This chai spiced coffee cake is soft, slightly dense and the perfect thing to eat with a cup of chai (or coffee!)
This chai spiced cake is full of delicious, warm spices- perfect for this cold winter season. Paired with a steaming cup of chai, a warm glass of milk, or even on its own, it won't disappoint.
If you like coffee cake, try out my copycat Starbucks Cinnamon Coffee Cake recipe! It's phenomenal!
I've always thought coffee cake was made with coffee, so I hated the thought of trying it for YEARS. Yes, I hate coffee. Once I gained some more knowledge and braincells, I tried it out and LOVED it. So naturally I had to make a chai spiced version of it, made with actual chai.
Every household has their own blend of chai spices, or even no spices at all. I'm using a few common spices in this chai cake: cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves and black pepper. You can use whatever spices you prefer in your chai!
This recipe uses the reverse-creaming method. You will notice that the recipe doesn't beat the sugar and butter together and then add the flour at the end. The flour, and the dry ingredients are all mixed together with the fat- the butter and oil. This results in a crumbly, wet sand-like mixture. The flour gets coated with the fat, which helps to minimize gluten formation - resulting in a more tender and fine crumb!
Ingredients for this Chai Spiced Coffee Cake recipe
- All-Purpose Flour
- Granulated Sugar
- Baking Powder & Powder
- Salt
- Butter
- Sour Cream
- Eggs
- Whole Milk
- Black Tea Bags
- Oil
- Vanilla Extract
- Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger, Cloves, Black Pepper
- Powdered Sugar
Useful Tips
- You want to securely line the pan with parchment, either with binder clips or by buttering the pan a bit before so the parchment sticks to the pan. When you spread the batter, it will slip around so you want to minimize this as much as possible
- Making the tea - I've listed the quantity of milk as ⅓ cup even though the final amount needed is ¼ cup. This is accounting for the the approximate amount that will boil off when you steep the teabags. You don't have to start out with ⅓ cup- start out with a little more than ¼ cup. If you find that there isn't enough milk to reach ¼ cup, add in some more milk.
- Spreading the Batter - When putting the batter in the pan after sprinkling the streusel, add the batter in dollops covering the streusel mixture. This makes it easier to spread it evenly without it lifting; which it tends to do as it sticks to the streusel.
Storage
Store the chai spiced coffee cake in an airtight container and/or wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for 3-4 or in the fridge for a week.
Chai Spiced Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 1¾ cup - all-purpose flour (241g)
- 1 cup - sugar (200g)
- 1¼ teaspoon - baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon - baking soda
- ½ tsp - salt
- ¼ cup - butter (56g)
- ⅔ cup - sour cream (166g)
- 2 - large eggs
- ⅓ cup - whole milk
- 2 teabags - black tea
- ⅓ cup - oil (78mL)
- 1 teaspoon - vanilla extract
Streusel
- ¼ cup - sugar (50g)
- ¾ cup - all-purpose flour (103g)
- 6 tablespoon - cold butter, cubed (84g)
- ¼ teaspoon - salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon - ground cinnamon
- 1½ teaspoon - ground cardamom
- 1½ teaspoon - ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon - ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon - black pepper
Glaze
- ½ cup - powdered sugar
- ½-1 tablespoon - milk
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, add milk and tea bags. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Let it cool and squeeze the tea bags to get ¼ cup (50ml) of milk altogether. Set it aside.⅓ cup - whole milk, 2 teabags - black tea
- In a medium sized bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients except for the butter. Then add in the butter and use your fingers to mix it in by breaking it. It should be a crumbly texture.¼ cup - sugar, ¾ cup - all-purpose flour, 6 tablespoon - cold butter, cubed, ¼ teaspoon - salt, 1 ½ teaspoon - ground cinnamon, 1½ teaspoon - ground cardamom, 1½ teaspoon - ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon - ground cloves, ⅛ teaspoon - black pepper
Make the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.1¾ cup - all-purpose flour, 1 cup - sugar, 1¼ teaspoon - baking powder, ¼ teaspoon - baking soda, ½ teaspoon - salt
- Add in the butter and oil to the flour mixture. Beat together until it resembles wet sand.¼ cup - butter, ⅓ cup - oil
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, tea infused milk, eggs and vanilla until well combined.⅔ cup - sour cream, 2 - large eggs, 1 teaspoon - vanilla extract
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and beat together until it's smooth. If there appear to be lumps, smooth them out with a spatula.
- Pour in half the batter into the prepared baking pan. Evenly sprinkle a little more than half of the streusel mixture onto the batter.
- Now spoon the leftover batter all over the streusel mixture. Slowly and carefully spread the batter to even it out. This might be a bit difficult because it sticks to the streusel mixture and wants to lift off. Try your best to even it out.
- Sprinkle the rest of the streusel on the evened out batter and bake for about 65 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out fairly clean. Just a few crumbs on it.
- Take out and let cool completely.
Make the glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until thin (honey consistency) and drizzle onto the cake! Enjoy!½ cup - powdered sugar, ½-1 tablespoon - milk
Aisha says
THIS WAS SO GOOD!!! It’s not your regular cake, it has a texture that’s a bit more dense than other cakes, but that’s what makes it better. Love this recipe
Nabeah Wahab says
Hi Aisha,
Ahh I'm so happy you liked it! Thank you for leaving a review!
Huzaifah Sheikh says
Your recipes are omazing.
Can I use yogurt as an alternate for sour cream? Can't wait to try it out.
Nabeah Wahab says
Hi Huzaifah,
Thank you! You can use yogurt in this! If there is liquid (whey) in the yogurt, try to only get the solid yogurt part and no liquid.
Huzaifah Sheikh says
Today I baked Chai spiced coffee cake and TBH it was so much delicious, it was totally new for my taste buds. I just made the cake because I forgot to add the sugar in streusel and when I added, it was too late. In Sha Allah soon going to bake this cake again. Thank you so much for sharing delicious recipes.