SPICED CHAI CARROT CAKE

Today’s recipe of spiced chai carrot cake is brought to us by the talented emmaharrelphotography

This Chai Carrot Cake is probably one of my favourite cakes I’ve baked. The sponge is moist with the mixed fruit soaked in Chai tea flavouring the cake. The citrus notes from the lemon zest and orange is complimented by the cream cheese frosting adding some creaminess.

A GAME-CHANGING CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

The dairy free cream cheese frosting is something I’m really pleased to have discovered. It’s a delicious balance of creamy, sweet and sour. You can adjust the flavours as you make it too, using my measurements as more of a base as everyone has different preferences. I prefer a slightly less sweet taste to mine but you can add more icing sugar if needed.

I’ve used Tea And The Gang Chai teabags to infuse the dried fruit. Just boil the kettle, pop 3 of the Chai teabags into a bowl with 100ml of boiling water then stir through your dried fruit and place a plate on top to keep the steam in. This infuses and plumps up the fruit while you prepare the rest of the cake before folding the fruit through the cake batter.

You can find more tasty food ideas on my blog. Why not take a look at my Lemon Tender Cake with a Coconut Topping for some more baking inspiration. You can take check out my Instagram too where you can keep up to date with recipes I make.

INGREDIENTS:

3 chai teabags brewed in 100ml boiling water
150g Mixed dried fruit
200g Milk I used soya milk
1 tbsp Cider vineger
75g Caster sugar
150g Butter
100g Ground almonds
200g Plain flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
100g Grated carrot
Zest of ½ a lemon
50g Whole pistachios Roughly chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting:

150g Cream cheese I used Sainsbury’s dairy free cream cheese
125g Icing sugar
75g Butter

INSTRUCTIONS:

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C (fan assisted) and line a baking dish with baking paper. I used a 21cmx27cm rectangular dish. Pour the milk and vinegar into a jug and let sit until it reacts and turns lumpy. Stir the dried fruit through teabags in boiling water and cover.
Meanwhile beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy, then stir through the milk & vinegar mixture followed by folding the flour, ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda and lemon zest until you have a smooth cake batter.
Fold through the grated carrot and soaked dried fruit with the tea liquid. Pour into you baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if it’s cooked in the middle, if not cook for a further 5 minutes at a time. If the top is starting to brown too much you can cover with tinfoil for the remaining time.
Once it’s cooked through remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool in the baking dish. You can make your cream cheese frosting while it’s cooling.
Beat together all of the cream cheese frosting ingredients together until you have a smooth creamy spread. You can taste to check if more cream cheese is needed if it’s a little too sweet or if it’s too tart you can add more icing sugar.
Once your cake is cooled all the way through, spread your cream cheese frosting all over the top and finish with your pistachios. You can enjoy straight away or it’ll keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Spiced chai carrot cake article written by and all photos are copyright of emmaharrelphotography

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WANT TO CREATE THIS RECIPE AT HOME?

If you like the sound of this exciting spiced chai carrot cake recipe, you can pick up a pack of our Chai black tea – Mrs Agra in our online store by clicking here!

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