Lemon Jasmine Tea Cake with Hibiscus Meringue Frosting
With Spring in the air, those cold mornings and pretty blooms everywhere, I was inspired to make a “flower” cake. The idea and flavors came to my mind as I was on my walk around the neighborhood and there were so many pretty cherry blossom trees and various spring flowers around.
INGREDIENTS OF THE CAKE:
The cake is essentially a lemon cake, subtly infused with jasmine green tea. Here are the ingredients of the cake itself:
- All-purpose flour: My favorite go-to all-purpose flour is Bob’s Red Mill Flour.
- Baking powder: Baking powder helps with the fluffiness of the cake.
- Baking soda: Baking soda along with an acid, in this case lemon, adds to the rising of the cake, and makes it soft and light.
- Salt: Salt is always added to baked goods, to balance out the sweetness.
- Unsalted butter: We use unsalted butter so that we can control the amount of salt.
- Jasmine Green Tea: I use Numi loose leaf Jasmine Green Tea, my absolute favorite brand.
- Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar is added in this lemon cake to give it the perfect sweetness.
- Lemon Juice and zest: This is a lemon cake and juice and zest makes the cake perfectly lemony.
- Eggs: Eggs bind the cake as well as give volume and body to the cake.
- Vanilla extract: I always add a good amount of vanilla extract to the cake, because it adds a beautiful vanilla note to the cake.
- Cream cheese: is added to the cake to make the cake melt in your mouth delicious!
- Neutral Oil: This is a small quantity of oil, it helps to make the cake moist.
HOW DO I INFUSE JASMINE GREEN TEA IN THE CAKE?
Once the butter is melted in the microwave, I immediately add the jasmine green tea in it, and let it steep for a few minutes. This infuses the butter with the tea flavor and is well balanced when added with the lemon cake.
ONE BOWL RECIPE
This cake is a one bowl recipe. The sugar (that is rubbed with the lemon zest) and eggs are whisked together first unlike butter and sugar, which is common in most cake recipes. The sugar and eggs are whisked vigorously, until you get a ribbon like texture, which indicates that that mixture is airy and light.
We add the other wet ingredients such as vanilla extract and lemon juice to the batter. We then add the cream cheese and whisk until it is smooth. Next we add the dry ingredients to the mixture and mix until just combined.
Finally we add the infused butter and oil mixture to the batter and fold it in. The batter is added to a greased 8 inch cake pan and baked for 25 to 30 minutes until the cake tester comes out clean.
HIBISCUS MERINGUE FROSTING
The ingredients of the hibiscus meringue frosting are:
- Dried Hibiscus: This is essentially hibiscus flowers that have been dried. You can get them at Amazon.
- Water: Hot water is used to steep the dried hibiscus and extract the color and flavor.
- Granulated Sugar: This is used to make the hot syrup used to make the Italian meringue.
- Egg whites: I use room temperature egg whites to make the Italian meringue.
- Cream of tartar: is used to stabilize the frosting.
I love the color and flavor that hibiscus imparts to any baked goods or in this case frosting. Hibiscus is essentially a flower, a very pretty flower. It is dried out and it imparts a tart, very floral flavor to whatever it is added to.
In this case, we add hibiscus to hot water and steep it. Next we use the water along with sugar and bring it to 240 degrees Celsius. This is to make the Italian Meringue, which will be used as frosting for the cake. The hot syrup is added to whipped egg whites that are stabilized with cream of tartar.
The mixture is whipped until it forms stiff peaks. The frosting is added to a piping bag and using a petal tip, that creates pretty petals on the cake, I used it to form a flower pattern on the cake. I put a bit of sprinkles in the middle for aesthetics.
The cake cuts through SO well, is super soft and is a perfect accompaniment with some jasmine green tea.
I love this cake so much, and I honestly could not stop myself at one slice. It is spring, the perfect cake to make for friends and family, or to take to a spring brunch party.
Hope you get a chance to make it. If you do make it, please do not forget to tag #thejamlab on Instagram and/or leave a comment on this blog post.
Happy Spring!
XO
Amisha
Lemon Jasmine Tea Cake with Hibiscus Meringue Frosting
Ingredients
- Serves 8 to 10
- Lemon Jasmine Tea Cake:
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons jasmine green tea
- 1 ⅓ cups (180 grams) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ¾ cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
- Lemon zest of 2 lemons
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil
- Hibiscus Meringue Frosting:
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 tablespoons dried hibiscus
- 2 egg whites
- A pinch of cream of tartar
- A drop of pink food gel (if the hibiscus color is not strong enough)
- 1 12 inch piping bag
- Wilton #104 Petal piping tip
Instructions
- Lemon Jasmine Tea Cake:
- In a bowl, add the butter, and melt it in the microwave, three times, in 30 second increments. Add the jasmine green tea, and let it steep for 10-15 minutes. Strain the mixture via a strainer, and press on the tea using a rubber spatula to extract all the butter. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, combine the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, whisk to combine.
- In a large bowl, add the granulated sugar and lemon zest, mix it together with your hands. Add the eggs. Whisk vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes until light, frothy and pale yellow in color.
- Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
- Whip the cream cheese in a small bowl with a rubber spatula to soften, add it to the egg mixture, and whisk until incorporated.
- Add the dry mixture and mix to just combine.
- Add the butter and the oil and using the rubber spatula, fold it in until well incorporated.
- Add the batter into an 8 inch cake tin pan, that has been greased and lined with parchment paper.
- Using an offset spatula, smoothen out the batter.
- Place in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake tester comes out clean.
- Let the cake rest for 15-20 minutes. Remove and rest on a wire rack, to cool completely.
- Hibiscus Meringue Frosting:
- In a small saucepan, over medium to high heat, add the water and dried hibiscus. Bring to a boil, about one minute. Switch off the gas, cover the saucepan, and steep for 5 minutes. Strain the mixture to get ¼ cup of hibiscus tea.
- In the same saucepan, over medium to high heat, combine the hibiscus tea and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cook until the hibiscus syrup reaches a temperature of 240 degrees. Switch off the gas.
- Meanwhile, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk. Whisk the egg whites on medium speed, until they are foamy and start forming soft peaks. It takes about 2 minutes.
- Next add the hibiscus syrup into the mixture, while the mixer is running on high speed. Whisk until you get stiff peaks. Add a drop of pink gel for a pretty pink color and whisk again until combined, if the color of the frosting is not pale pink enough.
- Assembly:
- Add the mixture into a 12 inch piping bag fitted with the petal piping tip. Starting in the center, pipe about 3 to 5 petals to form a flower in the center. Repeat the petal formation around the center flower, to form a ring of petals around. Repeat for each rim to form a flower petal rim, going all the way to the edge of the cake.
- Add a bit of pink sprinkles or yellow sprinkles in the center of the cake.
- The cake is ready to serve immediately!
- The cake is best eaten at room temperature. Store in the fridge for upto 2-3 days. Remove half an hour prior to eating, to bring it to room temperature.
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