Roopa
My friend Chris was in town today, and we had decided on a baking/squash date weeks ago. We were thoroughly inspired by these amazing tea cakes by sprinklebakes, and originally were going to make them as cupcakes with a cardamom icing. I felt like procrastinating though, so I went and picked up a circle cookie cutter and some fondant. Sooo, tea cakes.
It’s mostly circular!
EARL GREY POPPY SEED TEA CAKES (original recipe here)
INGREDIENTS
- 4 eggs
- 4 Earl Grey tea bags (I used Stash)
- 2 tbsp. poppy seeds
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 cup cake flour, sifted (original recipe used all purpose)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1.5 tbsp. oil
- 2 tbsp. yogurt/ buttermilk
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp. purple gel food colouring
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 11″ X 14″ jelly roll pan with shortening and line with parchment also. Grease parchment paper also.
- Beat eggs with stand mixer until light yellow (at least 5 minutes).
- Whisk together flour, tea from the tea bags, poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.*
- Add sugar, oil, yogurt, vanilla, and food colouring to eggs.
- Slowly add flour mixture to liquid ingredients.
- Pour batter in pan and move around until an even layer has formed.
- Rub icing sugar into a tea towel (to put cake onto after baking).
- Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, or until cake springs back when pressed.
- Turn cake out onto tea towel until cool.
- Cut out cake circles.
*The original recipe calls for mixing the tea and poppy seeds with the granulated sugar, which I would do next time, as the flour sort of clumped together.
This made my house smell amazing.
Not the most even distribution…
Evidence of the lack of even distribution
CARDAMOM ICING
INGREDIENTS
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 14 cardamom pods, open and ground
- 1.5 cups icing sugar
- 1 tbsp. milk/cream
DIRECTIONS
- Beat butter in mixer until creamy.
- Add in salt and vanilla, and mix well.
- Grind cardamom with mortar and pestle, and add to mixer.
- Add in icing sugar and mix thoroughly.
- Add milk/cream as needed until desired texture is met.
Once I made the frosting, I assembled the mini tea cakes. They weren’t the most even, so I added cake scraps as support structures where needed. Normally I level out cakes to get a flat surface, but I didn’t have a lot of real estate to work with. I did a pretty lazy job of it, but using scrap cake pieces works extremely well to even out cakes. Icing alone lacks structural integrity. I stuck them in the fridge while Chris and I went to go play squash, and then attempted the fondant!
I haven’t really worked with fondant a lot before. I actually own quite a few fondant tools! They’re just all in Edmonton. So this was a bit of a dodgy maneuver, but I think it worked out alright given the circumstances and questionably shaped cakes.
Initial icing base coat
Rolling fondant!
Putting Chris to work
More evidence of the uneven distribution and cake supports
Cake!
Chateau Gateau 