Earl Grey Cake (Light and Fluffy)

My parents are a fan of light, fluffy and not-so-sweet cakes (which is difficult for me because I do sometimes love a dense and super sweet cake), so I’ve recently been baking chiffon-type cakes.

My recent favourite is this light and fluffy earl grey cake, which can be made into cake layers or cupcakes. I love tea-flavoured cakes, this one was a hit for me. So let’s get baking!

(Makes a 6″ cake, or cupcakes)

Ingredients:

Group A

• 100g whole milk
• 5 earl grey teabags (I used Dilmah)

Group B

• 5 egg yolks
• 80g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g corn/vegetable/non-flavoured oil
• 110g cake/TOP flour
• 2g baking powder
• 1/2 teabag of ground earl grey leaves (Dilmah uses ground tea leaves)

Group C

• 5 egg whites
• 1/4 cream of tartar
• 70g caster sugar

Method:

1. Add the 5 earl grey teabags in the milk and leave to infuse overnight in the fridge. This is crucial to bring out that earl grey flavour
2. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas mark 4.
3. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, caster sugar and vanilla extract (from Group A) until pale yellow.
4. Whisk in the oil, and then the milk.
5. Sift the flour, baking powder and tea leaves. Gently combine into the egg yolk mixture.
6. In another clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy and then add in the cream of tartar (Group B)
7. Then, whisk in the caster sugar from Group B into the egg whites in batches until the meringue forms stiff peaks.
8. Gently fold in the meringue into the egg yolk mixture in three batches.
9. Separate the batter evenly into three 6″ cake pans, or into cupcake cases.
11. Bake the cake layers for 20 – 30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. For cupcakes, bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. It is normal for the cakes to sink when it cools down out of the oven. (Tip: for cupcakes that have shrunk, you can ‘plump’ it up by piping buttercream/whipped cream into the cupcakes)