Every year I try to make a special cake for my mom’s birthday in October. She is the one that instilled a love of baking in me and put up with some pretty horrendous cake concoctions in my early years (my one-bowl microwave specials). This year to honor her birthday I made a Brown Sugar Chai Latte cake with White Chocolate Buttercream. A huge step up from the microwave specials, if I don’t say so myself…
This cake is filled with aromatic chai spices mixed with warm brown sugar and topped with a rich and creamy white chocolate buttercream. And don’t let the spice count in the recipe scare you, it’s very easy to make!
I’ve started buying most of my spices in the bulk area. Not all grocery stores have this, but my local Sprouts does. Being able to buy a little bag of allspice or cardamom for specials recipes ends up being a lot fresher, not to mention much cheaper.
Decorating cakes is a true love of mine, but I feel the ultimate cake decor is fresh flowers. The combinations never get boring and with a few seasonal picks from your grocery store, you have a stunning cake (and usually enough left over for a fresh bouquet too!).
I love the combination of the White Chocolate Buttercream with the Brown Sugar Chai Latte flavors. It’s rich and slightly nutty, plus a very firm frosting that is perfect for holding up layer cakes. I refrigerate the frosting between each layer for 25-30 minute before adding the next layer. It make frosting so much each and keeps your cake nice and straight!
I love this cake for a fall birthday or holiday get together. It is so good and something a little different than the normal holiday cakes. Another shout out to how amazing chai spices really are!
Brown Sugar Chai Latte Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 225g (1 cup) Plant-Based Yogurt*
- 1 cup Plant-Based Milk*
- 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 150g (¾ cup) Sugar
- 150g (¾ cup) Light Brown Sugar
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- ⅔ cup Oil*
- 320g (3 cups) All Purpose Flour
- 32g (¼ cup) Cornstarch
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Ground Cardamom
- 1-½ tsp Ground Allspice
- ½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
Buttercream
- 1 serving White Chocolate Buttercream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium mixing bowl combine the yogurt, milk, vinegar, brown and white sugar, vanilla and oil and whisk ingredients well. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices) and whisk well.
- While whisking the dry ingredients, slowly add the wet ingredients. Continue adding and stirring until the batter is combined and contains no lumps.
- Grease and flour your pans (I used three 6" pans for this recipe) and pour the batter evenly into the pans and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the middle cleanly.
- Let cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then removed from pans and let cool completely. While your cakes are cooling, make the buttercream according to the instructions.
- Once your cake is cooled, frost and decorate however you would like! Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
happy baking!
