If Lady Grey were to have thrown me a Birthday party (which happened to be in the beginning of this month), I'm sure she would have invited me for this tea party.
One morning as I was sipping on my morning tea and thinking of what to bake, I really got caught into a proper tea moment. I had kind of an ahaa moment and thought why not make a tea cake. My thoughts went further into my cup as I started creating the story of Lady Grey's tea party as I was really inspired by the Lady Grey tea which I was drinking, which is a black tea with citrus notes. Perfect I thought...A tea party would naturally contain a orange marmalade. I then got so excited when one thought led to another. As it is Blood Orange season I would naturally want to make something out of this beautiful fruit. I ended up making the blood orange curd in my last post. The flavour and colour just was to die for. Hmm, I thought, what else would Lady Grey have at her tea party other than tea, a tea cake and orange marmalade (in this case curd)? Naturally she would have flowers and a beautiful tea set...
And that is how I came up with this tea cake, infused with Lady Grey tea leaves, layers of blood orange curd and Creamy Orange Blossom cream cheese frosting.
How to make the cake:
Tea Milk:
2dl milk
1tbsp lady grey tea
Cake:
225g butter
1dl brown sugar (120g)
1dl granulated sugar (80g)
1tsp vanilla
4 eggs
orange zest
2 tsp of Lady Grey tea leaves2 teabags (crush in a pestle and mortar until very fine).
200g flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1dl milk (infused with lady grey tea)
Bring milk and tea to boil in a small pot over medium heat. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 mins. Strain.
In a pestle and mortar crush the tea leaves until very fine.
Preheat the oven to 175°C. Grease and flour a 15cm cake tin and line with parchment paper..
In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on a medium high until pale and fluffy. You can use just granulated sugar (200g) but I like to give a bit of flavour and colour using also brown sugar. Reduce the speed and add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla, tea leaves and orange zest.
In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda
In turns add the flour mix and the lady grey milk.
Bake for approximately 45-50 mins until the cake doesn't stick to a toothpick.
Place the cake on a wire rack to cool completely.
How to make Blood Orange Curd
2 dl blood orange juice (2 oranges)
zest from 2 oranges
1 dl sugar
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt
70g butter
Wash the oranges clean. With a zester, scrape the zest from both oranges and press the juice into a saucepan. Reduce the juice to approximately half. Let it cool for 30 mins.
In a bowl whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar until white and fluffy. Add the pinch of salt.
Pour the reduced juice into the egg mixture and whisk. Place the bowl over a bain marie and heat until the mixture starts to thicken. Remember to stir constantly not to end up with scrambled eggs. Add the cold butter nobs one at a time and stir.
Pour into a clean glass jar and store in the fridge.
Orange Blossom Cream Cheese Filling
500g cream cheese softened
250g mascarpone
150ml cream whipped
125g icing sugar
1/2 tsp -1 tsp orange blossom extract
peach or pink food colouring
With an electric mixer whisk together cream cheese, mascarpone, butter, icing sugar, food colouring and the orange blossom. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Let rest in the fridge for a while to get a better piping consistency.
Assemble the cake:
Cut the cake into three layers. On each layer spread Blood orange curd and then pipe rosettes of the orange blossom cream cheese frosting.
Decorate with figs, candied blood orange slices, some freeze dried raspberries. I would also have loved to decorate with some edible flower petals (example roses).
No unicorns were hurt in this photoshoot :D
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