Earl Grey and Lemon Cake

Earl Grey and Lemon Cake

It’s been raining, and as you’re reading this, you probably rolled your eyes because chances are, it’s still raining.

It rained continuously for 16 odd hours on Sunday, and I’m not counting in Saturday because it was a start-and-stop thing as if the sky thought it would be funny to sprinkle a little of this and that every now and then like Tinkerbell on crack. I spent the entire day frolicking around in the now severely eroded and muddied wreck that is Fort Canning Green at the Laneway Music Festival. I can’t imagine what it looks like now.

And since the sky didn’t look like it was going to let up (and it didn’t. Surprise!) I had to busy myself with other activities that didn’t involve my snuggly microfleece Uniqlo jacket, the blanket and the bed.

So I made a pot of tea, a delicately floral French Earl Grey, and I thought something was missing.

And so I made cake.

Not just cake to have with tea, but cake with tea, like tea in cake, because just cake and tea is boring.

Earl Grey and Lemon Cake

Now, I drink my tea as is – no sugar, no milk, no nothing.

But then here I am throwing tea into butter and sugar and lemon and walnuts and all sorts of other things just because I wanted cake. I wanted something light, elegant, dainty, mildly sweet and flowery. I was this close to flinging in a couple of tablespoons of dried lavender but then I remembered that time when I combined everything I loved into one cake (and apparently I love a truckload of things) and my oven shat out a circular brick.

So Lavender, rain check (no pun intended)?

I had a little trouble with the baking time because the top of the cake started browning far too quickly before it was even baked through. And there was also the little…commotion…when Mommy walked into the kitchen and saw me using TWG’s French Earl Grey instead of “[using] cheap NTUC brand la!”. Well I gave her a slice after, and then all was well, of course.

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Feel free to use any type of Earl Grey you have. I used French Earl Grey from TWG. I know they have a couple more types of Earl Greys but the French Earl Grey was the most floral and strong, yet not unpleasantly so. Twinings will work great too. If you’re using tea leaves from teabags, they should be fine enough so you don’t have to do any chopping.

This isn’t one of those tender and moist kind of cakes, but I love it for its lightness and simplicity. It’s best while it’s still warm, the crust still slightly crisp and the interior soft and crumbly. What I really mean to say is that paired with a hot cuppa on a dreary, wet day, this hits the spot like nothing else and I guarantee it.

Makes 1 loaf tin of cake

Ingredients:

• 165g butter, room temperature
• 3 eggs
• 160g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 130g icing sugar
• 1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• 50g honey
• 1 1/2 tbs Earl Grey tea leaves (chopped, if yours comes in larger leaves)
• zests of 2 lemons

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl. Whisk in the Earl Grey tea leaves and lemon zest.
3. Cream butter and icing sugar together using an electric mixer till pale yellow and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is incorporated well before adding the next.
5. Add in the honey, vanilla extract, flour mixture and salt and mix for another 3 minutes.
6. Using a spatula, fold in the walnuts gently.
7. Line your baking tin with parchment paper if yours isn’t non-stick, and fill the tin with the batter till about 3/4 full.
8. Bake for 40-45 minutes, watching that the top doesn’t brown too much. If it does, cover the top with tin foil and continue baking till a toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle comes out with only a few crumbs.
9. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing.