Earl Grey Cake With Chocolate Lavender Frosting Recipe 465

Steps:

• Add milk to a small saucepan. Split the vanilla beans, scrape the seeds into the milk, and add the scraped pod to the saucepan, as well. Bring the milk to a simmer over medium low heat. Remove pan from heat and add tea bags. Cover the pan and let steep for 20 minutes. Remove tea bags, squeezing them to get as much liquid back into the milk. Remove vanilla bean pod. Pour milk into a measuring cup and make sure you still have 1 cup of milk. If the liquid has reduced, add a bit more milk so you have a full cup. Let the tea milk cool to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush Cake Magic onto the bottoms and sides of two 8-inch cake pans. (Alternately, grease and flour the cake pans.) In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, ground tea leaves, and salt, then set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-6 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until fully incorporated after each addition, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. If using, add the Bergamot extract. Pour in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the tea milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until the final bit of flour is just combined. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake layers in their pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then carefully turn the cake layers out to cool completely directly on the wire racks. Make the Frosting: In a large saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. Add the lavender, cover, and remove from heat. Let steep for 20 minutes. Strain out the lavender. Return the milk to a simmer over low heat. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, egg and yolk. Slowly pour about half of the milk into the egg mixture to loosen it up, whisking constantly with your free hand. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk, whisking constantly, until combined. Turn burner up to medium heat and whisk until the mixture thickens and bubbles start blipping up to the surface. Cook for another minute, timing accurately. The mixture will get quite thick. Transfer the custard to a large mixing bowl (preferably the bowl of your stand mixer if you have one, because you'll be whipping it up in there later). Press plastic wrap against the surface of the custard and chill in the refrigerator until room temperature, about 2 hours. (You can also chill it overnight; it's okay if it gets cold.) Place the bowl of cooled custard onto your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip on medium high speed until smooth and creamy. Begin adding butter, a few slices at a time. Add the salt and continue to whip until all the butter has been incorporated. Switch the paddle attachment and beat for a few more minutes, until the frosting is silky. Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 10-20 second intervals, stirring after each, until the chocolate is all melted. Pour the melted chocolate into the frosting and beat until combined and uniform, scraping down the side of the bowl a few times to make sure everything is incorporated. Use the frosting immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. (After refrigeration, the frosting will need to come to room temperature and be whipped again for several minutes until it gets smooth.) Assemble the cake: If necessary, level your cake layers with a serrated knife. Place one cake layer on a cake circle or plate. Add about a cup of frosting to the top of the cake layer and spread evenly over the surface with an offset spatula. Place the second cake layer on top, wiggling it around so the top is level. Work the remaining frosting over the top and down the sides of the cake with your offset spatula. To get the lines like I have on my cake, place your offset spatula on the frosting at a slight angle, apply light pressure, and spin the cake on a cake turntable, working the offset spatula in an upward spiral until you reach the top. Garnish with fresh or dried lavender, if desired

Steps:

• Prepare the frosting: In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 cup/120 milliliters heavy cream to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir in the tea, remove from the heat, cover and let stand for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. Strain the tea through a fine-mesh sieve, discarding the solids, and chill the remaining cream until completely cold, at least 1 hour.
• Prepare the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan and line with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, tea, baking powder and salt.
• In large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the orange zest and beat to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the flour mixture on low, until just combined, then beat in the milk. (Don't overmix.) Add the chocolate and fold it in using a spatula. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake just until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool for about 15 minutes. Then tip the cake out onto the rack to cool completely.
• To finish the frosting, add the remaining 1/4 cup/60 milliliters cream and the confectioners' sugar to the tea cream. With an electric mixer on medium, beat the cream mixture until medium-stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the mascarpone and beat just until stiff peaks form. (Do not overmix.) Top the cake with the frosting to serve. Store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days; let come to room temperature before serving.