earl grey tea cake

We had my dad's friends from Hong Kong stay with us the other week. At first, I was a tad worried; not entirely sure how I'd behave around the two kids they were bring along with them (both teenagers and it seems ever so long since I was a teenager myself!) I'd met them when I was 10 and then more recently last year when I went back to Hong Kong; they seemed pleasant when I met them how can you really know someone when you've met them twice (or once really considering I can't remember all that much about the time I was 10). In hindsight, I hardly had to worry. Two sentences or so into our conversation when they stepped in through the door, it turns out that both are keen bakers and were keen for me to teach them how to bake. Unfortunately, they don't get much of a chance to learn in Hong Kong as most houses are too small for the kitchen to house an oven so they were eager to spend every possible moment in Sydney to do some baking.

A selection of books off my bookshelf which I got the two to flick through and pick things they wanted to bake.

There were a number of recipes marked up but this was one we all agreed on - an Earl Grey Tea Cake from Keiko Ishida's  'Okashi - Sweet treats made with love'. This is the fourth recipe I've made from the book and I really think it's a nice book to have on your bookshelf - all the recipes are tempting to make and on days when you can't be bothered getting into the kitchen, it's one to kick back and flick through.

Since making this loaf, I've been quite the earl grey tea addict!

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Grease and line a loaf tin. Make sugar syrup by combining 50g caster sugar and 100g water. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together 150g softened unsalted butter, 150g sifted icing sugar and 15g glucose. Gradually add 3 eggs and beat well, add a pinch of salt, 5g earl grey tea dust, 15g ground almonds, zest of 1 whole lemon and 1 tbsp milk. Mix well. Sift to the mix 150g sifted plain flour and 1/8 tsp baking powder, fold together. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for roughly 50 minutes. When the cake is done, remove from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool Whilst the cake is still warm, brush with the sugar syrup and cool completely before serving. Makes one loaf.

And let me just say, I chose to ignore the last part of the recipe about letting the cake cool down first and dug into it straight away. Better that I did because the loaf was gone by the next day! For those interested in making this recipe, I used Twinings tea bags ( I really think Twinings make the best tea, it's inexpensive too!) It's a little odd with the glucose syrup in the recipe (as mostly you come across glucose when making fondant for cake decorating) but whatever it does to the recipe, it does a good job. By the way, don't bother being exact about measuring the glucose because it'll take you forever to get it out of the jar. A big dollop with a hot spoon will do the trick!