Chai Latte Cake

This chai cake brings your favorite chai latte beverage to your cake. It’s made with light and fluffy vanilla cake batter infused with perfectly balanced chai spice mix and freshly prepared tea. The cake is accompanied by vanilla buttercream frosting to enhance and preserve the chai flavors. The recipe is surprisingly simple and easy to make, too.

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I cannot start my day without a cup of tea, and my tea means homemade chai. It’s made with ginger, cardamom, and my homemade chai spice mix. I loved the idea of adding homemade chai spice to a cake. We made it once, and because it became so popular, we ended up making it twice more in one week.

Why make this cake recipe?

• This is a classic butter-based cake with both white and brown sugar. I used my chai spice mix, which is a perfectly balanced blend of ground ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg.
• Most of the ingredients are easy to find or simple pantry staples.
• Today, I am making a chai-spiced layer cake, but you can also bake this cake batter in a bundt pan, loaf pan, or square cake pan to make a chai-spice tea cake.
• I have used vanilla frosting for this cake, but cream cheese frosting is also a perfect combination. In fact, my favorite is the no-butter cream cheese frosting.
• To enjoy this cake, you must love the flavor and aromas of chai. If you don’t like chai spices, you can also make Earl Grey cake or vanilla cafe latte cake, which are both mildly spiced.

Ingredients and substitutes

• All-Purpose Flour—Regular all-purpose flour works great. There is no need to look for anything else. If you have only self-raising flour on hand, use it, but reduce the baking powder by half. 
• Unsalted Butter—I always use unsalted butter so I can control the amount of salt, but if salted butter is all you have, use it and omit salt in the recipe. 
• Brown Sugar – I love the molasses flavor from the brown sugar added to the recipe. You can use all white, of course, and the color of the cake will be a tad lighter but still delicious.
• Spices – Chai is all about spices. You can buy Indian chai tea bags that come with the spics and infuse them in the milk. The spice mix just makes it more potent and stronger in flavor.
• Teabags—These are regular breakfast tea bags unless you choose to buy Indian chai-flavored tea bags. You can also use Earl Grey tea bags, but note that you will have a Beaumont flavor along with the chai.

Step-by-step: How to make a chai-spiced cake

Chai spice cake

• Oven & Pans -Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and line two 9-inch round cake pans or 3 x 7-inch round cake pans with parchment paper.
• Chai – Infuse the tea bags in hot milk for 10 to 15 minutes until cooled.
• Dry ingredients – In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, chai spice mix, and salt. Stir or sift and set aside.
• Batter – In the large bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy
• Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract. Then, add the flour mixture and the infused tea in three additions.
• Pans – Divide the batter equally between the prepared baking pans.
  Pro tip – I like to use cake strips to ensure my layer cakes bake flat.
• Bake – Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes clean.
• Cool in the baking pan for 5 minutes. Invert and cool completely on a wire rack before you decorate.

Vanilla buttercream frosting

• In a large bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add salt, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed.
• Then, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Once all the powdered sugar has been incorporated, continue to mix on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes until you have a light and fluffy buttercream.
  Pro tip – A good buttercream needs to be whipped for at least 2 to 3 minutes. If not, it will not be light and fluffy. Overwhipping can also incorporate too much air.

Assemble

• Prepare simple syrup – cool completely before using. Simple syrup is just sugar water that has been boiled and cooled. It is used to keep cake layers moist.
• Level – Using a bread knife or cake leveler, cut the domes off the cake layers. Brush each layer with the cooled simple syrup
• Stack – Place a cake layer on the cake board or cake stand. Top with a big dollop of buttercream – spread evenly using a straight edge spatula. Then top the second cake layer on top, followed by more buttercream and the last layer.
• Chill – Place the cake in the fridge to chill for 10 to 15 minutes.
  Pro tip – Chilling the cake at this point will ensure the layers don’t move when you frost the outside. Though if you leave the cake uncovered in the fridge for too long, it can dry out. So, 10 minutes is all you need.
• Frost – Spread the remaining buttercream on top and sides of the cake. Create a rustic buttercream look by simply swirling the tip of the spatula around the cake.
  Pro tip – A straight edge spatula for the top, an offset spatula and a bench scraper for the sides of the cake work better.
• Decorate – I decorated with whole spices used in the chai spice mix for a rustic buttercream look.

Storage

• Once decorated, the cake does not need to be refrigerated because this frosting is not made with perishable ingredients. However, if you a perishable frosting such as cream cheese or whipped cream please keep the cake in the fridge at all times. Thaw an hour before serving.
• This cake, frosted with vanilla frosting, can stay at room temperature for two days or in the fridge for up to 5 days.
• Once cut, always cover the cut side of the cake with plastic wrap so the cake does not dry out.
• The unfrosted cake layers can be kept in the freezer for up to a month, well wrapped in plastic wrap.

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