It was by chance that in Oslo I ended up ordering one of the most delicious desserts I’ve had; faced with a fancy Norwegian menu with very few options, we opted for the eloquently named “Kake” ( literally just: “cake”) and hoped for the best… We were presented with two neat slices of an incredibly dense and rather solid sort of lemon cake which, had I read a description of prior to ordering, I probably wouldn’t have been at all tempted by, but it totally worked. It’s dense texture gave that gorgeous sort of satisfaction you get from biting into a thick, gooey brownie, while it’s delicate citrus flavour kept it curiously light. Here that subtle citrus flavour is developed in the form of Earl Grey; really a pretty simple cake flavouring but one which somehow always feels luxurious and adds such elegance to a dish. Though it probably can’t be said that this is a light cake, it’s moist fudginess is fabulous and will hit the spot in times of need for a bit of (classy) indulgence.
Serve it with crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt as a perfect balance to it’s sweetness.
Ingredients:
- 6 Earl Grey tea bags
- 200ml boiling water
- 100g oat flour (oats blitzed in food processor)
- 220g plain flour
- Teaspoon baking powder
- 0.5 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- 0.25 teaspoon salt
- 100ml olive oil
- 120g caster sugar
- 180ml plain yoghurt
- 100ml milk
- 0.5 teaspoon loose leaf Earl Grey / contents of tea bag
- 0.5 teaspoon lemon zest
Method:
Set oven to 180º and grease and line a 9-inch cake tin (Or you could also do a square tin and make them as bars).
- Place teabags in a jug and pour over the boiled water to infuse. Leave this around 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the oat flour, plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Stir well with a fork to blend together and break up any lumps.
- In a jug, combine the milk and yoghurt with a fork and add in the Earl Grey from the bag, or your loose leaf tea. Let this sit for at least 5 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the oil and the sugar. Gradually add in the milk mixture and mix until just combined.
- Slowly add the wet mix to the dry, folding with a spatula. Then add in about 6 tablespoons of the steeped Earl Grey and fold to incorporate, but do not beat or over-mix.
- Pour mixture into the tin and bake in oven for around 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to sit in tin 5 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack.
Best served with crème fraîche.