour or so – the longer you leave it to infuse, the stronger the Gingerbread Chai flavour.
- The butter-tea mix will have solidified on cooling, so gently reheat the pan until liquid again.
- Sieve the mixture into a mixing bowl to separate the tea leaves from the butter.
- Press the chai with the back of a spoon to extract as much butter as you can and scrape any excess from the bottom of the sieve.
- You can now leave the butter to re-solidify in the bowl, ready to start baking.
- Discard the tea leaves.
How to make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F /175°C.
- In the mixing bowl, beat together the tea-infused butter, brown sugar, and honey until smooth and light (about 2 minutes with a hand mixer).
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute or two and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions.
- Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Stir half the flour into the butter/egg mixture. Add the yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine.
- Stir in the remaining flour, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat briefly, to incorporate any residue.
- Thoroughly grease two 9 inch cake pans. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown.
- Remove the cake from the oven, and cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a rack to finish cooling.
How to make the caramel:
While the cake is cooling you can make a caramel sauce to drizzle on top – warning this is for those with a sweet tooth and should be sparingly used! For a less-sweet alternative you could serve the cake with natural yoghurt.
- Add the sugar and condensed milk to a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves then remove from the heat.
- Add the butter and vanilla to the sugar mixture and stir well until the butter melts.
- Slowly stir in the double cream and continue stirring until fully incorporated.
- Pour over your cake and enjoy!
If you do give this recipe a go, please tag us on socials @birdandblendtea.
