Earl Grey Mini Cake
Hello everyone! Today we're going to be making something fun with tea. Tea seems to be making a comeback recently, at least here in the states. Let's jump on board and explore some new flavors!
Earl Grey tea is a classic tea to have, both here and in England. It's a black tea with bergamot, a citrus fruit flavor that will make you think lemon and orange.
Today's recipe contains the following elements:
Earl Grey cake
Earl Grey simple syrup
Earl Grey tea buttercream
Ready, get set, baaake!
In case you’re new here, t = teaspoon, T = Tablespoon. I use milliliters, not ounces for cocktails; if I measure by weight, I’ll try to include both grams and ounces. Photos & tips are at the bottom!
Earl Grey Cake
Ingredients
1 egg white
2 T sugar
1 1/2 T milk
2 T unsalted butter, melted
1 t vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/4 t (unleveled) baking soda
pinch of salt
1/4 t Earl Grey tea leaves (open a teabag and scoop. Chop with a knife first if it's too coarse)
Method
Preheat the oven to 350F. Take 2 ramekins (I used 4 inch) and cut parchment to fit the inside of the bottom and sides. (Trace around the bottom of them, cut a little inside that line. Cut a long strip about the height of the sides.)
In a small bowl (think cereal bowl size), add the butter and melt in microwave; 30 seconds works for me. Mix until all the chunks are gone. Allow to cool for a couple minutes. Now's a good time to grab your other ingredients if you haven't!
Note: the egg white might cook if you add it to hot butter, so be patient.
Add in and mix the egg white and sugar until combined. I used a fork for this to get some air into it to make fluffier cake.
Add in and mix milk, butter, and vanilla.
Add in all of the the dry ingredients BEFORE mixing again. You don't want to over-mix the batter. A few tiny bumps are fine, but you don't want big chunks of flour, salt, etc.
Scoop batter into ramekins, distributing evenly.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or 15-18 if you have a terrible oven like me. Do the toothpick-in-center test and adjust accordingly. If it comes out wet, bake longer; if it's mostly clean with a couple crumbs, should be good to go!
Remove from the oven, then carefully remove cakes from ramekins to a cooling rack as soon as possible--use a knife or spoon if you need to. I like to move them to the freezer once they're cool enough to pick up so they'll be ready when I am.
While these are baking you can start on the buttercream. Let's get into that!
Earl Grey Buttercream
Ingredients
2 T unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 T milk
1/4 t Earl Grey tea leaves, more to taste
Method
In small bowl, use a fork to cream butter--you're just breaking it up from it's square shape at this point.
Gradually add powdered sugar to butter. I like to use the gentle mashing method so I don't get a face full of powdered sugar.
Add in milk and tea, mix. Taste a little bit and see if you'd like more tea.
Whip buttercream as best you can. I used a fork and it turned out perfect.
Earl Grey Simple Syrup
Ingredients
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tea bag of Earl Grey tea
1/8 t lemon juice
Method
Boil water. Add to mug along with tea bag. Cover--I like to use a small plate. Let steep for 5 minutes.
Remove tea bag and add sugar. Mix to dissolve. If your water has gotten too cold, feel free to microwave a little longer (make sure you've removed the tea bag as some have a metal staple!)
Mix in lemon juice.
Store any unused syrup in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Add to tea or cocktails!
Assembly
Set the two cakes out--they should be cool now so they won't melt the buttercream. If your cakes are too round, you can trim with a large serrated knife.
Brush tops of both cakes with simple syrup. I like to be fairly generous with this, but be careful not to add too much so they won't get soggy.
Add a little blob of buttercream to the center of your serving plate where your mini cake will live. This keeps it from moving around while you work. Add the bottom cake. Frost the top, making sure to get to the edges. This may make you think of buttering a bagel.
Carefully add the second cake, making sure to adjust it to line up as needed. Frost the top of this cake.
Crumb coat for that "naked cake" look: start adding some buttercream to the sides of the cakes, focusing first on evening out any gaps or blobs in the frosting layer in-between the 2 cakes. Chances are if you focus on frosting and scraping off most of what you just did, you'll do great. Ha!
Decorate! Okay, this is totally optional, but if you have a collection of random sprinkles this is the perfect excuse to use some! You can also try a little more tea leaves, some lemon zest, or some edible flowers. I'm going to use a little of the tea leaves for mine.
