This is the perfect chai cake recipe! A blend of spices wrapped up into a glorious cake that leave your stomach warm and satisfied.
For this chai cake recipe, I’ve adapted my vanilla cake recipe with oil and incorporated chai infused milk, chai simple syrup and chai frosting. You may recognize this technique for flavouring cake because I used it for my Earl Grey Cake as well! I’m actually not a chai tea fan (what!), but I love this cake recipe.
Why I love this Chai Cake Recipe:
- It is packed with fragrant spices
- You can intensify the chai flavour to your liking by increasing or decreasing the amount of chai tea you steep your milk in. For a more intense flavour increase the amount of loose tea and allow the milk to steep for longer before straining the tea leaves.
- This cake can be a seasonal cake or every day!
Keys to Success with this Chai Cake Recipe
**There are a few different components to this cake, so I recommend taking two days to bake and decorate it. Day 1, make your simple syrup and bake your cake layers. Day 2 make your Swiss Meringue buttercream, assemble, and decorate your cake. I promise it’s worth it!
- Ensure all of your ingredients are room temperature. This is imperative to having your ingredients incorporate together well —especially since we’re using oil in this recipe!
- Cream your butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy! Don’t skip this step. It’s important to allow time for these to whip together in order to create a light and fluffy cake.
- Don’t overmix your batter! If you over mix your batter you will end up with a very dense cake —yuck!
- Allow your chai milk and chai simple syrup to steep long enough. This is extremely important since this is how we are flavouring our cake!
To assemble your cake:
- Place your levelled cake layer on your cake turn table.
- Brush the chai simple syrup over the top, bottom and sides of the cake using a pastry brush.
- Apply a moderate layer of buttercream to the cake layer and spread evenly.
- Stack second cake layer on cake and repeat as above.
- For your final cake layer, turn the cake layer upside down so that the portion that was the bottom of the pan becomes the top of the cake. This ensures a completely flat surface to spread your buttercream on.
- Next, apply a thin layer of buttercream to the outer layer of your cake (otherwise known as a crumb coat) and place cake into the fridge to set for about 15 minutes.
- Once your cake is chilled you can begin frosting the outside of your cake!
- I’ve used a tip 1D to pipe a border around the perimeter of my cake.
If you try this recipe, make sure you take a photo and tag BAKED by Blair on social media and use the #bakedbyblair. I would love to hear how you enjoyed the recipe, so comment below! If you want to pin this recipe and save it for later, go ahead and click the pin button any of the photos above and save it to your favourite desserts board on Pinterest! ENJOY!
BBBxx
Chai Cake
Perfectly fragrant chai spice cake recipe! This cake is wonderful for fall or winter evenings with a cup of tea.
Ingredients
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter At room temperature
- ½ cup Vegetable Oil
- 1½ cups Granulated Sugar
- 5 Egg Whites At room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups Cake Flour Sifted
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1½ cups Chai Milk At room temperature. See below for instructions how to make Chai Milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Spray three 6-inch cake pans with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Into the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter and oil together for 3-4 minutes until they are unified.
- Add sugar into the mixture and beat on medium to high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- With the mixer on low speed add egg whites in one at a time followed by the vanilla. Beat on high until mixture is smooth and light in colour.
- While your mixture is mixing, sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
- With the mixer on low speed, add one third of the flour mixture into the bowl and mix until just combined. Scrape down the bowl and add one half of the chai infused milk and again mix until just combined. Repeat this process. Begin and end with the flour mixture. Do not over mix or your cake will become quite dense.
- Distribute cake batter evenly between three 6-inch cake pans. I like to use a kitchen scale to ensure batter is divided equally.
- Bake for 28-32 minutes, or until knife comes out clean. Each oven is slightly different, so I suggest setting your timer to 28 minutes and watching carefully from there!
- Cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes before inverting and removing cakes from can pan to cool completely.
Chai Milk
Ingredients
- 1½ cups Whole Milk
- 2½ tablespoon Loose Chai Tea Leaves
Instructions
- Use a small pot to bring milk and loose tea leaves to a gentle simmer. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 12-15 minutes.
- Strain to remove loose tea leaves.
- Re-measure your milk after it has cooled and top up to 1 and ½ cups as some may have cooked off.
- It's okay if there are some small particles left - I think they add to the cake! Bring to room temperature before using in cake recipe.
Chai Simple Syrup
Delicious chai infused simple syrup to moisten and flavour your delicious chai cake layers.
Ingredients
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ cup Water
- 2½ tablespoon Loose Chai Tea Leaves
Instructions
- In a small pot, combine water, sugar, and loose tea. Stir to combine.
- Bring to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and allow to steep for 10 minutes.
- Strain loose tea and allow to cool to room temperature before using.
Chai Frosting
Perfectly infused chai Swiss meringue frosting. Silky, smooth, and delicious!
Ingredients
- 5 Egg Whites
- 1½ cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 cups Unsalted Butter At room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- ¼ cup Chai Simple Syrup Mixed with: ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger, ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, ½ teaspoon cardamom
Instructions
- Combine spices with chai simple syrup and set aside.
- Wipe down your mixing bowl, whisk and paddle attachments with a small amount of white vinegar.
- Create a double boiler on your stove by filling a medium saucepan with a couple inches of water. Do not let the water touch the base of the bowl. Put your egg whites and sugar in your bowl and place on top of the saucepan. Give them a whisk to combine.
- Cook your egg white/sugar mixture over medium heat stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees F on a candy thermometer or until you can no longer feel any sugar granules between your fingertips. The mixture will be hot.
- Transfer your egg white/sugar mixture to the bowl of your electric stand mixer with the whisk attachment in place and whisk on high until the outside of your mixing bowl is no longer hot and you’ve achieved stiff peaks in your meringue. This can take between 8-12 minutes.
- Switch to the paddle attachment. Turn your mixer to low speed. Add in your cubed butter (2 tablespoon in size) one at a time, allowing each to be incorporated before the next addition.
- Scrape down the sides of your bowl, turn mixer to low speed and gradually add in your chai simple syrup spice mix and vanilla extract.
- Turn your mixer up to medium to high speed and mix for about 4 minutes until buttercream is completely incorporated, silky, and smooth. Turn the mixer to low speed and mix for 2-3 more minutes. This helps to remove any air bubbles that have formed.
- Remove bowl from mixer and use spatula to remove any remaining air bubbles. Push the spatula against the side of the bowl, squishing the buttercream into the bowl.
Julie Lawson says
I am planning to make this cake this weekend. Do you think this is enough batter for two 9 inch pans or should I increase the ingredients by 1.5?
Blair Braz says
Hello! It would be enough but the layers will be quite thin. I recommend increasing by 1.5! Monitor your baking time as well, with thinner layers the cake would cook faster!