Earl Grey Tea Cake

Too pink?

This morning I was having a cup of earl grey and thought of using earl grey in baking. Not long ago i saw this gorgeous looking earl grey tea cake with rhubarb cream cheese glaze (sounds so yummy) over at Raspberri Cupcakes blog. Did i mention that i love earl grey? Yes i love earl grey for its unique, intoxicating bergamot aroma. I bookmarked it hoping to try the recipe one day...and today was the day! Plus no work today - self declared Bake Day!

See recipe here.

Experimenting-

I looked into the pantry and saw a packet of wholemeal self-raising flour (i was curious to try it in baking so bought it) and thought, why not i replace white self-raising flour with the wholemeal. Then i saw a packet of brown sugar tucked away at the back and same thought, why not use brown sugar instead of caster sugar. And i used soy milk instead of full cream milk (next to each other in the fridge). I was curious to see if these ingredients would make a difference to the cake.

Also, i didn't have rhubarb so i used food colouring instead. I put too much and ended up way too pink! (reminded me of Masterchef when Billy made his pink icing too pink! haha!) so i had to pour more icing sugar to somehow make it lighter in colour... (and i used Merle's icing technique Oh she's just too cute!)

Icing¾ cup icing sugar

5g butter

1 tablespoon boiling water

And the cake turned out very good. Soft & moist, with a *faint hint of earl grey taste. *maybe due to the flu, my tastebuds not working so well. I made a cup of earl grey tea to go with a slice of the cake. Very comforting & i was tempted to have another slice!

More cake photos over at my Flickr.

ps: I am nursing my cold/flu with lots of lozenges, warm honey lemon drink, Panadol & Sudafed...just hoping this will pass soon! Thanks again for your concern! Have a lovely weekend ahead!