Lemony Earl Grey Lavender Cakes
- Jeanne Lian
- Jul 20, 2020
- 3 min read
The perfect tea-time treat. Mouthfuls of moist buttery cake with hints of citrus, fragrant earl grey and calming lavender to make your afternoons a little more delightful.
Also, have you seen this crumb? The texture of this cake is pretty glorious. It isn't too dense, it's moist, and it has an almost-sugee-cake-like bite to it.
This is a small-batch recipe that makes only 3 mini loaves, or 9 cupcakes. Perfect for small families or if you just wanna treat yourself!
I like making these as mini loaves, but you could turn these into perfect cupcakes too. Top the cupcakes off with the drizzle in this recipe, or go a little fancy with your own flavoured variation of swiss meringue buttercream frosting.
LEMONY EARL GREY LAVENDER CAKES RECIPE:
Makes 3 mini loaves, or 9 cupcakes. I use 2.5" x 4" rectangular disposable aluminium tins for my mini loaves.
INGREDIENTS:
Infused Milk (makes enough for 2 batches)
150ml milk
4 earl grey teabags (I use Twinings)
2.5 tsp dried lavender/ lavender tea (I got mine from Scoop Wholefoods)
Cake
125g unsalted butter, rtp, cut into cubes
115g caster sugar 125g self raising flour, sifted
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 eggs, rtp
1/2 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
2.5 tbsp of infused milk (see above)
1/2 tsp fine earl grey tea leaves (Twinings teabag leaves)
Lemony Drizzle
130g icing sugar
1.5 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp infused milk (see above)
Lavender flowers/ cornflowers and fine earl grey tea leaves for decoration
INFUSED MILK INSTRUCTIONS:
In a small saucepan, add in milk and 2.5 tsp of dried lavender. Cut open 4 teabags and pour the contents in. Give the milk tea mix a stir.
Heat the milk mixture over low heat and allow it to simmer for 3 min.
Remove from the heat, cover the saucepan with its lid and allow the milk tea to steep till warm to the touch (~10min)
Strain out the milk tea, using a teaspoon to press all remaining milk out from the strained leaves. Discard the tea leaves and lavender.
CAKE INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 170C, using top and bottom setting.
In a mixing bowl, add unsalted butter, caster sugar, sifted self-raising flour, baking soda, vanilla bean paste and eggs.
Using the paddle attachment of your standing mixer, beat ingredients on med-low speed until creamy and well combined.
Add in salt, lemon zest and 1/2 tsp fine earl grey tea leaves.
Turn your mixer on low speed and add in 1 tbsp lemon juice and 2.5 tbsp infused milk. Beat till evenly mixed, using a spatula to scrape the sides as you go along.
Distribute the batter evenly into your mini loaf tins or cupcake tins, filling no more than 2/3 full (I usually put 150g of batter per mini loaf tin).
For mini loaves, run a toothpick down the center of your cakes in a straight line to prevent an uneven lip from forming (see pic in Notes)
Bake mini loaves for 23-25min , or cupcakes for 17-20 min. Your cakes are ready when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool (~15min) before unmolding. In the mean time, prepare your drizzle!
DRIZZLE INSTRUCTIONS:
In a bowl, add in icing sugar, 1.5 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp infused milk.
Mix with a spoon till icing sugar is fully incorporated. The drizzle will have a thick condensed milk consistency.
ASSEMBLY:
Once the cakes are cool, unmold the mini loaves and pour over as much drizzle as you'd like.
Sprinkle some fine earl grey tea leaves and lavender flowers over before the drizzle fully crystallises.
Enjoy! These cakes can last at room temperature for 3 days.
Notes:
You could make the infused milk a day in advance. Keep refrigerated. Before baking, make sure to leave the cold infused milk out to come closer to room temp before adding to your batter.
This recipe is rather fuss-free and doesn't require you to cream butter and sugar like other cupcake recipes do, but will still produce a lighter moist crumb than conventional butter cakes.
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