Vegan London Fog Tea Cake

I’m a coffee person but if I’m going to have a tea it will usually be Earl Grey or a London Fog latte. I got to thinking how the taste of that robustly flavored black tea drink might work in a tea loaf cake. It’s floral and citrusy notes seemed like it would be a great flavor profile for a dessert so I got to work to make a simple loaf cake with perfect texture and flavor and totally vegan!

What do I need to make it?

While the ingredients are pretty standard for a loaf cake, there are a few special ingredients you’ll need to make this cake.

• Earl Grey black tea. You can use bagged tea or loose leaf but you’ll need to process it to get it to a fine texture.
  
• Vegan yogurt or sour cream. Both work well here just use a thicker style vegan yogurt or a thinner style vegan sour cream. If I have sour cream that’s too thick, I will often thin it out with a bit of plain vegan milk or cream to the right consistency.
  
• Orange juice and zest. You can use bottled juice but fresh orange zest makes the cake sing. You could use orange extract instead but fresh is best. Lemon zest and juice can also be substituted if need be but orange is my preference.

This cake can be made in a loaf pan but could be made in a square baking pan or even as muffins or cupcakes. It’s has a rich thick simple glaze and I also added a few decorative pinches or tea leaves for an added flourish but it’s not necessary. This cake also uses the reverse creaming method I often use in my recipes. More about that after the jump.

What is reverse creaming?

Reverse creaming refers to the method of combining ingredients in this recipe. Normally, sugar is creamed with the fat and other wet ingredients first, then the dry ingredients are added afterwards. In the reverse creaming method, the dry ingredients are mixed together first with the fat in the recipe to coat them making them harder to form gluten strands which often makes cakes tough. The rest of the wet ingredients are then added and the beauty of this method is that you don’t have to be as gentle with the batter as you won’t be able to easily form gluten after the flour has been coated with fat. This is a great mixing method for novice bakers or kids. Cakes can often be intimidating to some to make as if you over mix the batter (and it’s hard for some to know the correct texture if you’re inexperienced) the cake doesn’t rise as well and the bake is tough.

I hope you enjoy this delicious cake. It’s perfect for tea lovers and great on a rainy day when you’re dreaming of the misty streets on London. Don’t forget to rate and review if you try it guv’ner!

Vegan London Fog Tea Cake

Recipe by Kreg

4.6 from 7 votes

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

A delicious and easy loaf cake infused with the flavors of Earl Grey tea, vibrant citrus and milk but vegan!

Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• Sugar Mixture

• 1 1/4 cups vegan cane sugar

• 2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea (from 5-6 bags)

• 1 teaspoon orange zest (or 1/2 teaspoon orange extract- see notes)

• Wet Ingredients

• 3/4 cup vegan sour cream plain or vanilla vegan yogurt (use your favorite)

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1/3 cup orange juice

• 1/3 cup vegan milk (use your favorite)

• Glaze

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

• 1-2 tablespoons vegan milk or cream

• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest or extract

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour an 8 or 9 inch loaf pan. I use vegan butter or shortening and then add about a tablespoon of flour, roll it around to evenly distribute and tap out the excess.
• In a small or large food processor, add the cane sugar, tea and orange zest and pulse until combined and you have small flecks of tea. You don’t want large pieces of the tea leaves and depending on the bags or loose tea you use, that could be possible. If your tea is finely ground to begin with, you can skip this step and just mix the sugar, tea and zest together.
• In a large mixing bowl, add all of the dry ingredients and whisk well to combine. Add the sugar mixture and whisk again to mix well. Add the vegan sour cream or yogurt and vegetable oil and mix well coating all of the flour mixture until no dry bits are left. It will be very clumpy and that’s correct. Add the orange juice and vegan milk and stir until fully combined. Because we’re using this “reverse creaming” method, you won’t be able to develop gluten strands as we’ve coated the flour first with fat. This means it would be very hard to over-mix the batter. Often you have to be careful with quick bread mixing so don’t go crazy, but mix well.
• Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and tap the pan on the counter firmly a few times to even out the batter and remove any large air bubbles. Bake for anywhere from 45 to 55 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean and the top springs back when touched. All ovens vary and convection heat will often cook faster as well. Cool for about 15 minutes then loosen the edges with a dull knife all around the cake and flip out onto a baking rack to cool completely before glazing.
• Make the glaze by whisking all of the ingredients together in a bowl. You want the glaze to drip and slowly dissolve into the rest of the icing. You don’t want it too thin or too thick. It should drip down the edges of the loaf cake slightly. Using a spoon, smooth the icing all over the cake. Sprinkle with more tea if desired or zest. You can refrigerate or freeze leftovers.

Recipe Video

Notes

• You can orange or lemon zest for this cake. Orange is sweeter and preferred but lemon will work. If you don’t have zest from fresh fruit then you can use extract but fresh is best.
  
• Use a good quality Earl Grey tea. If you really love the flavor of tea, use a bit more than two tablespoons but I found that to be the sweet spot for me.

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