If anyone knows me, they’ll know that I absolutely adore Earl Grey tea. One time I went to Paris, I bought boxes of earl grey and green tea cookies from Mariage Frères, Maison de Thé à Paris. There were so many boxes that when I went to the airport, a flight attendant asked me to put the wheels of my luggage in my bag. When we opened the bag, cookies (and chocolate) spilled out at the check-in counter. I was so embarrassed by my cookie and chocolate hoarding and the crew just laughed at me. (This is not the first time I went to Paris where the crew laughed at a food I took from Paris.)
Since I have had such a kick for blood orange recently and really needed to use them up before they turned bad, I decided to make a cake. I looked around and found various recipes but not the exact one I wanted. I used an old limoncello recipe and converted to for tea and blood orange instead.
It is the perfect cake to bring for a bookclub meeting, mulling books over tea and brunch.
Blood Orange Earl Grey Cake
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup of hot water
- 1 tbsp earl grey leaves
- 5 tbsp blood orange juice
- 1 tsp blood orange zest
Blood Orange Earl Grey Glaze
- 1/2 cup of confection sugar
- 2 tsp earl grey tea brewed
- 2 tsp blood orange juice
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Juice blood orange and zest orange peel.
3. Brew tea with 1/2 cup of hot water. Save leaves, chopped up and set aside.
4. Mix sugar, applesauce, and egg well. The main key here is to beat it well. The more fluffy this gets, the more the cake will rise.
5. Add sifted flour, baking powder, and salt into the wet ingredient.
6. Fold in the blood orange juice, earl grey tea, leaves, and blood orange zest.
7. Bake for 50 minutes.
8. Cool the cake for 10 minutes.
9. For the glaze, cook until the sugar is clear.
Serve hot.
