bakin' with tea

One of my favorite things about tea is the food that goes along with it. I love cake, and pie, and lemon curd and ginger cookies but really any kind of cookie, and of course I can't forget the savoury little sandwiches. Now if your having a gathering where you are serving tea you can always use the food items I have mentioned above, but you can indeed go above and beyond and not only make things for the tea but make them with the tea. Yes, use tea as a main ingredient for a delicious dish!
The recipe I have decided to share with you is Spicy Coconut Tea Cake... really you can eat it at any time it's just not as sweet as your normal cake but equally as scrumtuous.
Also this is a vegan dish so you can share it with all your animal loving friends.

Spicy Coconut Tea Cake:

This cake uses an Indian Masala Chai as its flavorful base. If you do not have bagged chai tea, then you can make your own by boiling 2 bags of a strong black tea (or 2 tablespoons of loose tea) like assam in a saucepan with 1 stick cinnamon, 4-5 cloves, 4-5 pods cardamom, 5-6 black peppercorns and several thin slices of ginger.

Ingredients
dry-
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup grated coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon each:
clove, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger

wet-
1 1/2 cup strong chai tea
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
2 tablespoons oil or butter subsitute (for an extra coconut burst, you could use coconut milk!)

Pre heat oven to 350
Then combine the wet and dry ingredients in seperate bowls. Next, combine the wet with dry and stir gently and don't stir too much. (whenever baking vegan don't over stir it, it will turn out tough) Then put it in a pan and bake for about 25 minutes, depending on your oven.

Now you have an amazingly yummy cake to serve with your tea. If you like tea and coconut you will love this cake, and since I am a tea and coconut monster it is one of my favorites.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Tea of the moment: Coconut vanilla twinings.