Ingredients
For the Tea
350ml Whole Milk
8 Cardamom pods, crushed
3 Peppercorns
1/2 Cinnamon Stick
2 or 3 Slices fresh root ginger
2 Strong tea bags
For the Cake
170g Unsalted Butter, diced
20 Green Cardamom pods
230g Golden Syrup
230g Dark Muscavado Sugar
280g Self raising Flour
2tsp Ground Ginger
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 Eggs lightly beaten
For the Frosting
150g Unsalted Butter
150g Icing Sugar
1-2tsp vanilla essence
Optional
red chillies to decorate
Preparation
First Up we need to make the chai tea.
Place the milk in a pan and add the cardamom pods, peppercorns, cinnamon and ginger. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered gently for 10-15 minutes. Once the milk has reduced by around half add in the tea bags and stew for around 2-3 minutes. This needs to be a strong chai tea in order for the flavour to come through in the cake. Remove the tea bags and set aside to cool. Once cool strain and add more milk to bring up to 200ml. Preheat your oven to 170°C/Fan 160°C/340°F/Gas Mark 3.5. Butter a square 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper. At this point you will want to prepare the cardamom pods for the cake. To do this we need to carefully deseed them setting the seeds aside and discarding the outer shells. Then using a mortar and pestle grind the seeds into a powder; sift the powder to extract and husks. Set aside for use in a moment. In a pan melt the golden syrup, butter and sugar. Give this a good mix and set aside to cool a little. In a large bowl sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and salt. Stir in the cooled syrup mixture, the eggs and lastly gradually pour in the 200ml of chai tea. Stir gently until well mixed and then pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes (until a knife inserted into the cake emerges clean). rest in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. leave until cold if icing. For the frosting; cream together the butter and the icing sugar for 5-6 minutes until light and fluffy. Slowly add the vanilla essence and mix well. Spread over the now cooled cake, transfer to a cake stand and decorate if required.
