Earl Grey Tea Cake

A tea cake, doesn’t necessarily have to contain tea – they can be any small cake, cookies or sweets served with tea. However, this Earl Grey Tea Cake certainly does! It is moist from yoghurt and full of zesty citrus flavours from the Bergamot in the tea leaves and the added Orange zest. As if that wasn’t enough, the chocolate seals the deal. What you get is a perfect slice deliciously speckled with Earl Grey Tea leaves and pieces of dark chocolate here and there. What more can you ask for in a delicious tea cake. It’s so easy to make and comes together in no time. Perfect at tea time with tea or coffee, of course.

Earl Grey Tea

Earl Grey tea is traditionally a black tea ( like Darjeeling or Ceylon) flavoured with Bergamot oil which gives it a citrusy lemony zest. While Earl Grey sounds very British, and indeed there was an Earl by the name of Charles Grey, it is not clear how the Earl Grey blend got it’s name. There are various theories, one of them is that this was specially blended for the Earl to offset the limescale taste of the water in his estates at Howick. Another theory is that a Chinese mandarin gave the tea blend to the Earl as gift. Regardless of the origin, it is now marketed by Twining’s and one of the world’s favourite.

The Earl Grey tea in this tea cake provides a floral flavour and hints of Bergamot. In case you’re not familiar of Bergamot, it belongs to the citrus family and it’s prized for it’s distinctive citrusy scented oil. And yes it’s the same oil used in fragrances and personal care products. So you can imagine how fragrant the Earl Grey tea cake is , once it comes out of the oven. Somehow it transports me to rolling English country side and tea time with Lady Chatterley or one of the Bridgerton ladies.

What you need to make this Earl Grey Tea Cake

Everything you need for this tea cake will probably be already in your fridge/pantry. While the chocolate is optional, it’s a really great addition, providing both texture and wonderful taste that completements tea. For the Earl Grey tea, you can either use loose leaf variety or the ones from the tea bag. You will need about 3 tea bags (you only need the tea-discard the bags) for this recipe.

• Pantry Staples – Earl Grey Tea, Self Raising Flour,Caster Sugar,Vegetable Oil,Vanilla, Zest of 1 Orange (or any other Citrus you have like Mandarin and Lemon) and Brown Sugar. Chocolate is optional. A note on Vanilla. Extract(the natural product) has a stronger flavour than essence. If you have extract, use 1 teaspoon. If you have essence use 2 teaspoons or 2 tablespoons depending on the strength. Better yet, if you have it use the seeds of half a vanilla pod.
• From the Fridge – Plain Yoghurt and Eggs
• You also need a 21x13x6 cm loaf tin or a cake tin with similar volume. This is also great as muffins with reduced baking times approximately 12 to 15 minutes.

Easy does it…

Mix the wet ingredients then fold in the dry, then bake- nothing could be simpler!

• Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Line with baking paper.
  
• Whisk egg and sugar until pale and fluffy. You can do this by hand or with a mixer. Add yoghurt, vanilla, lemon zest and whisk to combine. Then add cooking oil in a steady stream while whisking.
• Use a spatula to fold in the flour and chocolate pieces into the mix and fold just to combine.
• Tip batter into prepared pan, sprinkle top with brown sugar and bake in a preheated oven for about an hour turning the pan halfway after 30 minutes.

The following recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit. If you do make this recipe, please drop me a line via the Comment Section below. I would love to hear from you. And while you’re here, check out another tea cake recipe only this time with coffee Coffee and Nut Loaf.

Earl Grey Tea Loaf

Recipe by acmowlai

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: Desserts/SweetsDifficulty: Easy

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

• 2 large Eggs

• 1 1/2 cup Caster Sugar

• 1 cup Plain Yoghurt

• 1 cup Vegetable Oil

• 3 tablespoons Earl Grey loose leaf tea or tea from 3 tea bags

• 2 tablespoons vanilla essence ( if using Vanilla extract use 1 -2 teaspoon)

• 100g Dark Chocolate, roughly chopped ,optional

• 2 cups Self Raising Flour

• Finely grated zest of 1 Orange

• Raw or Brown Sugar for sprinkling

Directions

• Preheat oven to 160°C. Spray an 21 x 13x 6cm loaf pan or similar volume cake tin. Line with baking paper.
• Whisk eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add yoghurt ,vanilla, lemon zest and tea leaf and whisk until just combined. Gradually add cooking oil while whisking.
• Add self raising flour and chocolate pieces to the bowl and use a spatula to fold it into the mix until just combined.
• Pour batter into the prepared tin and smooth top with the back of a spoon or a spatula. Tap the baking tin gently against the counter to release air from the tin. Sprinkle the top with raw sugar then place the baking tin in the preheated oven and bake for about an hour, turning the pan halfway after 30 minutes.
  
• Cool in the pan for 15 minutes then use the baking paper liner to lift the loaf out of the tin and transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
• Serve warm or room temperature. Leftover slices are great toasted and slathered with butter.

Notes

• Serve warm or room temperature. Will keep for a few days in a well covered container. Delicious toasted and slathered with butter!