CAKE 1: chai tea spice cake

where to start with this cake?

moist?
delicious?
exquisite???

i think all of these words will do!

this is Lindsays special Louis Vuitton chai tea spice cake!
considering it's the first one i make on this adventure, it turned out AMAZING! i was really surprised at how well it turned out. here is how i did it:

here is where i found the recipe and my inspiration (http://www.bakingobsession.com/2007/11/30/chai-tea-spice-cake/), but i'll post it again for convenience:

- 6 chai tea bags
- 1/2 cup of boiling water
- 8 tbsp of unsalted butter, softened  
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, divided in half
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1/4 unflavoured vegetable oil 
- 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp of ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 1 tsp of ground ginger
- 1 tsp of ground cardamom
- 1 tsp of ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg  
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1 cup of buttermilk
- 2 large egg whites at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar

place the tea bags in a medium bowl. pour the boiling water over the tea bags and leave them to steep for five minutes. remove the tea bags, squeezing them to release as much liquid as possible. it will look like blood, please don't be frightened. it's normal. let it cool in the refrigerator for half an hour.

put the butter in a large bowl (please, use real butter, not margarine. it makes ALL the difference when baking). use an electric mixer to beat until fluffy. gradually add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and all of the brown sugar, cream together well. add the oil (i used canola oil. it's a little better for you. vegetable oil is high in veggie-fats and triglycerides) and the cooled tea (when you pull it out of the fridge, it'll have turned an orange-y colour) to the butter mixture and blend thoroughly.

now it's time to sift together the flour, spices (i didn't have any of the fresh stuff, so i used ground nutmeg from the spice cupboard. remember, when you're using ground and/or dried spices, always use more to compensate; fresh stuff is a lot stronger. i also didn't have any cardamom or cloves, so the cake doesn't have any, but it still turned out great!), baking powder and salt. make sure to sift, it does make a difference. your cake will be lighter because of it!

alternately add the dry ingredients with the buttermilk (buttermilk comes up often in recipes, and yet so few people use it on a daily basis! what you can do is pour 1 cup of regular milk and add about a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. let it sit for about ten minutes on the counter to let the chemical reaction occur, and there you have it, buttermilk! i prefer to use the lemon juice, especially if it's for desserts) to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients (the page where i found this recipe said to do it in four stages, but that is mathematically impossible, so i did it in five: dry/buttermilk/dry/buttermilk/dry).

put the egg whites in a grease-free bowl and whip them on a medium speed until frothy. add the cream of tartar and whip until soft peaks form (i NEVER have cream of tartar on hand, so i just omitted it. your eggs whites will be just as nice without it, just make sure to whip them well, this could take several minutes on a high speed). gradually, working on a medium-high speed, add the rest of the 1/4 cup of sugar. i like to do this while the beater is going, just make sure your hands can multi-task! gently fold the whites into the batter in three or four stages.

transfer the batter to a prepared eight-inch pan. i usually just use shortening to grease the inside, but this time i also sprinkled some flour on the shortening in the pan. it worked really well, so i will probably be doing this from now on!

put it in the oven at 350℉ and let it sit in there for a little over an hour. i'm not going to tell you an exact time because all ovens are different, but just make sure you watch it and check it often with a cake tester (a.k.a. a toothpick). once you pull it out, let it cool on a rack for 15 minutes and then unmould it from the pan.

garnish it as you like! as you can see, i made a stencil and then sifted confectioners sugar on top to make the LV that Lindsay loves so much! i think a citrus glaze would be especially delicious, maybe with some candied lime peel on top? OUI!

so that's it folks! cake numero uno is done! i hope you enjoy it, Linds!















p.s. next up is Travis! i have the perfect cake in mind! as a matter of fact, i've had it in mind for exactly a year!