Cakes are a little escape from everyday life for us. We at Scrumdiddlyumptious find something positively meditative about the baking process: Just sifting, stirring and baking can be enough to take us away from the small and big worries of our days and bring us into our element. Plus, when the first slice of cake is on the plate, whether we are sharing with others or just ourelves, well, we feel absolutely blissed out! Today, the particular bliss we are following is with our fantastically aromatic chai cake. It may look like it was baked by a professional, but trust us, that despite its elegant appearance, this recipe is totally beginner friendly. Enjoy!
Our Chai Cake is Perfectly Cozy
Are you sometimes in dire need of a mini-break? If vacation or even a day off is far-away, you can treat yourself to small escapes from everyday life in other ways. We like to do this with kitchen exploits. Today, our chai cake is our culinary escape! It should be yours too.
To bake it, you need to make two cake layers. This will be quick if you have two springform pans of the same size. But if your kitchen only has one, no worries: Simply bake the cake layers one after the other. This takes a little longer, but will also get the job done.
By the way, it’s the batter that makes the gives our chai its signature aroma. This is due to the many spices that we use in it. These include, for example, cinnamon, cardamom and/or nutmeg. Otherwise, there’s nothing ‘special’ needed for this cake’s batter: Such regulars as flour, butter, eggs and co will make this cake positively yummy. Once the cake batter is ready, grease and flour your pans and then pour half of the batter into the first springform pan. The rest will simply be poured into the second pan for the second layer. Now, all that’s left is baking for half an hour.
After baking, the layers need to cool down a bit before being removed from the pan. In the meantime, you can being making the sweet cream frosting. All you need for this is cream cheese and powdered sugar, which you will simply mix together. Now, once the cakes are properly cool, frost the base. Put the second layer on top and then simply evenly frost the rest of the cake. Now, your chai cake is ready to be enjoyed. We know you’ll love it!
If you’ve enjoyed baking, you should definitely try our chocolate lemon sheet cake or our blueberry meringue sheet cake. Or how about a trendy spotted leopard cake with chocolate ganache? Yummy!
Chai Cake
Equipment
- 2 (8-in.) springform pans
Ingredients
For the batter:
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp ground cardamom
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch of salt
- ¾ cup butter softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream at room temperature
- ¼ cup neutral oil
For the frosting:
- 14 oz (about 1¾ blocks) plain cream cheese
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs.
- Beat in half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Add the sour cream and oil. Mix until just combined.
- Stir in the rest of the flour mixture.
- Grease and flour the springform pans. Divide the batter between the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes each. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the cream cheese and powdered sugar for the frosting.
- Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread some of the frosting on top. Top with the second cake layer and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.