Chai White Chocolate Raspberry Cake – tender chai flavored cake layers with a silky smooth white chocolate buttercream and fresh raspberries.
Chai Cake
I’ve been wanting to make a chai flavored cake for a while now. I’ve always loved chai spices and live for winters full of homemade chai steamers. Have you ever made one? It’s so easy! Use some of the chai seasoning from this recipe and boil some milk. Add your seasonings, stir with a frother, and enjoy! The flavors are so warm and flavorful. What’s not to love?
For my chai cake layers, I started with my Eggnog Cake as a base for the layers. It has a similar spice cake flavor and texture that I wanted with my chai cake. I switched out the brown sugar for all white sugar to make it a little lighter in texture. I also added a few more seasonings to get the chai flavor. And obviously, I switched out the eggnog for buttermilk.
White Chocolate Buttercream
As I thought about a frosting pairing for the chai cake, I couldn’t stop thinking about white chocolate. It just sounded like a Starbucks drink to me – chai white chocolate latte… don’t you think? And if Starbucks would make the combination for one of their drinks, no doubt it will make a great cake combination.
I’ve used my white chocolate buttercream recipe for several years now, but there’s times where I (and I know some of you) have struggled to get the white chocolate incorporated into the buttercream without the chocolate hardening. As I was talking about this the other day on Instagram, my friend Annie had one of the best suggestions! She recommended heating the cream and the white chocolate to make a ganache (like we do with our drips), and then adding it to the buttercream. Genius! It worked like a charm and I’ll never make my white chocolate buttercream another way!
Tip: when you’re making the ganache for the buttercream, first heat your cream in a microwave safe bowl, without the white chocolate. You’ll then pour the cream over the white chocolate and stir to combine. If you try to heat your cream and the white chocolate at the same time, you’ll likely see that your chocolate seizes. White chocolate is super temperamental, so we have to be careful how we heat it.
I also think you’ll love the fresh raspberries as an added element of texture and flavor in the cake. And don’t you think the color is perfect for the holidays?
Tips:
- Remember to use room temperature ingredients in your cake batter. Room temperature wet ingredients are better absorbed by the dry ingredients, which helps your cake to rise more evenly.
- Mix your dry ingredients in a bowl before adding them to the wet ingredients. You want the seasonings and leavening agents well blended so you don’t have to try mixing them too much in the batter. Over mixing your batter will cause your cakes to sink in the oven and taste dense.
- Watch your bake time. If your cakes are coming out dry, you’re likely over baking them. All of our ovens are different and will bake differently. When you insert a toothpick into the center of the cake, it should come out with a few moist crumbs on it.
I find it difficult to navigate your shop online. I couldn’t get any additional items onto the cake making class and wanted to do it on cyber Monday. In trying to navigate I pushed what I thought would b=give me more or the cart, and it purchased. Now I don’t get a discount or the additional items I desired.
I’m so sorry to hear that! Will you email [email protected] and she can help you out!