As it is now cooler, we can finally turn the oven on, no reasons not to try and bake this cake. It's a delicious chai spiced cake with chai frosting. It's moist, not dry at all. And the frosting really steals the show !

What is chai ? Chai actually means tea in Hindi. You'll find it most often in the form of chai massala, a sweetened back tea with spices. So here when I talk about chai, this is what I'm talking about. I love the one from Kusmi Tea.

For the frosting, I use the same spices as in the tea but I do not use tea. It's a nice touch, it's not very sweet too.

It's a cake with a "moist" crumb, not dry at all. You can keep it in the fridge (because of the cream cheese frosting) for a few days with no problem.

A 28 cm cake pan will be perfect to have a tall enough cake. It doesn't rise a lot and it's perfectly normal.

Chai spiced cake with chai frosting :

• 300 g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 120 g sugar
• 1 tbsp chai blend
• 350 ml milk (plantbased or not)
• 180 ml vegetable oil
• 1 pinch of salt

For the frosting :

• 150 g cream cheese
• 40 g icing powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1 pinch of salt

Put the spice blend in a tea infuser. Put the tea infuser in a sauce pan witht the milk and bring it to a boil.

Turn the heat off as soon as it starts bubbling. Let it infuse 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 160°C/320°F.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Pour the oil and chai infused milk into the bowl. Mix until smooth.

Grease a cake pan (or add parchment paper) and pour the batter in.

Bake for 45 minutes. Insert a toothpick inside to check if it's done, it must come out clean.

Take the cake out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes before taking it out of the pan and letting it to cool on a grid.

Prep the frosting by whisking the cream cheese and icing sugar until creamy.

Add the spices in and whisk some more.

Set aside in the fridge.

When the cake is completely cold, spread the frosting on top.

Serve !