Chai Pancakes: A Reunion.

Oh hellooooooo. Pancakes and I have been taking a little break from one another recently. Not for any particular reason really, but sometimes a break from something you love happens on its own and it turns out to be brilliant in a funny way. You sort of don’t realise that you miss it until it’s back and then you fall in love all over again. That’s what happened here.

I’ve been seeing and lusting after recipes for chai spiced pancakes for a little while now but all have looked fairly inaccessible. Mostly, to be honest, because they’re American recipes and call for ingredients that we just don’t come across.

But I had a stroke of genius. Well not really a stroke, more of a gradual realisation of the answer followed by the inevitable ‘duuuuuh, OBVIOUSLY I will flavour the milk with teabags...fool’.

So here I am, reunited with the Queen of Breakfasts (yes that is an official title...) with just enough fiddle to my original and ultimate pancake recipe to provide all the fabulous fluffyness I require from my pancakes while remaining new and exciting and spiced to high heaven. With Love and Cake.

Chai Pancakes with Cinnamon Butter

A few notes:

• Of course you don’t have to accompany the pancakes with the cinnamon butter, just the regular stuff and a drizzle of maple syrup would be divine.
• The butter will freeze well though, just chop it all into disc and open freeze, then keep them in a bag in the freezer, ready for more pancakes, French toast, you could even pop some in a chilli to make it shiny and delish.
• The more pancakes I make, the more I realise what a difference a good quality pan makes.I have one lovely Le Creuset one and one 'not Le Creuset' one, and I have them both on the go at the same time for time saving purposes...which makes for an excellent comparison. Obviously I'm not suggesting you have to buy a new pan before you make your next batch of pancakes, but if you have a choice go for non-stick and as heavy a base as poss.
• I used a blender to whizz my pancake batter up, but a bowl and whisk would be a.ok.

Makes around 10

You will need

For the butter

1x250g pack butter, at room temperature

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp demerara sugar

greaseproof paper

For the pancakes

300ml milk

3 chai teabags
225g self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
25g caster sugar
1 egg

• The first thing to do, the night before you want pancakes, is to pop the tea bags in the milk and leave them to infuse overnight.
• Then, on 'pancake day', lets do the butter first. All you need to do is mash the cinnamon and sugar into the butter so it's well combined.
• Then, on a nice large rectangle of greaseproof paper blob the butter along one of the long edges of the paper. Roll the paper around it tight and then twist the ends so it looks like a giant sweet.
• Pop it in the fridge to firm up while you get on with the pancakes.
• Remove the tea bags from the milk and add it and all the other ingredients to the blender or bowl and whizz/whisk to a thick, stiff batter.
• Get you pan hot over a medium heat and pour rounds of the batter into it, as big or small as you want your pancakes...up to you really.
• Leave alone until the edges firm up and come away from the pan and bubble form on the uncooked side.
• Flip the pancakes over and cook the second side until golden and firm.
• Eateateat with the butter dripping over or pop into a warm oven while you cook with the rest of the batter. Then eateateat,

Tea and Cake Cake.

It's your birthday...Woooohooooo. Now I know you're not a giant birthday fan like me, particularly when it comes to your own, so I imagine you're pretty glad about the enormous distance between us right now. But birthdays are for celebrating, for singing and parties and presents and glitter, and although I can't shower you with such joy(for me)/embarrassment(for you) in person, I can do the bloggy version. HA.

They're meant to be balloons...obviously. 

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Biiiirthday dear Hannaaaah

Happy Birthday to you.

Here is my tribute to your love of tea and my love of birthdays and our mutual love of cake. An Earl-Grey Cake. I've gone off piste here a bit and sort of invented this concoction myself...not a problem when tea-time (as in dinner) cooking is involved, but a potential mine-field in the case of proper baking. So Horrah...it worked.

I actually wrote the words for the post before I had made the cake, so am rather pleased that it turned out well. Not quite sure what I would have done otherwise. 

Anyway, make sure you find someone friendly to make it for you and load it with candles and then clap as you blow them out and make a wish.

Have a fabulous day. Eat, drink and be merry. With Love and Cake.

Earl-Grey Cake

A few notes:

• You'll just have to trust me on the courgette situation. I'll go into detail about the genius of vegetable cakes another time.
• Don't look at the pictures too closely. My icing curdled a little bit you see, due to too much beating and then the addition of too much tea I think. That's also why it's a bit runny and is making its way down the side of the cake. It's ok though, I made the mistake so you don't have to.
• I only have two 18cm pans so I'm a tad naughty and make up all the cake batter, cook two thirds in the two that I have and then cook the final third when they're done. Not advisable but necessary.
• I find the easiest thing to do with a recipe like this is to weigh everything out first and then it comes together and can get in the oven nice and quickly. Grated courgette doesn't like to sit around for too long.

Makes a towering 18cm cake

You will need

3x18cm round cake tins

For the cake

4 eggs

200g caster sugar

400g courgette, finely grated

5 Earl-Grey tea bags

220g plain flour

140g ground almonds

3 headed teaspoons baking powder

For the filling and icing sugar

1/2 jar of your fav jam

50g soft butter

50g mascarpone

200g icing sugar

3 tbsp stronglystrongly brewed Earl-Grey tea

• Grease the tins and line the bases with grease-proof paper. Preheat the oven to 180°.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar for around 5 minutes, until voluminous and light. 
• Fold in the courgette then empty the contents of the tea bags into the mixture (sounds weird..tastes delish).
• Fold in the flour, almonds and baking powder.
• Now divide the mixture evenly between the tins and bake for around 30 minutes, though check after 20 in case they need moving around the oven for even cooking.
• When the cakes are done, remove from the tin and leave to cool completely.
• Meanwhile make the icing. Beat the butter and mascarpone until they come together and increase in volume a bit.
• Next stir in the icing sugar and tea and work together until a light coloured paste is formed.
• To assemble the cake, choose the flattest sponge and leave that as the top one.
• Lay one of the other sponges on a plate and spread over half the jam.
• Pop another sponge on top followed by the rest of the jam and then by the fanciest sponge.
• Spoon the icing on the top and spread over evenly. Decorate if you fancy and serve with tea.