John Torode’s earl grey tea cake with orange blossom cream cheese frosting
Over the last few weeks, John Torode has treated us to stunning scenery and fabulous food by taking us on an incredible road trip around Northumberland. On the final stop of his tour of England’s northernmost county, today John is cycling down the magnificent coastline, before tucking into a slice of cake with a very special ingredient.
John’s earl grey tea cake with orange blossom cream cheese frosting
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
You will need: a mixing bowl and wooden spoon a 28in round tin (think large savarin mould) like a big donut
For the cake:
2 tsp warmed earl grey tea leaves
120 ml yoghurt
The rind of 1 orange
300g Flour
150g Castor Sugar
80 ml vegetable Oil
2 teaspoons of Baking Powder
2 Eggs
For the Frosting:
200g Cream Cheese
Juice of half an orange
6 drops of orange blossom oil
100g icing sugar
Orange zest (for garnish)
Method
For the cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 180oc / 160 fan.
2. In a mortar and pestle, grind the earl grey tea with sugar and orange zest.
3. Next, place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir well to remove all lumps.
4. Grease the cake tin with butter.
5. Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes.
6. Take from the oven and cool a little. Turn out onto a wire cake rack, and leave to cool for a good 20 minutes.
For the frosting:
1. Place all ingredients into a bowl and beat well.
2. Coat the cake with the frosting and serve on a large cake stand.
3. Grate orange zest on top.
4. Serve with a pot of tea and some lovely tea cups (please no milk!).
Tip: To give a zing use lemon yoghurt and the rind of a lemon, the same can be done for orange.