Earl Grey Cake With Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
The cake you didn’t know you needed in your life.
Let me start off by saying I am the absolute worst at cliche sayings. 11/10 times I will mess them up. I was going to title this section “It hasn’t been a cake walk” until I realized the saying is actually “It hasn’t been a walk in the park”. So, there’s my intro. Hello.
Back in 2020—pre-covid—I decided it was time to learn how to make homemade cakes. It hit me that one day I will have kids and I really want to be able to make cakes from scratch for their birthdays. Then I realized cakes are necessary for every kind of holiday and celebration. You need pretty cakes for Christmas, a cake when your friend finds out they’re pregnant, cakes for farewell parties and welcome home get togethers and definitely cakes for random Tuesdays just because everyday moments are worth celebrating too.
I decided I was going all in and went to the store to buy everything I needed from semi-proper cake pans to an electric hand mixer. Ya girl had been mixing everything with a spoon up until that point and some recipes just require some power….and don’t need clumps.
Now let me just say, I am not a professional whatsoever. My cakes are sometimes too dense and the frosting isn’t always how it should be. I still get nervous taking cakes to people because what if my taste buds were off and it’s actually super gross? I’ve baked lots and lots of cakes over the years and it has definitely taken a lot of trial and error. A lot of learning. I didn’t start baking so I could one day win The Great British Bake Off (Is that still a thing? I’ve never actually watched it, but it seemed fitting). I started being intentional to bake to simply celebrate life and to make beautiful things. To make people feel special on milestones in their lives and to remind people that seemingly insignificant days are worth celebrating with a pretty homemade cake.
Like I said before, not all my cakes are share-worthy, but I just have to say this one definitely is. It’s truly one of the best cakes I have ever made. It was moist, fluffy, full of flavor and probably my favorite as far as looks go. I must say, it fits my overall aesthetic quite well.
I have been wanting to incorporate figs into some sort of dessert for a while now simply because they are such a pretty fruit. I’ve never eaten a Black Mission Fig like the ones in this recipe until I was cutting them to decorate the cake with. Honestly, they’re pretty stinkin’ good. I think this would make the best Thanksgiving cake. It’s delicious and would add a little extra beauty to a tablescape.
I wanted to make a cake that screamed Fall and would make you feel all cozy on the inside. I didn’t want to do anything normal. No pumpkin spice. No coffee cake. No spice cake. Fall, but not your normal Fall cake. When I came across an earl grey cake recipe I knew it was the one. I knew it would pair well with all the figs, blackberries and rosemary I wanted to top it with.
For this recipe I made a cream cheese frosting which was glorious, but next time I am going to make a mascarpone frosting just to be exciting and because mascarpone is my favorite and I feel like it would compliment the earl grey cake nicely.
Click here to watch me decorate my Earl Grey Cake.
The Reason You’re Really Reading This Blog Post
Ingredients
Earl Grey Cake
This recipe is the perfect amount for three 6” cakes which is how I dispersed the batter.
1 cup whole milk or oat milk ( I used Extra Creamy Chobani Oat Milk)
6 earl grey tea bags (I like the Bigelow brand for this recipe)
3 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
6 large egg whites
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
1.5 cups granulated sugar
Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
This is the perfect amount of frosting if you want to make a naked cake and put some frosting in between layers, but if you want to completely cover the cake with lots of frosting I suggest doubling the frosting recipe.
8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar*
2 tablespoons honey
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Toppings
Rosemary Sprigs
Black Mission Figs
Blackberries
Honey
Other suggestions: Pistachios, Maple Syrup
Instructions
Earl Grey Cake
Microwave milk for 90 seconds to 2 minutes until very hot. Steep tea bags for 20 minutes. Squeeze out as much liquid from tea bags. Remove tea bags. Stir in egg whites and vanilla extract. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly butter three 6-inch cake pans.
Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
With a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, cream together softened butter and sugar. Add ⅓ of dry flour mixture. Mix on low speed. Add ½ of liquid mixture and mix on low speed. Add another ⅓ of dry flour mixture. Add remaining liquid mixture. Mix on low and add remaining ⅓ of dry flour mixture. Scrape down bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing. Batter should be smooth.
Divide batter between three prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before unmolding and placing on cooling rack.
Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
With a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, mix together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Scrape down bowl as needed. Add confectioners’ sugar, honey, almond extract and salt. Mix until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
Decorating
Allow the cake to completely cool before frosting it. Completely. Seriously. After your cake is cool, add frosting in between every cake layer. I made three 6” cakes and stacked them on top of each other to make a 3 tiered cake. Go ahead and apply frosting to the entire cake—all around it and on top. It doesn’t have to be perfect because this is just a base layer. Put the entire cake in your fridge to chill for approximately 15-20 minutes. You can also put your entire bowl in the fridge to chill while the cake it in there.
If you’re wanted to make a “naked cake” then your base layer doesn’t have to be heavy or thick, but I still recommend doing a base layer because it holds all those cake crumbs in place and prevents them from getting in your final layer. After it’s finished chilling, you can add more layers of frosting. A naked cake will only require the base layer and 1 more layer, but if you want a cake that is frosted on every square inch then do as many as your heart pleases (just double the recipe as mentioned above in the ingredients section).
After you have frosted your beautiful Earl Grey Cake you can now start adding all your toppings—the super fun part. Wash your fruits and rosemary beforehand and dry it off before placing on the cake. Go as wild as you want, or put half a fig on there—just whatever your artistic self is feeling in that moment. Drizzle the toppings with honey or maple syrup and waaalaaa! There you have it, Fall in the form of a cake.
Shop My Kitchen Must-Haves
My kitchen has some of my most loved home items. From my Acacia cutting board and gold measuring spoons (which I oddly get complimented on a lot), to my vintage inspired measuring cup and of course my marble cake stand. My kitchen has become my favorite area of my new home. I love decorating the counters with framed art from my sweet friend Melanie and also incorporating practical items like pretty cookbooks, an electric kettle and even this marble paper towel holder from Target. I recently bought this marble riser to add some much-needed height to my counters while all displaying all my coffee essentials in one place. I think the riser is technically for serving, but I needed height and it did the trick. I have to say though, my most-loved kitchen item is currently this gorgeous cream and mustard tea towel from Anthropologie. I didn’t know I could love a tea towel so much, but I do. It’s the perfect size, it adds texture to my space and it is just so soft!
