Walnut Citrus Pound Cake with Creamy Chai Glaze

walnutcitruscake4

 

Bake with Tea India: Walnut Citrus Pound Cake with Creamy Chai Glaze

Over the years I’ve noticed a trend in my kitchen. My oven gets its best use in the winter months around the holidays. South Asian dishes to begin with are mostly stove top simmering, braising, boiling or sautéing and aside from biryanis or a few appetizers – the majority of my everyday dishes don’t require an oven. Now don’t get me wrong, we do enjoy our occasional banana bread and chai cakes around the year for the most part now is generally when I do the bulk of my baking. Having an oven constantly on in the summer makes me over heat just thinking about it and honestly I think it’s mostly due to the numerous cups of hot chai being made in colder days.

walnutcitruscake1

 

I generally don’t bake much with tea but I have baked with common ingredients found in chai, such as cardamom and cinnamon so I wanted to try how Tea India’s Chai Moments would taste in baking, as it’s powdered. The Milk Tea flavor was creamy and light without overpowering the other flavors in the cake. Since I wanted a creamy glaze I opted to use the Milk Tea as replacement for milk and a hint of chai flavor. Chai & cake… whoever said no to that combination?

This Walnut Citrus Pound cake with a Creamy Citrus Chai Glaze is a bright punch of flavor during the dull cold months. It has a bite with the added walnuts and plays up holiday flavors with citrus and vanilla. Originally when I set out to make this recipe I intended to use oranges but as luck would have it, we were out of them and only had Clementines at hand. So I did what any resourceful mom would do… improvise! My little one loves (and I mean loves) Clementines so we always have them at home. If you have oranges you can use them, the recipe is very flexible. The holidays to me are a time for family time, shared recipes and lots of time in the kitchen. This would be a great recipe to get your kids involved in the kitchen while they are on winter break. The ingredients are simple enough for them to gather and there’s no cutting or chopping required. Add this cake to your holiday tea party menu!

 

Tips & Tricks

– This cake freezes great! Once cooled, wrap in plastic wrap and seal in airtight bag. When you’re ready to use it take it out the night before and freshly glaze the day of serving.

– If you like another nut you can add that instead, pistachios, pecans, slivered almonds would all taste great with these ingredients – or you could omit the nuts altogether.

– If you’re feeling adventurous, add in a bit of dried fruit bits, raisins or dried cranberries – I promise you it would beat the boring old fruit cake.

– I used the Milk Tea, Tea India Chai Moments flavour because I wanted a creamy citrus glaze flavour but the Cardamom or Ginger flavours would work wonderfully as well.

 

Glaze

Glaze

Ingredients   

Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 eggs, room temperature

1 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup Clementine (or fresh orange) juice

1/2 tablespoon lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 cup walnuts

Glaze 

1 tablespoon Tea India Chai Moments Milk Tea

Zest of 1 Clementine

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

 

 

Cake

Cake

Method 

Cake  

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat 2-3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Beat in Clementine juice, salt, vanilla and lemon zest. Using spatula, mix in dry ingredients. Mix in yogurt & walnuts. Transfer batter to greased loaf pan (I used mini loaf tins).

Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan. Once cooled, turn out cake & glaze.

Glaze

Whisk together the sugar, chai mix, zest and juice until smooth. If you want a looser consistency add more juice. Let sit 2-3 minutes before glazing cake.

 


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There are 3 comments

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  1. Dale Grove

    Hi Nisha,
    This recipe looks delicious. I have really held off doing much baking because it tends to be me who eats it all but this looks very tempting. I’ve heard a lot about Tea India’s Chai Moments from my friend Raj. This looks like another great way to use them. Thanks for posting this recipe. I will give it a try!
    Dale

  2. Angie Seth

    Hey there Nisha!

    Great article and fantastic innovation with adding India Tea!! I have some of the Tea India Chai Moments at some recent Masalamomma event and they are fantastic! I am not a huge tea drinker, but these I really like!!
    Now to add they in a cake recipe is wonderful! I am certainly going to try this over the holidays – as you said a fun way to bake with the kids, but also a tasty treat for everyone! Thanks again! I look forward to the next recipe!


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