Chai Spice Cake

Happy Birthday, Mystic Flame Oven!

Ingredients List

• 2 ¼ cups Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Chai Spice Mix (or finely ground Chai Tea)
• ¾ tsp Salt
• ¾ cup Butter, unsalted, room temp
• 1 ½ cups Granulated Sugar
• 3 large Eggs
• 1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Chai Milk
• 1-2 cups Frosting

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease the pan(s) with butter and cover with loose flour, tapping off the excess.
   1. Additionally, you can line the bottom with parchment paper if you’re worried about it sticking.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, tea, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
4. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.
   • If using a stand mixer: use paddle attachment and mix on medium-high.
5. Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition.
6. Add the vanilla.
7. Alternate adding the flour mixture and Chai Milk, ending on flour. (3 flour additions, 2 Chai Milk additions).
8. Fill your pans to no more than 3/4 full. It will rise.
   1. If you’re worried about overflow, put a cookie sheet under your cake pans.
9. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until an inserted toothpick in the center comes out mostly clean.
   • Your mileage may vary. Our oven runs hot, so it comes out around the 35 minute mark. If it’s not ready by that point, check it every 5 minutes or so.
10. Allow cakes to cool in their pan for 10 minutes.
11. Remove cakes and place on wire rack. Allow to cool completely before icing.
12. Ice your cakes & enjoy!

Notes

• Choosing your Cake Pans:
  • I enjoy decorating layered cakes, so I tend to make cakes with a small diameter, about 5-7″.
  • If you’re splitting the batter into larger pans, it will cook faster.
• Finely Ground Tea Details:
  • Bigelow Vanilla Chai is my favorite for Baking (not sponsored)
  • Grind it up by hand, in a food processor, or harvest directly from the tea bag and pray the tea gods hear your prayer
    • I have not made this batter without grinding down the tea. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
• Butter Alternatives:
  • If you’re ride or die for salted butter, don’t let me tell you how to live your life. I use unsalted butter so I can control the flavor of things, but I’ve never turned down a dessert for using salted butter. Honestly, I doubt I’d know the difference unless I ate them side by side to
  • Country Crock Plant Butter Avocado Oil works, too! I couldn’t taste this version because of allergies I have to another ingredient, but my fancy schmancy food critics and the person we gave them to love them. Not sponsored.
• Gauging Cook Time
  • If you don’t know how hot/cold your oven runs, think about something you bake from the freezer section of the grocery store. If it’s about right or takes longer, it’ll likely take you 25 minutes. If it cooks faster, you’ll want to decrease the temperature by 25 degrees or check it sooner, starting around the 15 minute mark.
• Pairings
  • This cake is very sweet and pairs well with coffee, tea, or milk.

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Can’t wait to see you around the hearth soon.