Baking for beginners: Gizzi's Earl Grey Chocolate Cake

I rarely bake, but this year I decided to be the World’s Greatest Housewife and bake my fella a cake for his birthday. And given how much he loves tea and chocolate, I just HAD to make him an Earl Grey chocolate cake! Gizzi Erskine’s recipe was recommended, and it really is fabulous. The chocolate cake alone is delicious, but with the fragrant touch of the Earl Grey - especially in the cream in the middle - it’s delicious!

Recipe is from Gizzi's Kitchen Magic.

You’ll need:

For the Cake:

• 6 Earl Grey teabags
• 150ml boiling water
• 100g unsalted butter, melted
• 3 large free-range eggs
• 150g soft dark brown sugar
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 250g self-raising flour
• 120g cooking chocolate (70% cocoa solids), melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons plain Greek yoghurt

For the Earl Grey cream:

• 4 x Earl Grey teabags
• 100ml boiling water
• 3 tablespoons light muscovado sugar
• 250g cream cheese

For the chocolate icing:

• 150g plain chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 100ml double cream
• 3 tablespoons honey

Make It!

Preheat the oven to 180°C (gas 4).

For the cake: Place the Earl Grey teabags in a cup and cover with boiling water. Leave to stew for 5 minutes, then squeeze out teabags and discard, leaving the strong tea to cool. Grease and line a spring-form cake tin with butter and place a disc of greaseproof paper at the bottom. Put all the cake ingredients, including the tea, into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour this batter into the cake tin and level out the surface. Bake for 50 minutes, or until you can stick a skewer into it and it coms out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, covered with a clean tea towel, for 2 hours.

For the cream: Place teabags in a small pan and cover with boiling water. Leave the tea to stew for 5 minutes, then remove teabags, squeezing out the liquid as you go. Add the sugar, bring to the boil for 5 minutes or until syrupy. Leave to cool for 10 minutes then whisk in the cream cheese.

When cool, slice the cake in half horizontally. Cover bottom half with the Earl Grey cream, then place the top back on.

For the icing: Melt the chocolate. Add the double cream and honey, then pour the chocolate icing over the cake. Using a spatula, gently smooth the icing around the edges until whole cake is iced.

Flickr image from ginnerobot's. Blog post by Claire Nelson.