Ginger and Cardamom Chai Cake

Laced with Ginger and Cardamom, this Chai Cake is exactly what your tea time has always needed. 

Imagine yourself drinking a hot cup of chai. No, not the coffee house non-fat half-soy latte crap. I’m talking about the real deal: tea leaves steeped with a little bit of crushed cardamom, a few slices of fresh ginger, topped with whole milk and sweetened with sugar.

You blow on the steam before you take that first sip and when you do, a whiff of cardamom and ginger hits you, transporting you to magical and simpler times and when that happens, memories of your mother float in. Whether you grew up drinking tea in the mornings or in the evenings, I bet some maternal figure was always involved.

Then you taste the warm, sweet tea, gushing down your throat – light, refreshing and grand! And as you sit back, sipping on your warm cup of tea, nothing in the world seems impossible.

That’s what it feels like to eat this Ginger Chai cake!

Just as manners maketh man, ingredients maketh this cake. Use your favourite tea, freshest ginger, candied ginger that you actually love snacking on and I promise you, you’ll love every crumb of this cake.

Speaking of crumbs, this is not your usual sponge cake: it has a little almond flour mixed in, so the texture is incredibly rich and crumby.

You don’t even need to take out your electric whisk for this. A hand whisk, even one of those mini ones would do quite nicely! Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. And once the oven is preheated, mix them together, transfer to a greased and floured loaf tin, top with more of those candied ginger and some slivered almonds (or any other nuts you have at hand – I bet pistachios would be delectable on this cake) and bake!.

Serve your Ginger Chai cake slightly warm, with a hot cup of tea, sit back, put your feet up and enjoy a few minutes of oblivion: don’t think about schedules, deadlines or the ever-growing chore list. These few minutes are yours and you know you deserve it!

When you make these (which I really think you SHOULD!), be sure to SHARE YOUR PHOTOS with me through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I’d love to see what you cook from here!

Ginger Chai Cake

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 100 gram all-purpose flour
• 20 gram almond flour
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 0.25 tsp baking soda
• 100 gram butter, softened
• 80 gram sugar
• 1 large egg
• 0.25 cup water + 1 tea bag
• 5 gram fresh ginger, grated
• 40 gram candied ginger (chopped) + for garnish
• 2 cardamom pods (seeds only), crushed finely
• Almond slivers, for garnish

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease + flour a small loaf tin (8.5"x 4.5" or less).
2. Steep the tea bag in hot water along with the grated ginger. Let it cool down to room temperature naturally.
3. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl (all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda). Set aside.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until creamy and smooth. Whisk in the egg.
5. Strain the tea bag(squeezing every last drop from the bag) and ginger and add only the tea+ginger extract to the batter.
6. Fold in the dry ingredients, along with the chopped candied ginger and cardamom seed powder. Transfer batter immediately into the prepared loaf tin. Drizzle the almond slivers on top.
7. Bake in the preheated oven at 350°F/180°C for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Keeps well at room temperature (wrapped in foil or brown paper) for a week. Tastes better the day after baking.