Desserts

Chai Cake With Buttercream Frosting

by frankie
Vegan Chai Cake Recipe

Say hello to our delicious chai-infused cake. It’s beautifully sweet, it’s moist and it’s wonderfully fragrant. Enjoy!

  • If you only have cardamom pods, add 3 pods to a pestle and mortar and grind gently to open them up. Then remove and discard the pod skins and grind the seeds a little more until ground.
  • Simply avoid using soya milk to make this recipe soy-free.

Chai Cake With Buttercream Frosting

Serves: 9 squares Prep Time: Cooking Time:
Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

  • 325ml (11fl.oz) plant-based milk 
  • 2 tbsp loose leaf chai masala or 3 chai tea bags
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 225g (7.9oz) plain flour
  • 140g (4.9oz) light brown sugar 
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda in the US)
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
  • 80g (2.8oz) vegetable oil

For topping:

  • 250g (8.8oz) icing sugar 
  • 60g (2.1oz) vegan margarine
  • 1 handful of walnuts, roughly chopped

Method

  1. To make the chai milk, pour the milk into a small saucepan on a medium heat.  Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat and add the loose leaves or tea bags. Stir, then leave the tea to brew in the milk for 10 minutes. 
  2. Squeeze the tea against the side of the saucepan to extract all the flavour, then discard.
  3. Measure out 200ml (7oz) of the chai milk and stir in the apple cider vinegar. Note: the volume of the chai milk will have reduced when it was heated which is why you will need to measure this amount now so it's precise (you can drink anything leftover or simply discard it). Leave the mixture to sit while you carry out the next steps.
  4. Preheat the oven to 160°C fan / 350°F and line a 20cm (8”) square cake tin with baking paper.
  5. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cardamom together in a large mixing bowl. 
  6. Next pour in the chai milk you measured earlier and the vegetable oil and stir until you get a smooth cake batter. 
  7. Pour the batter into the lined cake tin and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. 
  8. Leave the cake to cool completely.
  9. Meanwhile, to make the frosting, add the vegan margarine and icing sugar to a mixing bowl. Use a fork to bring them together to a buttercream. Once mostly combined, add a splash of plant-based milk to the mixture if it’s too thick.
  10. Once the cake is fully cooled, spread the frosting all over the top and finish with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts. Now simply cut into slices and serve
Did You Make This Recipe?
Don't forget to share your SO VEGAN creations on Instagram and tag us at @SOVEGAN!
13 Comments
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13 Comments

Deb March 10, 2022 - 6:33 pm

Hi I’m going to adapt your Chai Cake using gf flour and maybe adding some physillium husks to keep it together! Will give it a go.

Reply
Ben, So Vegan March 14, 2022 - 4:23 pm

Yum! Let us know how it goes 🙂

Reply
Jo March 11, 2022 - 11:41 pm

This looks amazing . Makng it tomorrow . Question: when you pour the chia milk into dry ingredients is that all of it or just 200ml that ypu added to vinegar? Thanks

Reply
Holly March 13, 2022 - 4:39 pm

I had the same question!

Reply
Anonymous March 17, 2022 - 9:27 pm

I made it. Chia tea absorbed liquid so there was 200ml left It was lovely.

Reply
Ben, So Vegan March 18, 2022 - 6:45 pm

Hey Jo! It’s just the 200ml. The reason is the volume will reduce when it’s heated – so it’s important to then measure the exact amount you need for the recipe – hope that makes sense 🙂

Reply
Danny March 14, 2022 - 1:04 pm

Why does it mention vegetable oil in the ingredients, yet when combing all there is no mention of adding vegetable oil.

Reply
Ben, So Vegan March 14, 2022 - 4:23 pm

Hey Danny – we add the vegetable in step 6 hope that helps!

Reply
Corey April 6, 2022 - 9:33 am

Hi,
This cake looks great! I wanted to make it for my sisters birthday as she loves chai. I’d like to make it into a double layered cake, would you suggest doubling the ingredients or would that make way too much cake ?! Either that or do the suggested amount from the recipe and slice the cake in half horizontally and layer the icing ?

Reply
Javajeff March 25, 2022 - 7:27 pm

Omg! This is the best evening snack. The recipe is so easy simple quick to make. And oh so delicious.

Reply
Jeanna April 11, 2022 - 9:11 pm

This turned out so delicious, even considering I didn’t have cardamom, vinegar or milk. Or a scale to measure the flour and brown sugar lol. I was able to mix up enough milk using the powdered dry milk that I keep on hand for some yeast bread recipes. And my Chai Tea was expired too. But I’m never afraid to try and I’m so glad I did! If it’s this good with the glitches I had, I can’t wait to try it again when I’m fully prepared. Great recipe!

Reply
ella April 25, 2022 - 11:27 am

Love your recipes. Do you have nutritional info for your recipes? I am counting my calories. thanks

Reply
Jaycee May 4, 2022 - 3:06 pm

Should the oil really be in grams or millilitres? Would also love to know nutritional values. Thanks

Reply

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