Chai Tea Latte Cake
Growing up, my favorite dessert was chocolate “crazy cake”. Also known as “wacky cake” or “depression cake”, it’s free of milk, eggs, and butter because these were scarce during the Great Depression. It’s a perfect recipe for me because I don’t have to worry about finding an egg substitute and it’s still super delicious. Technically, this Chai Tea Latte Cake is just another form of crazy cake with a few substitutions to make it burst with fall spice flavor!
I started with a recipe for a vanilla crazy cake because I knew it would be simple to incorporate chai tea. Normally, the cake would call for water, but I made a strong cup of chai and used that instead. I also added my favorite blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to spice it up a little bit more.
Chai Tea
The type of tea I recommend for Chai Tea Latte Cake is Necessi-Tea by Arteasana. The loose leaf blend uses organic spices, black tea, and cardamom. It’s the perfect balance of spice with the tea and it is a wonderful addition to baked goods. Since I’ve been using so much of it in my baking lately and am slightly obsessed with all things spiced, I mixed some Necessi-Tea with vodka to make a chai tea extract. It won’t be ready for at least four weeks, but I’m super excited to swap it out in place of vanilla!
Making the Cake
Making Chai Tea Latte Cake is extremely simple. The only challenging part is decorating, but you definitely don’t need fancy frosting techniques for it to taste amazing!
For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two six inch cake pans with coconut oil. Then, sift the flour, sugar, spices, and baking soda in a large bowl. Add the tea, oil, and vanilla and stir until all the ingredients are just combined. Pour half of the batter in each pan and bake for about 35 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when they’re ready. Be sure to let them cool before turning them out onto a cooling rack or else they will break.
To make frosting the cakes a LOT easier, I always freeze my layers first. Wrap them in plastic wrap, followed by aluminum foil, and seal them in freezer bags. It will take 2-4 hours for them to freeze, but you can also leave them in longer if you’re making the cake ahead of time.
Making the Frosting
For the spiced buttercream, combine the sugar. spices, vanilla, and half and half in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whipping attachment. Alternatively, place the ingredients in a deep bowl and use a hand mixer instead. Start out mixing on a low speed until there is no loose sugar that will fly about the kitchen. Scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically and eventually increase the speed to medium. Keep whipping until it is as light and fluffy as you desire!
I’m hoping to get around to making a cake frosting tutorial in the near future, but until then, Life, Love, and Sugar has some awesome tips! This is the post that I used when learning to frost cakes and I use all the same tools that she lists. Of course you don’t need any special tools, equipment, or frosting skills to make a delicious tasting cake. Feel free to smother your Chai Tea Latte Cake with frosting however you choose. 😊
If you love Chai Tea Latte Cake…
Then here are some more delicious cake recipes to try!
Hi, thank you for the recipe. I am not sure if I am mistaken, but I didn’t see chai tea in the ingredient list, but there is a mention of it in the procedure. I’m guessing it’s needed for this recipe.
Oh dear! Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention! I guess I totally forgot to include the most important ingredient in the list 😬. Yes, the cake should have 1 cup of chai tea in the batter. I just updated the recipe. Thanks for catching that!