Masala Chai Walnut Cake
Inspiration for this Masala Chai Walnut Cake came when baking a classic “Coffee and Walnut Cake” and accidentally overdoing it with an experimental addition of freshly ground cardamom to the cake mix. The result was an exotically tasting cake. Not one reminiscent of a typical English, rose scented, country cottage scene that a coffee and walnut cake would normally conjure, but of an imperialistic world, where exotic Eastern spices and Western cake mix are joined together in a bold marriage of cultures of a time gone by…. you get the picture?
What is Masala Chai?
The aromatic cardamom triggered memories of sipping Masala Chai while travelling through India many years ago.
Masala Chai, as I’m sure you know is masala tea (“chai” meaning tea). It’s an Indian beverage made by brewing black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs, which typically includes: black tea leaves (Assam or Darjeeling); cardamom pods; cinnamon sticks; ground cloves; ground ginger and black peppercorn. Some recipes include star anise and cloves too, and of course they all contain an abundance of sugar.
To be honest, I never really liked masala chai. I find it too cloying and sickly and could only ever manage a few small sips in a feeble attempt to keep warm during the unusual bout of cold weather India was experiencing at the time of my travels, many years ago.
My main distaste for Masala Chai is the sweetness, so I figured by making my own I’d be in control of that aspect. I had all the required spices out ready for the cake so it was really no extra effort to pop some in a pan with the milk and water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour. As well as using the masala chai in the recipe, needless to say it would make the perfect beverage with a slice of Masala Chai Walnut Cake once baked.
Taste buds continually change over time and I’m a firm believer that you should try things not only once but several times in your life – you may find you’ve been missing out on something fab!
In my recipe I use masala chai as a replacement for milk – here’s the recipe I followed. If you are short on time you can just use milk. I’m sure the spices will be aromatic enough for the cake as is. However, if you do make the tea, I would err on the side of caution with the sugar quantities – I found 1 tablespoon of sugar was quite enough to sweeten the tea rather than the stated 4 tablespoons!
The Masala Chai Walnut Cake
In this recipe I have created a spiced tea based cake instead of a regular coffee cake.
I was surprised to find so few recipes on the web for cakes containing masala chai spices. Most had carrot or banana in them and there were certainly no masala chai and walnut cake recipes – none that I came across anyway! You can let me know if I’m wrong.
To start things off, I needed to have a good cake base so I built on a classic Coffee & Walnut cake recipe, by Nigella Lawson – replacing the coffee with darjeeling tea and the masala chai spices (Recent edit: I have since altered the cake base quantities to create a lighter more open crumb cake, recipe below has been edited to reflect this.)
Those black flecks you can see in the cake are the tea leaves.
Enjoy with a hot cup of masala chai or freshly brewed coffee!
Let me know if you try this recipe. Would love to know how you got on and if you did anything different. Leave a comment below or send me an email.
gx
Masala Chai Walnut Cake
Prep Time
45 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
1 hr 15 mins
An exotically spiced masala chai cake, covered in an equally exotically spiced buttercream icing. Perfect served with a warming cup of hot masala chai.
Course:
Cake
Cuisine:
Baking
Servings: 12
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 200 g Self Raising flour
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 200 g golden caster sugar
- 100 g lightly roasted walnuts - I think this would work great with pecans too 50g for the cake and 50g for decorating
- 3 large eggs weight 200g
- 2 tbsp masala chai spice mix
- pinch of pink salt
- 2 tbsp of milk or masala chai - see link here
The Masala Chai Spice Mix:
- 2 tbsp loose black tea leaves - Darjeeling or Assam
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns optional
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves optional
- 1/4 tsp ground star anise optional
For the syrup:
- 100 g caster sugar
- 100 ml water
- 1/4 tsp masala chai spice mix
For the Frosting:
- 300 g Icing sugar
- 185 g softened butter or half butter half cream cheese
- 1 tbsp masala chai spice mix
- Remaining roasted walnuts to decorate
Instructions
For The Cake:
-
Preheat the oven to 180 C (350f).
-
Grease and line 5 x 6" cake tins (I used wilton pans). Otherwise you can use two 8" sandwich tins.
-
Roast the100g of walnuts - set your timer for 10m so you don't forget about them!
-
When roasted let cool.
-
Process the walnuts until you have fine breadcrumbs.
-
In a medium sized bowl combine flour, ground walnuts, masala chai spice mix and salt.
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the room temperature softened butter with the sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
-
On a medium speed add the eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated. Add a tablespoon of flour mixture if the cake mix looks like it will curdle.
-
Once the eggs are all incorporated add the flour, walnuts and chai spice mixture, a third at a time and mix gently until all well incorporated.
-
On lowest speed add the flour mixture and combine.
-
At this stage, if using masala chai tea to add flavour, add it down the funnel now, with the motor still running. This will loosen the cake mixture. You should obtain a soft dropping consistency, add more masala chai or milk if needed to obtain desired consistency.
-
Divide the cake mixture between your pans, the five tins and bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes. Or if using two 8" tins then 25-30mins. Check that the sponge has risen and feels springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.
-
Let the cakes cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
-
Once the cakes are cold you can wrap in cling film and let rest overnight at room temperature before icing.
For the Masala Chai Syrup:
-
Place the water and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Let the sugar dissolve completely and bring to the boil for a couple of minutes. Do not stir the mixture whilst it's boiling otherwise the syrup will crystallise. Remove from the heat and let cool. When cold place into a jar until you are ready to use.
For the Buttercream filling:
-
Add the softened butter to the food processor and beat for a couple of minutes before gradually mixing in the sieved icing sugar.
-
Add the masala chai spice mix and continue beating until the buttercream has increased in volume and is very pale and fluffy.
-
Place one cake half upper side down on a cake stand, brush with the masala chai syrup, then sandwich the cakes together using half the buttercream. Place other half of cake on top and brush with syrup and decorate with the remaining buttercream and walnut pieces, which you can either leave whole and place strategically over the top, or bash them up slightly and scatter all over the top of the cake.
Recipe Notes
Tip:
1.Roast the walnuts on a baking sheet in the oven set to 200C for about 10 minutes. Set the timer or you may just forget all about them and get burnt nuts!
2. Make masala tea and use to replace the milk in the recipe.
3. You can grind your tea leaves into the flour sugar along with the walnuts if you don't want to see the black tea leaves in the cake mixture.
Roxane Smith says
I was lucky enough to sample this cake and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it ever since!! It’s so rare to try a flavour of cake that hasn’t been done before to the best of my knowledge. It is perfectly balanced and full of surprises. I thought the tea leaves was a strange addition but after tasting it I completely understand. It is very clever and it just works. Stunning cake.
Gillian Thompson says
Thank you so much Roxane Smith for your very kind words. I’m thrilled you liked it and that you took the time to write to me. gx
Roxane Smith says
Stunning cake that is so very clever. I was lucky enough to sample this and found the balance of flavours absolutely perfect. I loved the addition of the tea leaves. Sounded strange on paper but it really works!
Neta says
Looks delicious, can’t wait to make this!
Gillian Thompson says
Hi Neta, Thank you – hope you give it a go and let me know how you get on. gx