EARL GREY CAKE

This cake is such an understated flavour, but it’s one I find myself indulging in more often than not and is now one of our standard wedding cake taster flavours. I love to educate on flavours that aren’t as generic as basic-bitch chocolate or vanilla. If this cake were a lady, she would be as classy as fuck and be at the races wearing a custom pillbox hat with florals on it.

TIMING

CAKE PREP 1½ hours

BAKING 30–40 mins

CHILLING 2 hours

MAKES 3 x 18 cm (7 in) round layers

SERVES approx. 18 (dessert-size serves) when decorated

INGREDIENTS

370 g (13 oz) milk

4 Earl Grey tea bags

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) plain flour

100 g (3½ oz) cornflour (cornstarch)

425 g (15 oz) caster sugar

35 g (1¼ oz) baking powder

285 g (10 oz) butter, at room temperature

5 whole eggs

50 g (1¾ oz) canola oil

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

To decorate

1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) Earl Grey Ganache, 1:4 ratio

METHOD

Preheat your oven to 170°C (325°F). Prepare three 18 cm (7 in) cake tins with cooking spray and line them with baking paper.

Put your milk in a pot, place it over a medium to low heat and bring to an ‘only just boil’—which of course is a made-up Bets-ism. What I mean is that you want your milk to be boiling hot but you don’t want it to go all manic and boil over, which it will if you don’t remove it from the heat as soon as you see a few little bubbles appear.

Remove the pot from the heat and add your tea bags, then leave to steep for approx. 1 hour. You really want the milk to have a decent strong dark caramel colour to show that the Earl Grey flavour is really infused through.

After your tea has been steeping for about 50 mins you can start prepping your other ingredients.

Place all the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed to combine. Chop your butter into cubes, add it to the dry ingredients and keep mixing on low until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients, including your infused milk . . . do I need to tell you to remove the tea bags?? REMOVE THE TEA BAGS FROM THE MILK, then mix the wet ingredients until combined. Add two-thirds of the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high until thick and fluffy—this step is important for the finished product, so take your fluffiness seriously. Add the remaining wet ingredients and mix well until combined and fluffy.

Scoop the mixture evenly into the prepared tins, using scales to get them all the same.

Now bake for 30–40 mins until the cakes are golden brown and when you poke a skewer or knitting needle into them it comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins for 5–10 mins, then turn out onto cooling racks.

When the cakes are cool, wrap them in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours (or overnight)—this will make them easier to trim and ice.

I have iced this with my Earl Grey Ganache and decorated it with some dried roses and leaves. If you would like to ice your cake with a sharp-as-shit edge like this, there is an assembly and icing instructional in my first book on pages 68–75.