As far as I am concerned anything truly South African is trendy! So, I was super excited when I was chatting to food editor extraordinaire, Carmen Niehaus on a shoot a few weeks ago. Carmen is the ‘Carm’ in Carmien Tea! She was kind enough to give me a basket full of flavoured rooibos tea which inspired me to develop recipes paired with her teas – the subtle flavour of the tea turned an everyday recipe into something interesting and special – try this cake recipe, you’ll be impressed!
Here's how you make it:
MAKES: 1
INGREDIENTS
Cake
- 180g butter
- 180g castor sugar
- 10ml grated orange rind
- 3 extra large eggs, beaten
- 120g cake flour
- 120g self-raising flour
- 100ml boiling water
- 60ml CARMIEN Amber Royalty Flower Tea
Orange glace icing:
- 250ml icing sugar
- Hot orange blossom tea
- 15ml orange juice
METHOD:
- Preheat the oven to 180 C.
- Combine boiling water and tea and allow to stand to infuse, set aside, cool and strain.
- Cream the butter and add the sugar and orange rind and beat until light.
- Gradually add the eggs and beat well.
- Sift together the flours and salt and fold into the butter mixture alternating with 80ml of strained tea until well blended.
- Pour into a loaf pan and bake until risen and cooked through. Test with a skewer in the centre if necessary.
- Make the glace icing by sifting the icing sugar into a bowl and add sufficient hot left over tea and the orange juice to make the icing of a consistency than will run smoothly when poured.
- If the icing is made too thin, add more icing sugar to correct the consistency.
- Ice the top of the cake with the glace icing and decorate with the tea.
Stylist: Lisa Clark | Photographer: Dirk