Dark chocolate chai cake (1)

Wanting something chocolatey but not sweet, I made a dark chocolate chai tea cake. This cake was largely adapted from my earlier Green Earl Grey truffle cake.

Ingredients

2 tbsp loose Chai tea (I used Fortnum & Mason's)
1½ C water
150g Green & Black's Organic Dark Cooking Chocolate 70% Cocoa, melted & cooled
½ C coconut oil, melted
4 eggs
1 C dark muscovado sugar & demerara sugar
⅔ C coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp Himalayan rose pink crystal salt
½ C plain organic whole milk yoghurt

Method

Batter

1. Heat oven to 175°C. Grease an 8-cup fluted tube pan if required. (I used a silicon round pan so I skipped this step.)
2. Brew the tea in the water for 5 minutes. Strain the leaves (or remove the tea bags) and set the brewed tea aside to cool.
3. Using a mixer, beat the coconut oil, eggs, and muscovado sugar until fluffy. Blend in the chocolate.
4. Beat in the sieved flour in batches.
5. Beat in sieved baking soda and baking powder and then the salt. Mix well.
6. Beat in the brewed tea in 4 parts and then the yoghurt. Mix well and beat till the batter rises and increases in volume.
7. Pour batter into pan.
8. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached (if using a silicon pan, if the cake does not stick to the pan, it's cooked). Remove from oven and let stand 5-10 minutes in the pan.
9. Turn cake out of pan and cool. Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired.

Cake inverted

Even though I was quite happy with the previous version, this cake was a marked improvement in both taste and texture. Whereas the previous one was quite soft in texture with subtle flavours, this cake was a bit denser but still velvety and much richer. I'm not entirely sure why, but here are a few things that I deliberately changed in this recipe, which may have made the difference:

• Used actual chocolate pieces and melted them in a bain-marie; previously I used store-bought chocolate truffle sauce, which I melted in the microwave.
• Beat the batter longer: using an electric mixer, I beat the batter in steps 3 to 6 for longer, interchanging between the two settings on the mixer.
• Beat the tea in in 4 parts, making sure that the liquid was absorbed into the batter before adding in more.
• Beat the yoghurt in in 2-3 parts, making sure that it was absorbed into the batter before adding in more.
• The chai tea went very well with the dark chocolate, adding a subtle heat and depth to the rich flavour. 

I started making the cake around 1.20 a.m. The cake was out of the oven and cooling by 3 a.m. After it had completely cooled, I cut a small slice for my husband to take to work and wrapped the rest of the cake loosely in aluminium foil and let it sit on the kitchen worktop. I waited till the next day to have a slice. (I have no idea how I resisted the temptation!) 

On the third day, I divided the rest of the cake into a few big slices, wrapped each slice in aluminium foil, and put one slice in the freezer and the rest in the fridge. The cake kept well in the fridge and the flavours developed further. By the time we had the last bit, it was a week later and the cake was rich and still very moist. The slice in the freezer was given to a friend who reported back with some positive comments. So all in all, great success!