This weekend was my friend Ash’s 21st birthday. I have never baked a cake in my life, which I am told is shocking considering I enjoy baking, and thus the plot was formed that I MUST be the one making this cake. Ash found the recipe online and we went and bought all the ingredients. The recipe is as follows
“For the Cake:

• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/3 cup refined sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (if not using salted butter)
• 3 Earl Grey tea bags
• 1 cup Earl Grey milk (optional, can use normal milk)

Directions:

1. If using Earl Grey milk, make about 30 minutes before you plan on starting the cake (see below for directions). It needs time to cool before using in the batter.
2. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 x 8-inch round pans. Tip: Trace the bottom of the pans on a piece of parchment paper and cut out the circle and place in the bottom. This, and greasing, will ensure that the cake will not stick to the bottom and it’ll be very easy to get the cakes out.
3. Start the batter by creaming the butter and sugar together. Then, add one egg at a time and mix in. Then, add the vanilla.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt (if using). Then, add this in increments along with 1 cup of the steeped milk (save the rest for the icing). I did this 3 times by adding the same amount each time to ensure everything keeps it’s consistency.
5. Then, cut open a tea bag and dump the tea leaves into the batter. You can adjust the amount here, depending on the extent you want your cake to taste like tea. Also depends on the size of tea leaves (mine were very small)
6. Then, pour half of the batter into each cake pan, spreading it to reach the sides, and put in the oven. Cook for 32-35 minutes, whenever a toothpick comes out clean. Cook time just depends on how your oven cooks.
7. Take out of oven when done and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pans and then take them out to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Earl Grey Milk (Optional):

Bring a small sauce pan to medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 cups of milk and a tea bag in and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. You can set it in the fridge to speed this process up.”

Here is the link to the recipe: https://www.emsprairiekitchen.com/post/london-fog-cake-with-vanilla-buttercream-icing

I found the process of baking a cake very similar to the process of making muffins, blondies, and brownies, and it was not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. I liked the process of infusing the milk with the earl grey tea because it felt fancy and smelt fantastic, and is something that can be applied to many other recipes to infuse flavor.

I did not make the icing for the cake, because it required intensive whipping. We did the icing a day after the cake, and my shoulder was subluxated, so Ash took that part. I did do the decorating using sprinkles and edible flowers.

The Final Product:

I am very happy with how this turned out. We concurred that the cake was a little overdone but that affects the texture more than anything else. We were all very pleased with how the cake tasted and it fed about 10 people.

What I learned this week, aside from how to make a cake, is that just because an activity seems intimidating doesn’t always mean that it is, especially when you have some of the base skills already.

Part of the reason that I chose baking new things for my project is that it forces me to step outside of my comfort zone, adapt as things come up, and be okay adjusting the recipe or plan for next time if I fail. In many ways, a recipe is much like a lesson. You might have to supplement ingredient’s or switch gears because things are not working, and sometimes it might just fail, and we have to learn to be comfortable with that.