At home all of us are such a big fan of masala chai that my 14 month old baby asks for tea after every meal. He gets his little toy cup and toy kettle and I have to pour 2-3 drops of tea into his milk. He sits and sips it slowly like his grandfather.

And then I saw this cake in The Big Book of Treats by Pooja Dhingra. What a wonderful idea to incorporate masala chai flavours into cake. We have pots of lemongrass and basil in the window and use it regularly while brewing tea. So I added it to this cake and the frosting has basil seeds and flowers. Straight from the plant. It gives the cake a very refreshing taste. Something familiar and yet decadent.

Presenting The Masala Chai cake :

Ingredients

• 150 gram maida
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 100 gram Amul butter – at room temperature
• 200 gram castor sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 80 ml chai – freshly brewed without sugar and milk
• Basil leaves and lemon grass while brewing tea

For the frosting :

• 100 gram butter
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 225 gram icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Few basil (tulsi) flowers for decoration

What to do :

1. Whisk the maida and baking powder together and sift it.
2. In another bowl whisk butter and add sugar and vanilla essence.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating it well into the mixture.
4. Add the brewed chai to the batter, mix well.
5. Then fold in the flour mixture with a spatula.
6. Preheat oven to 170 for 5 minutes.
7. Line a muffin pan with paper cups. Fill it with the batter.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes till a skewer inserted in the centre comes clean.
9. To make the frosting, cream butter and then add all the ingredients together and whisk well till it forms a smooth icing. Fill it in a piping bag with nozzle of your choice.
10. Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe the frosting on the cupcakes. Decorate with basil flower stems.

Notes :

1. The same batter can also be used to make cupcakes. It yields 12 cupcakes. And two small loaves.
2. Basil flowers are totally edible and definitely use them if you can. The regular tulsi flowers can also be used.
3. The crumb of this cake is very soft and melts in the mouth. the trick is to use room temperature butter and eggs.
4. It can be stored for 5 days without frosting and upto a week further in the fridge.

Edited to add on 17 May 16′ : In a hurry to bake the cake, I added hot tea to the eggs, and part of it caramelised to sticky toffee like structure. Not very pleasant. Note – Always add cooled tea.