By Tracey Ceurvels
While I wrote about cooking with coffee Tuesday, today’s recipe calls for tea. This pound cake is not only infused with tea, but it’s also topped with Earl Grey icing—it’s the perfect snack to have at home or a nice gift to bring to the office or a friend’s house.
One thing I’ve noticed when baking is that it’s important to be prepared. One way in which I do this is always having staples on hand: sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and whatever other ingredients you enjoy. You can always run out for eggs and milk, but having certain items always in stock helps in general with cooking. When beginning the baking process, have everything out on the counter or table—and then the rest is cake as they say.
Although I’ve used Dean & Deluca’s house blend (for the cake) and Earl Grey (for the icing) you can experiment with your favorite teas.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cake flour (I used Giusto’s Vita Grain cake flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup water
1 tea bag (I used Dean & DeLuca’s house tea, which is a mixture of Ceylon and Indian teas)
For the icing:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea
Direction
First, brew about a half cup of Earl Grey tea. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4-inch loaf pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, eggs, orange zest and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Meanwhile, cook 1/3 cup water and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves. Stir a few times so that the sugar doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Add 1 tea bag. Set aside. Remove tea bag after 10-15 minutes.
When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the tea mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.
For the icing, combine the confectioners’ sugar and Earl Grey tea and pour as much as you like over the cake.
