Chai Tea Apple Cake
Chai Tea Apple Cake, three layers of soft apple spice sponge cake with maple cream cheese frosting, topped with fresh figs, walnuts, and a caramel drizzle.
Servings 12 slices
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 3 Cups Self Rising Flour
- 1 ½ Tbsp Chai Tea (dry ingredients from the bag) ~2.5 tea bags
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar
- ¾ Cup Coconut Oil melted and lightly cooled
- 3 eggs
- ¾ Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups Diced Peeled Granny Smith Apples
- ¾ Cup Fig Filling slice and scrape center out with a spoon *optional
Frosting
- 1 Cup 16 Tbsp Unsalted Butter Softened (Room Temp)
- 16 oz of Cream Cheese softened
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Light Maple Syrup
- 3-4 cups Powdered Sugar
Caramel Drip
- 2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
- ½ Cup Coconut Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Honey
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Topping
- 8 Figs sliced in half
- Chopped Walnuts
Instructions
Cake Batter
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176 C). Grease 3 (6-inch) round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment.
- Whisk together flour, chai tea, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a medium bowl.
- In the bowl of stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat together sugar, eggs, oil, applesauce, and vanilla on medium high.
- Scrape sides and bottom once with spatula to incorporate all ingredients.
- Lower speed and slowly spoon in flour and spice mixture.
- Scrape sides and bottom as needed. Mix until even cake batter forms.
- Fold in apples chunks and fig filling (fig filling optional) with a spatula.
- Divide batter evenly amongst the 3 prepared pans.
- Bake 20 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean with only small crumbs.
- Place pans on wire rack to cool for 10 minytes.
- Invert pans and remove cake layers. Let cool Completely.
- Wrap layers in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 45 min,-1 hr to harden. (Makes slicing dome and frosting much easier)
Make Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- Clean bowl of stand mixer. Using whisk attachment whip butter until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese chunks and cream together until smooth.
- Pour in honey and vanilla, mix on medium low until incorporated.
- Spoon powdered sugar in a cup at a time, mixing until thick white frosting forms.
- Frost and Layer Cake
- Remove layers from freezer.
- Unwrap and Peel the parchment paper from the bottom and set layers face up on counter.
- Take serrated knife and trip the tops of each layer, just enough to create a level surface.
- Grab your cake stand or serving dish and dollup a half dollar size of cream cheese frosting onto the center.
- Place one layer onto cake stand, trimmed side up.
- Spoon and smear a layer of lavender buttercream across the top. Slightly going over the edges.
- Repeat with second layer.
- Add top layer of cake trimmed side down. Cover with maple cream cheese frosting frosting.
- Using an icing spatula fill in open sides with additional frosting.
- Then take a bench scraper in one hand, while holding the cake stand in the other. Gently rotate the cake as you scrape the sides with an angled bench scraper.
- Place cake in refrigerator to set icing before decorating.
Caramel Drip
- Add butter coconut sugar, and honey into a small sauce pan over medium-low heat.
- Stir until sugar dissolves, mixture turns to liquid and starts to bubble.
- Add vanilla extract, continuing to stir.
- (If becomes to thick, add a tsp of milk at a time, but don’t thin it too much. For this recipe I did NOT need any milk added).
- Caramel will thicken as it cools, so make right before decorating.
- Use a spoon or a piping bottle to drip caramel around edges of cake. (See Post for Helpful Tips)
Fig and Walnut Topping
- Sprinkle walnut pieces edges of cake, inside the caramel drip.
- Arrange fig halves in desired pattern.
- Store Cake in the fridge.