The Chai Life

Who needs the voice of reason, when you can have the voice of cake?

Yes, I could talk to you about how scary it was to get a text from my college daughter last night about the lockdown and shootings at Virginia Tech, where she goes to school. I could rage for a few paragraphs about the cruel stupidity of burning books or legislating how Black history can be taught. I could give you a long essay about how the phrase “thoughts and prayers” makes me boil; how hearing fellow parents panic about their kids during the lockdown irritates the heck out of me, because I know many of them are against common sense gun laws.

But I also know we need a break. Instead of being the voice of rage, or even the voice of reason, I will be The Voice of Cake.

Chai streusel fixin’s

Wonderful Human Wajahat Ali came on my Secret Life of Cookies podcast this week. Ali and his must-read new book, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Advice on Becoming American, were the inspiration behind this week’s recipe: Chai Streusel Cake, where buttery cake is layered with streusel made with pistachios, almonds, coconut and spices frequently used in chai. The cake is glazed with a creamy chai-infused icing—the black tea and spice add a cozy, comforting flavor.

You can make cookies with the streusel! See below.

You’ll need to find yourself a source of quality chai and check to make sure your spices are fresh (over one year in your cupboard and they began to lose their pizzazz). Feel free to bump up the amounts of spice in the streusel by a 1/2 teaspoon or two. I kept it on the calmer side for general consumption.) Also, if you’re patient you’ll infuse the cream for the glaze a day in advance.

Here we are, two layers in.

Chai Streusel Cake

Ingredients

For the chai glaze:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon loose (not brewed) masala chai

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

For the chai streusel:

(Note: All spice measurements are “heaping,” because I want the spice to really stand out. Adjust to your own tastes.

1 cup salted, roasted pistachios

1/2 cup slivered almonds

4 ounces (1 stick) cold butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (alt: 1/2 tsp allspice)

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoon ground cardamom (feel free to bump the amount up)

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

For the cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract (optional)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

What You’ll Do:

Make the glaze:

(Do this step at least 3 hours in advance, or preferably longer to give the cream time to steep and chill.)

1. In a small saucepan over a low heat, bring the heavy cream and chai mix to a boil. Let cool in the pan until warm, then decant to a lidded container and let chill in the refrigerator until ready to use (do not strain).

When ready to make the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour (I use Wondra flour) a bundt pan, or spray with Baker’s Joy.

2. Put all the ingredients for the streusel, in the bowl of a food processor, except the coconut. Pulse, stopping once or twice to scrape the bowl, until the mixture is blended and resembles wet sand. Put the mixture in a small bowl and stir in the coconut. Set aside.

3. Using a hand or stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, lemon extract and vanilla extract on medium high speed until light and fluffy, at least 2 minutes, stopping once or twice to…yes, repeat with me: scrape the bowl.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. (Scrape, scrape, scrape.) Add the sour cream and mix on low until just blended. Fold the flour mixture in by hand.

5. Mentally divide the batter into 3 sections. Place one-third of the mixture into the pan and smooth out. Place streusel mixture on top of that, and repeat the layering, smoothing each addition as you go. (If you find yourself with leftover streusel, which you may, considering how streusel-y you like your cake…see below for a cookie recipe.)

6. Bake in a preheated oven for 50 minutes. It’s done with a toothpick poked into the center of the cake comes out clean. This cake can go from not-quite-ready to overcooked quite quickly, so this is not the time to get engrossed in Wordle.

7. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then invert the bundt pan and let it sit, without removing the pan for another 10 minutes. If you’ve done a good job of greasing and flouring the pan, it should lift off no problem. There’s glaze if it doesn’t work out, fear not!

8. When the cake is cool, it’s time to make the glaze. Strain the loose tea out of the cream. Put the powdered sugar in small bowl, whisk in the cream tablespoon-by-tablespoon until the glaze just becomes runny enough to fall slowly off a spoon. If it’s too thick, add more cream. If it’s not thick enough, add more powdered sugar. Pour the glaze over the cake. Enjoy!

Exciting and Tasty Alternatives:

Chai Life Cookies

If you have leftover streusel (say, if you hold back about half): Add 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and beat until well incorporated. You will have a wet dough. Shape into 1-inch balls and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool. Glaze if desired.

If you are making streusel just to make cookies: Make the streusel recipe according to my directions above. Add two eggs and a 1 teaspoon of baking soda and beat until well incorporated. You will have a wet dough. Shape into 1-inch balls and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool. Glaze if desired.

Chai Nut Cake:

This recipe is a result of A Very Clever Me putting the cake into the oven and 5 minutes later realizing the reason the batter looked so wet and curdled was I’d forgotten to add the flour. I grabbed the pan from the oven, dumped the mess into a large bowl and added the flour mixture by hand. I poured the batter into a 13 x 9-inch buttered and floured baking pan and baked for about 35 minutes. It’s a very lovely alternative. However, if you decide to do it this way, only use 1 1/2 cups of flour for the cake portion of the recipe to really make it sing. It would also make a beautiful 3-layer cake with 8-inch cake pans.

I hope you’ll give this a try. Maybe tune into the latest Secret Life of Cookies episode, listen to Wajahat and I chatter about the world, life as an outsider and the truth about the current bunch of Republicans in Congress and pistachios. One is nuttier than the other.

I hope you enjoyed the recipe and newsletter today. If you are able to support my work as a paid subscriber, I would be very grateful. And if you’re unable to contribute monetary support, it would be helpful if you could tweet/share/tell friends about the newsletter and encourage them to subscribe.

Bosco, Calvin, Clyde and I thank you.

What shall we bake for Valentine’s Day? Let me know below!