Earl Grey Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
Celebrate any occasion with this Earl Grey Cake with vanilla bean buttercream and filled with zesty lemon curd! The light Earl Grey flavor infused in the cake pairs beautifully with a delicate frosting.
Dish Count :: 1 Mixer, 1 Mixing Bowl, 1 6-inch Cake Pan
The secret is, I used to teach cake decorating. It was how I saved up money to pay for my own wedding, and it gave me great joy – along with a lot of added stress, when I would run home to walk the dog after a long day, just to pack up my car, mixer and everything else to teach evening lessons at my local crafts store. I took pride in it. And finding new flavor pairings continues to be one of my favorite things. This Earl Grey Cake with vanilla bean buttercream is a dream combination for those who love delicate flavors.
How to Add Tea to Cake
I love tea, and not just in a cup. Infusing your cakes with tea, like with this Earl Grey cake with vanilla bean buttercream, is a really simple way to add a new and delicate flavor to your baked goods. There are two easy ways to do it.
One is to add dried herbs directly to the batter itself as you mix the batter together. The downside is that your cake, or whatever your baked good of choice, is that it will have leaves in it. In cookies or other things it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker! But in a cake, my preference is steeping tea before hand!
I chose to heat up the milk and liquid required for this cake, and steep the tea ahead of time in that before making the final batter. That infused the Earl Grey flavor without needing tea leaves in my batter. Be sure to fully cool the liquid prior to making the batter, so that hot tea doesn’t curdle the eggs.
I chose to use a simple airy whipped vanilla bean buttercream recipe for this cake, as it is also an equally delicate flavor that pairs well with the herby floral flavor of Earl Grey tea. Lemon is a common addition to tea, and a light lemon flavor in your buttercream would also be delightful in this Earl Grey cake.
More Tea and Cake Recipes!
Banana Cake with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream
Pear Almond Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream
Pear Chocolate Cream Cheese Danishes
I’ve known Christina for nearly four years now – having met through our blogs, bonded over our mutual love of wheat, and the men (and women) who grow it, study it and thrive on it – herself included! – and of course our love of whiskey, and carbs. I couldn’t think of a more fitting baked tribute to a woman bringing in a new chapter to her life story.
Christina, we are so excited to see the new chapters unfold and welcome your new bundle of joy into this world. Congratulations again and again!
We hope this was a bit of a surprise – because 19 bloggers who live their lives on the internet managing to keep a secret is a feat in itself! Go us!
Gather all of these other creations to help us celebrate in style!
Fizzy Grapefruit Margaritas from Well Plated
Earl Grey Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream from
Country Cleaver
Mini Bourbon and Bacon Tater Tot Casseroles from
Climbing Grier Mountain
Maple-Chia
Overnight Oatmeal from Feed Me Phoebe
Lemon Cake for Two from Keep It Sweet Desserts
Mini Raspberry Pavlovas from The Baker Chick
Almond Berry Cake Parfaits for Two from Edible
Perspective
Peanut Butter Bourbon Blondies from The Frosted Vegan
Mixed Berry Mascarpone Scones from Bluebonnet Baker
Greek Yogurt Funfetti Cupcakes for Two from The
Housewife in Training Files
Bourbon Barbeque Sliders with Bleu Cheese from Saucy
Pear
Steak Fajita Tacos for Two from The Sweetphi Blog
Mango Madeleines from Stetted
Citrus Salad with Mint, Honey, and Lime from Rachel
Cooks
Parfaits for Two from Order in the Kitchen
Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse with Coconut Whipped
Cream from Joyful Healthy Eats
French Breakfast Puffs from Stephie Cooks
Blueberry Vanilla Cream Hand Pies from Eats Well With
Others
Banana Pudding Cheesecake from The Domestic Rebel
Print
Earl Grey Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- Prep Time: 30 Minutes
- Cook Time: 30 Minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Cake
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: British
Ingredients
For Earl Grey Cake:
- 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Cake Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Milk, heated to steaming
- 2 Earl Grey Tea Bags
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- 1 1/2 cups Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extra
- 1/2 Vanilla Bean, scraped of seeds
- Pinch of Salt
Filling
- 1/2 cup Lemon Curd (jarred, can be found in jam aisle)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a six inch cake pan, and line with parchment paper. In mixing bowl, slowly together flour and cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a cup steep the heated milk with the earl grey tea bags to infuse the flavors. When steeped, discard the tea bags. To the steeped milk, add in the vanilla extract.
- In the bowl of the stand mixer, beat to combine the sugar and butter. Beat until light and fluffy, about one minute. If the butter is cool, this will take longer. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well.
- Add in the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk, mixing at a low speed. Scrape the bowl and mix until everything is just combined.
- Let the batter rest for about 15 minutes prior to putting into the cake pans.
- Fill the cake pan 2/3 of the way. Level with an offset spatula. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Check at 25 minutes.
- Let the cake rest in the pan for 5 minutes, before removing from pan and letting cool on wire rack.
- Prepare second layer and bake remaining cake.
For Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy, and slapping the sides of the mixer.
- Add one cup of sugar at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. When all the sugar is added in, be sure to add in the vanilla and salt.
- Beat the frosting on medium high for about five minutes until light and fluffy. The frosting will increase in volume and become airy.
- Use on cake when the cake cools completely.
To assemble cake:
- Outfit a piping back with a round piping tip (#12).
- Level cake layers. Set one cake layer on cake stand.
- Pipe a ring around the top edge of cake layer. Fill ring with lemon curd. Set other leveled cake layer on top.
- Top cake with remaining Frosting and smooth frosting over the rest of the cake. Pipe rings around the top and bottom edge of the cake. Pipe a ring around the top of the cake, and fill with any remaining lemon curd.
- Slice cake and eat.
Keywords: Cake, Earl Grey, Tea, Vanilla, Buttercream, Frosting
What a classy girl of a cake! Perfect for a baby shower!
What an elegent cake!
Megan! What are you girls up to?! Omg thank you SO much! For your sweet words, and this cake! It’s my dream cake! You know I love Earl Grey, and mini cakes! Love ya!
GURL! This is fabulous. So classy. What a perfect way to celebrate Christina and her new addition! Glad you dusted off the spatula’s for this one!
This is so so gorgeous! As a baker, I’ve always struggled with decorating cakes, so I’ll trade you some blondies for cake decorating lessons, deal? 🙂
All day I dream about cake, especially when buttercream is involved! So pretty!
Wow, this cake is absolutely beautiful, I love that you shared how you used to do cake decorating classes…it clearly shows in that frosted cake perfection! Love the flavor combination you made too! I’m going to a tea themed party next month and am totally going to be making this!
Oh wow, this cake is just stunning!!! I can imagine that doing this all day every day would become a chore, I get fed up when I have to make some great big birthday creation (usually for my brother) it just takes so long. But yay for this cake, it’s beautiful! Doing the odd cake decorating can be fun!
This cake is just so beautiful! Not surprising that you used to teach decorating. Would love a lesson;-)
Oh the things I’d do for a HUGE slice of this cake right now! Looks AMAZING, Megan!!
Lovely presentation! Your cake decorating skills are insane 🙂 Love the lemon curd, too and all the pretty pastel colors in your photos.
This cake is positively darling! Amazing flavors and such an adorable size! Loved doing this virtual shower!
Such a gorgeous cake and absolutely perfect for a shower Megan! I kinda wish we had this shower in person so I could chow down on this cake!
What a glorious looking cake. I have never made a cake anywhere near as beautiful. I love the Earl Grey ingredient. Again gorgeous cake!!!!
I don’t normally talk about ME, but please make note of the slight name change from Wild Goose Tea. New web design—whoopee and am new features along the way.
This cake is beautiful, and it looks so delicious. I’d much prefer to consume my afternoon tea in cake form. Love it!
This is such a stunner!! Totally crushing on this flavour combo!
Stunning photos of an absolutely stunning cake!
Such a gorgeous cake! You still got it, girl! 🙂
I can’t think of a better cake. Earl Grey tea, lemon curd, and cake rolled into one. Wow! I am new to baking I have a question, at the bottom of the cake part it says to prepare 2nd layer and bake so will I need to make the cake recipe twice for this? Thanks for your help.
You had me at lemon curd! This cake is absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to enjoy it with a large steaming mug of tea.
Such a beautiful and important point about doing the things we love, just for the sake of them! This cake is lovely, and I want that buttercream on everything.
How lovely is this cake! I think it fits Christina’s adorable self to a tee. Also, what a great idea for raising money for your wedding…I wish I had thought of that!
I’m pretty obsessed with anything Earl Grey + dessert. This cake is so cute (and who knew you decorated them and taught classes!!!) and I want a slice right now. I’m almost tempted to have another kid in the hopes you’ll make this for me. Almost.
This cake is gorgeous! I’m making it for our next special occasion!
I just took these out of the oven and they taste wonderful! The only trouble I had was it took almost an hour for the cake to fully bake in the oven!! I got very worried, and the top came out very burnt, but in the end, the cake was delicious, and seeing as I chopped off the top anyway, it didn’t really matter. Thanks for the great recipe! x
Great News and Great Cake. Shall be attempting the cake this weekend. But you mention both butter AND shortening in the instructions for the frosting, but not in the ingredients list. I’m going to assume that it’s butter only, unless I hear otherwise (or until I discover that there’s something missing, when I make the icing!!).
All best wishes,
Penny from Oxford
Penny, I forgot to mention in my last comment reply – please send photos of the finished cake!! I hope it turned out lovely!! Best, Megan 🙂
Please ignore my comment about the shortening – getting my recipes mixed up!! (This is one of TWO cakes I’m making this weekend!)
Not a worry, Penny!! I hope this cake turned out well for you!!
Hi Megan,
I’m trying to bake a bigger cake out of this recipe. Would you be able to advise how to go about adjusting the amount of ingredients, temperature and the time taken to bake please? I’m trying to do a 2 layer 9″ cake.
This is my family’s new favourite dessert! I cook this on a BBQ with a hood and serve it hot with cream and ice cream. The BBQ makes the edges so crispy and delicious 🙂 we found this after a power outage one night and the BBQ was the only way we had to finish cooking the cake!
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Beautiful cake:) Is this buttercream stiff enough to make flowers with?
Beautiful cake, Megan 🙂 Is this buttercream stiff enough to make flowers with?
Hi Olenka, Yes, you can pipe simple flowers with it. But roses would be tough if it is whipped too long. Create a stiffer buttercream by reducing the time you whip the frosting. Also since it’s butter, it will melt quicker just by piping it because of the heat of your hand. So pipe in small quantities at a time and place the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes in between to keep it stiff enough to pipe.
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Hi! Recipe looks delicious! I have one question; when you rest the batter, do you stir it after, before you put it in the pans? Or is the idea to disturb it as little as possible?
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Made this cake this evening and it took way longer than 30 minutes to bake. I don’t think I made any mistakes along the way as the consistency of the cake batter seemed correct (ie. somewhat thick but still pourable). Is it possible that the author divided the batter between two six inch pans when they were testing this recipe? At the beginning of the recipe it says to prepare a single six-inch pan but then later on multiple cake layers are mentioned without a previous mention of slicing the single cake into two. My cake is so domed from baking in one pan that I had to cut 1/3 off to level it, not leaving me enough for two full layers as shown in the recipe picture.
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I do not have regular milk in the house. Would coconut milk work the same?
For the frosting, it should. For the cake, it may have slightly differing results, but would likely be okay. Always worth a shot!
could this cake batter be turned into cupcakes?
Yes, you definitely can!! Adjust the baking times to suit cupcakes. I hope you like it!
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I have made many, many cakes over the years and never left a review – this cake is absolutely incredible! Rave, rave reviews by all those who ate it. I have to admit, I did not make the frosting, used my own and layered with a chocolate cake but will make this cake on its own though the next birthday party. Still dreaming of this deliciousness! Thank you!
★★★★★