Earl Grey Sponge Cake
This earl grey sponge cake is like biting into a cloud of tea.
Equipment
- stand mixer
- 12 inch chiffon or angel cake pan
Ingredients
Earl Grey Sponge Cake
- 1 cup cake and pastry flour
- 8 large eggs
- ½ cup neutral oil
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup hot water
- 14 earl grey tea bags
Earl Grey Custard
- 4 egg yolks
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 4 earl grey tea bags
Instructions
Earl Grey Cake
- Pour ½ cup of boiling water into 8 tea bags, cover with plastic wrap and allow to steep for 10 minutes. Be sure to squeeze out all the concentrated tea from the tea bags afterwards. You want to still have 1/2 cup of liquid.
- Remove the tea leaves from 6 tea bags They should be in powder form, but if not, blend until it become a powder. There should be about 2 tbsp of powdered tea leaves.
- Crack 8 eggs in a bowl and separate the yolks from the whites.
- In your stand mixer bowl, add the flour, concentrated tea water, oil, sugar, and egg yolks together then mix over high speed for 15 minutes. I started at speed 6 for 1 minutes then raised it up to 10 for the remaining time. IT should become more airy and have doubled in volume.
- Place the egg yolk mixture in another bowl then add the egg whites and baking powder into the stand mixer bowl. Beat over high speed for 5 minutes until stiff.
- In 3 batches, fold the egg whites using a spatula into the egg yolk mixture until smooth and mixed well.
- Place the mixture into a 12 inch chiffon cake pan and into a preheated oven for 45 minutes. Make sure the oven has already been pre-heated, otherwise the batter will start to deflate.
- Rest upside down for 20 minutes before cutting. This helps retain its puffy shape.
Earl Grey Custard
- In a sauce pan, add the milk and cream then heat up over low heat while stirring until it reaches 175F. One way to tell is when it starts to steam but isn't boiling yet.
- Turn off the heat, add 4 tea bags, cover and allow to steep at least 10 minutes.
- Squeeze out all the excess milk before discarding the tea bags.
- In a bowl, mix together egg yolks and sugar then slowly stream in the warm milk 1 ladle at a time while mixing. This will prevent the eggs from curdling.
- Place it back into a saucepan and heat over low heat while constantly stirring until it thickens. You may serve it warm but I like to cool it down first.