This Earl Grey Tea Yogurt Cake is a fragrant cake made for all tea lovers. The cake is super soft, very easy to make and full of Earl Grey flavor.
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Looking for more easy cake recipes? If you’re a sourdough fan, try my best chocolate cake using sourdough discard!
Carrot cake is your thing? You should try a Brazilian Carrot Cake: it has a beautiful orange color with a yummy chocolate glaze!
And if you're super into Earl Grey, you need to make my Iced Earl Grey Milk Tea: it’s vegan, and perfect for summer!
🍰Ingredients and substitutions
All-purpose flour. Use all-purposed flour for this recipe. Be sure to measure it correctly! To learn how to scoop dry ingredients, check my beginner’s baking tips.
Oil. You can use vegetable, canola, sunflower or a healthier option like coconut oil (use refined) for this recipe.
Greek Yogurt. Use one with full-fat and no sugar or flavor added for the best result. If using with sugar/flavor, choose a vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt.
You can use sour cream instead of yogurt (taste will be slightly tangier). Use a full-fat sour cream.
Earl Grey. We’ll need 2 tea bags for this recipe. If using loose Earl Grey tea, we'll need about 2 teaspoons.
If using loose tea, grind it into a finer texture, as we're adding one teaspoon of Earl Grey leaves into the cake batter. Loose tea usually is grainier than the content of a tea bag, and that can affect the texture of baked goods.
Eggs. Large eggs are required for this tea cake. You’ll need to whip the egg whites: separate the yolk from the egg whites while eggs are still cold! It’s easier to do it before it reaches room temperature.
Sugar. Use granulated white sugar.
Vanilla Extract. Use extract, not flavor. If you have Earl Grey extract, use it instead of vanilla extract. I can teach you how to make a homemade black tea extract!
Salt. Use fine sea salt. Salt plays an important role in both savory and sweet recipes, enhancing the flavors, so don't skip it.
🥄How to make it
In a medium bowl, add all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt, and stir to combine.
In a large bowl, add egg yolks, sugar, brewed Earl Grey and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
Add Greek yogurt, oil and Earl Grey leaves, stirring until well mixed.
Add the flour mixture and stir just until there are no dry spots left.
Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter. Start by folding ⅓ of it, and after incorporated, fold the remaining.
Grease with oil and dust with sugar a large Bundt cake pan, and pour the batter in.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until lightly golden at the top. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle: if it comes out with some crumbs or clean, cake’s ready.
Let it cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.
🥣Making Earl Grey glaze
This glaze helps the cake to keep its moisture and gives a boost of Earl Grey flavor.
You’ll need:
- Melted butter,
- Earl Grey tea; and
- Powdered sugar.
It’s super simple to make:
In a medium bowl, add powdered sugar. Pour butter and Earl Grey tea over it, and whisk until homogeneous.
The glaze will harden after some minutes, so be sure to mix it just before pouring over the cake.
🫖Expert tips
Make an Earl Grey Pound Cake: divide batter into 2 greased and dusted 8x5 inches loaf pans. Bake for 30 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out with crumbles, it’s ready. If it comes out clean, it might be slightly overbaked, but it should still be delicious.
Don’t overmix the batter: it’s ok if the batter is a bit lumpy. Avoid overmixing, as the less you do it, the fluffier the cake. Mix just until flour is incorporated.
Mix whipped egg whites gently: egg whites, whipped, are filled with air which helps to lighten and leaven the cake. Incorporate them into the batter gently, to keep the air trapped inside them. Mixing them without paying enough attention might make their structure collapse.
Measure all ingredients and preheat the oven before starting the recipe: I find it easier to have everything in hand and a hot enough oven for baking goods. So, start by preheating de oven, getting yogurt and eggs out of the fridge, separating the egg yolk from the whites, brewing the earl grey you’ll need and so on.
You can use a decaf Earl Grey version for a caffeine-free tea cake.
🙋🏻♀️Questions you might have
Greek yogurt is a fantastic ingredient for baking goods! A baking good using it will have less lactose, as you usually replace milk with yogurt in the recipe. This ingredient also helps the cake to keep its moisture for longer than cakes using milk or water.
Citrus fruits pair fantastic with the flavors of bergamot and black tea. Pineapple, lemon, orange and passionfruit are good flavor options. Lavender is a flavor that also harmonizes well with Earl Grey.
It depends of the type of tea you're using. Most tea bags contain between 30 and 50 mg of caffeine. Here we're using 2 bags of Earl Grey, so I'll say about 100 mg of caffeine in the whole cake.
🫙Storing and freezing
After cooled, store this cake in a cake keeper, away from direct sunlight. It’s good for up to one week. It keeps moist and soft for at leat 5 days, if stored correctly.
You can freeze any leftover cake if you want/need. When freezing, it is best to do it as soon as you know you won’t eat what’s left. Be sure the cake has cooled, and then wrap it in plastic wrap, or store it in an airtight container. I find it easier to freeze this cake already sliced, so I can grab the exact amount I want to eat. It keeps well in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Thaw for 1 hour in room temperature, or if sliced, just microwave for about 30 to 40 seconds (microwaving might cause the glaze to melt).
📖 Recipe
Earl Grey Yogurt Cake
Equipment
- 1 Bundt cake pan 12 cup
Ingredients
Earl Grey Yogurt Cake
- ½ cup oil
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup earl grey tea
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or earl grey extract
- 1 bag earl grey or 1 teaspoon fine loose earl grey tea
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Earl Grey Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon earl grey tea
Instructions
- Start by preheating the oven. Preheat with rack in the middle, until it reaches 350°F.
- Brew Earl Grey tea using 1 tea bag (or 1 teaspoon of loose tea). You'll need ¼ cup of tea.
- Remove from fridge Greek yogurt and eggs. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, and gather and measure all the remaining ingredients plus baking pan.
- After oven has preheated, start putting together the batter.
- Whip the egg whites. It needs to be whipped until medium peaks.
- In a medium bowl, add all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt, and stir to combine.
- In a large bowl, add egg yolks, sugar, brewed Earl Grey and vanilla (or Earl Grey) extract. Mix until combined. Add Greek yogurt, oil and Earl Grey leaves, stirring until well mixed.
- Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Do not overmix for a lighter and fluffier cake. Some lumps are fine.
- Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter. Start by folding ⅓ of it, and after incorporated, fold the remaining.
- Grease with oil and dust with sugar a large bundt cake pan, and pour the batter in.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until lightly golden at the top. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle: if it comes out with some crumbs or clean, cake's ready.
- Let it cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan. Don't let it cool completely, though, or it might not come out of the bundt pan.
- For the glaze, wait until cake has cooled, or wait for at least 30 minutes.
- Brew Earl Grey tea with water or milk, and melt the butter.
- In a medium bowl, add powdered sugar. Stiff to avoid any lumps, specially if powdered sugar was open before this recipe, as it can absorb moisture and create little lumps.
- Add butter and tea, and whisk until homogeneous.
- Pour glaze over the cake.
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