Earl Grey Tea, Blueberry and Lemon Cake

I'm in the "baking trance" since few day now, it's only Wednesday and I already baked four cakes (you should try this one). I have so many amazing cookbooks lying around, and so many printed pages marked with colorful stickers, I think  the time has come, to try all the recipes (yay!), and spend all my saving on the ingredients, ha (berries can be really expensive)! I guess I wont be buying that nice shirt I saw in Mango the other day...



I like to try the funky recipes, or the ones which call for some kind of weird ingredient. This gorgeous cake isn't too funky, but it brought my attention due to flavors combination. I've tried various Earl Grey tea cake recipes, but non of them had such a deep Earl Grey flavor. Here you mix in  freshly brewed tea and the tea leaves into the cake batter. Tadaaa! Now you know the secret.  

Personally I would prefer orange zest instead of lemon, and next time I will definitely choose smaller loaf pan, I would like the cake to be little bit taller, but over all this cake ROCKS! I will definitely make it again (with my tiny personal changes).

Choose good quality lemons and flavorful tea for this recipe, and make sure your brewed tea "essence" is very strong. You can use frozen blueberries if you can't find the fresh ones.

Earl Grey Tea, Blueberry and Lemon Cake

the cake

1 Earl Grey tea bag

80g unsalted butter, melted
105 g granulated sugar

2 eggs

60 ml buttermilk

zest of 1 lemon

200g all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

125 g blueberries

the glaze

65g powdered sugar

lemon juice

Method :

1. Soak the tea bag in 1/2 cup of boiling water for at least 10 minutes, set aside.

2. Preheat your oven to 180'C, grease and dust with flour large loaf pan.

3. In a bowl of a standing mixer beat together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk and lemon zest.

4. Remove the tea bag from the water, cut it open and add the tea leaves along with the brewed tea into the mixer bowl and stir together.

5. Add the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and stir together until well combined.

6. Toss the blueberries in a tablespoon of flour and add them to the batter, fold in gently (tossing berries in flour prevents them from sinking).

7. Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes, until a skewer insert into the center of the cake comes out clean.

8. Cool the cake in the pan for about 10-15 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

9. Make the glaze. Stir powdered sugar with enough lemon juice to make it pourable mixture. Pour over still warm loaf and leave to set.

You see what happens when you keep your head in the clouds and forget to toss berries in the flour? They sank all the way to the bottom of the cake, NOT COOL.