Chai Tea Cake with Spiced Maple Syrup Buttercream

I was feeling creative over the long weekend. I'm not entirely sure why :)
I wanted to make a delicious warming cake to cheer me up through the cold winter days. I think I did it!! This is completely my own recipe and this time I even wrote down measurements as I went. Yay for learning.

I love chai, I guess I technically cheated by using tea bags, but I was thinking about ease.... and that's what I had in my cupboard.

CHAI TEA CAKE (makes a lot! I made 15 muffins and a 6inch cake, plus 1 6x1 inch test cake)

Ingredients:

Cake

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

250g butter, softened

1 1/2 cups milk

1 vanilla bean, seeds only

4 eggs

1 teaspoon mixed spice

3 chai tea tea bags

Syrup

150g caster sugar

100g water

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

2 chai tea tea bags

Ingredients

Before you start, place the milk and 3 tea bags in a pot and bring to an almost boil. Remove from heat and let infuse until cool.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius

Butter and flour your cake tin or muffin tray.

Double sift your flour, baking powder and mixed spice then set aside

Chop up butter and place in a bowl. Beat until light and fluffy.

Add both the brown sugar and caster sugar a little at a time beating well between each addition.

Add eggs one at a time. Beating well between each addition

On the last egg addition, also add the vanilla bean seeds.

Beat well.

Add 1/3 of the flour mix.

Beat until well combined, remembering to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Remove the tea bags from the milk.

Add half the milk. beat well.

Continue with another 1/3 of the flour mix, beat well

Then the other half of the milk, combine

Finishing with the last 1/3 of the flour mix.

Beat until combined

Pour mix into prepared tin and cook for about 1 1/2 hours. Check it after an hour, just in case.

Whilst the cake is in the oven, combine all the syrup ingredients (tip out the tea from the tea bag into the pot) in a pot, place on a medium heat and stir until dissolved and just starts to boil. Once sugar is all dissolved pour through a sieve to strain out the tea leaves and set aside to cool.

Once the cake has cooked, remove from the oven and straight away pour some syrup over the top. Leave for half an hour or until the tin is comfortable to touch, then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

SPICED MAPLE SYRUP BUTTERCREAM (makes enough to fill and cover 1 layer 6 inch cake)

Ingredients:

1 chai tea tea bag

75g water

175g egg whites

200g caster sugar

50g brown sugar

300g butter, cubed, softened

2 teaspoons meringue powder

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 Place the water and tea bag into a mug and let infuse for 10 minutes

In a bowl combine the egg whites and meringue powder until soft peaks form.
Place the caster & brown sugar into a pot, add the tea infused water and place on a medium heat. Stir gently until dissolved then turn the heat up to high and let boil until it reaches 120 degrees Celsius.
Remove from heat, start whisking your egg whites again and slowly pour the sugar syrup in. Once all the syrup is in turn the mixer up to high and beat until firm glossy peaks form and the bowl has cooled.
Turn mixer down to low and slowly beat in the butter a couple of cubes at a time until smooth and creamy.
Finally add the maple syrup and cinnamon, beat a little more.

You can either slice the cake in half and fill the middle then ice it, or just ice it.
I filled it and then piped roses onto my cake. My first attempt at roses on a cake lol