Masala Chai Tea Recipe For Cake

Masala chai tea is truly versatile and there is no end to recipes that call for it! If you love reaping the chai tea benefits but want to spice things up even more, there are ways to actually eat chai! In today’s Chai Up recipe, we’ll learn how easy it is to bake using chai tea concentrates or Chai Up’s Chai Tea Masala Powder Mix. 

A masala chai recipe can be personal and varies depending on your generation, your family, and which region you come from. One thing’s for sure though, the distinct flavor and unique flavor of masala chai is consistent.

What Is Masala Chai?

Masala chai is a spiced tea that came from India. It’s made of a medley of spices usually consisting of ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon. These spices are added to black tea, milk, and sweeteners. Today, many variations of masala chai exist outside of India and have made their way to popular coffee houses worldwide. Many might know masala chai as chai tea lattes without knowing its real history.

It is said that masala chai has been used for ayurvedic purposes for many centuries before it reached worldwide popularity. In the early 1900s, the Indian Tea Association, which was owned by the British, promoted tea consumption in India. Since black tea was costly, street vendors would use milk, sugar, and spices as an additive to keep costs low and the beverage more flavorful. According to The Spruce Eats, Street vendors of masala chai are locally known as “chai wallahs” which translates to “tea persons”. 

Because of its popularity, chai tea concentrates are readily available for coffee houses to cater to demand. However, there’s no beating the masala chai recipe made from scratch. There’s a little extra effort required because the spices are crushed and the brewing takes longer for maximum flavor, but it’s still worth it. An alternative to using a chai tea concentrate, Chai Up created a masala chai tea powder mix that has all the spice ingredients, and then some! 

Why Masala Chai?

Many recipes have been made that infuse other ingredients with staple and already existing flavors. We have banana bread, pumpkin-infused lattes, other baked goods, and so much more. Nowadays, cooking with masala chai has been gaining popularity. You might be wondering why and we can tell you exactly!

First of all, masala chai tea's health benefits are unmatched based on an article from Healthline. It’s great for anyone who has problems with blood pressure, blood sugar levels, indigestion, and more. There’s nothing quite like masala chai when it comes to addressing your health so here’s a list of benefits you can get from drinking masala chai. 

1. Keeping your heart healthy
   
   There’s evidence that suggests drinking chai tea can contribute to a healthy heart. Because of one of its main ingredients, cinnamon, drinking chai may actually lower your blood pressure.
   
   

2.  Regulating blood sugar levels
   
   Consistently buying drinks from cafes may not be as harmless as you might think. A lot of your favorite frappuccinos and lattes have way too much sugar. Preparing chai at home and adding ginger and cinnamon is a great way of reducing your blood sugar levels. 
   
   
3. Better digestion
   
   Three ingredients in masala chai are cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon which can help prevent digestive issues. Usually caused by bacterial infections, these three ingredients can prevent the worst from happening before it even does. 
   
   
4. Reducing nausea
   
   Drinking chai can be especially beneficial for pregnant women who are constantly feeling nauseous. Ginger, a main ingredient in masala chai, is great for treating nausea in not just pregnant women.
   
   
5. Aiding in weight loss
   
   Because chai tea is most commonly prepared with milk, which is a great source of protein, drinking chai can help make you feel fuller. There are also compounds present in black tea, which is also used in making masala chai, that promotes the breaking down of fat. 
   

An Authentic Chai Tea Recipe

Before getting started on using masala chai tea as an ingredient in cooking or baking, you’ve got to learn the basics! Truly nothing beats the unique flavors of masala chai and while there are many recipes, you really can’t go wrong as long as you have the basic ingredients on hand, a small saucepan, and a mortar and pestle for crushing up the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 pieces of clove
• ½ or ¾ tbsp of cinnamon powder
• 4 pieces of cardamom pods
• 2 pieces of peppercorn 
• 1-inch piece of ginger
• Black tea (bags or loose-leaf)
• Milk (of your choice)
• Sugar (or alternative sweetener of your choice)

How To Make Masala Chai Tea

• Start by crushing all your spices. Crushed into a fine powder or slightly coarse so the flavors come out
• In a small saucepan, add 1 ½ to 2 cups of water
• Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of black loose-leaf tea or 2 to 3 bags of black tea depending on how strong you want your tea
• Add the piece of peeled ginger which you can either chop or grate 
• Add the crushed spices
• Let the mixture boil over medium heat and then lower the heat and let boil some more
• Add your sweeteners. 3 or 4 teaspoons works and you can adjust it if you want it sweeter
• Pour a cup of milk after the sugar
• If you’re using tea bags, make sure to remove them now so the masala chai doesn’t turn bitter
• Let the mixture boil again until it turns into a dark caramel color
• You can do a taste test to know whether you need to adjust the sweetness some more or want your tea stronger
• Strain the tea before serving

To use Chai Up’s Masala Chai Tea Powder Mix, you can skip crushing the spices and adding ginger. You can follow all these steps but instead of adding in the crushed spices, you can use 2 to 3 teaspoons of the Masala Chai Tea Powder Mix instead!

Turning Masala Chai Into Cake With Chai Up: The Recipe

This recipe will be similar to how milk cakes are made which essentially means you soak up cake slices into milk. In this case, we’re soaking the cake in masala chai! For this recipe, you’ll need a couple of cake pans for layering. You could use 2 or 3 depending on the size of the pans you have. You’ll also need a mixer because hand mixing might get a little tedious. And for icing the cake, you’ll also need a silicone spatula.

Here’s how to make it:

Cake batter ingredients:

• 3.2 cups of all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup of corn flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 ¾ cups of granulated white sugar
• 2 teaspoons of Chai Up Masala Chai Tea Powder Mix
• 1 ½ cups of butter
• 3 whole eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups of buttermilk
  
  

Masala chai frosting ingredients:

• ¾ cup of milk
• 3 tablespoons of black loose-leaf tea
• 2 tablespoons of white sugar
• Chai Up Masala Chai Tea Powder Mix
• ½ cup of whipping cream

Masala chai for soaking the cake ingredients:

• ½ cup of milk
• ½ cup of water
• 1 ½ tablespoons of loose-leaf tea
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of Chai Up Masala Chai Tea Powder Mix
  
  

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius. You can grease your cake pans with butter or oil. Alternatively, you can line the bottom with parchment paper so the batter doesn’t stick to the bottom. 
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the softened butter with sugar for about 5 or more minutes. Use a mixer at high speed. You want the consistency to be light and fluffy. Add the eggs, egg whites, vanilla extract and keep mixing. 
4. Lower the speed of the mixer so you can slowly add in the dry ingredients. For a fluffier cake, you can sift all the dry ingredients first so it’s all very fine powder added to your fluffy wet mixture.
5. Add the buttermilk slowly. 
6. You can now pour the cake batter into your cake pans evenly. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. You can tell the cake is done if you stick the middle part with a toothpick, it comes out clean and the batter doesn’t stick. 
7. After the cake is baked, make sure it’s cooled completely before adding the frosting. Otherwise, the frosting will melt. 
8. Now you can move on to making the frosting. In a saucepan, add your water, tea leaves, Chai Up Masala Chai Tea Powder Mix, sugar, and milk. (Similar to how you make a normal masala chai)
9. While the masala chai mix is brewing, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. 
10. You can cool down the masala chai mix in the fridge first before adding it to the whipped cream. If you add the masala chai mix hot into the whipped cream, it’ll also melt and lose all the fluffiness. 
11. Make the masala chai mix for soaking last while everything else cools. Make sure you’re straining all the masala chai mixtures so it’s all liquid. 
12. Once all three parts are completely cool, you can now assemble the cake. 
13. Poke a few holes in the cake so when you pour the masala chai, the cake can soak up all the flavor. Pour a little at a time because we don’t want a completely wet cake. Make sure it’s evenly distributed.
14. In between your cake layers, add some frosting. When all layers are on top of each other, add the remaining frosting all around the cake. 
15. Serve the cake cold. 

Check Out Chai Up's Other Chai Tea Recipes!