Lemon Tea Cake
Way before bubble tea, or even more recently, hand shaken lemon tea became a fad, there was Vita’s pre-packaged lemon tea. Conveniently packed in seemingly indestructible tetrapacks, the humble Vita lemon tea is not to be underestimated - after all, they’re a core part of the Asian childhood experience for a good reason. I’m not sure how Vita do it - but they’ve somehow managed to balance strong black tea with a saccharine lemon syrup (that tastes like lemon 2.0), in a way that masks any tea tannins, and yet, is never quite too sweet. I have downed far too many of these in my lifetime to be truly objective, but in my opinion, this is an S tier drink. Which, of course, is why Vita lemon tea deserves first class treatment when it’s being transformed into cake form.
This cake also came together when I was mid-way through a binge of Bridgerton’s latest season, so this is a bit more of a formal, tea-time cake. This does involve candying your own lemons and making a chiffon cake, both of which take a little more time - but I promise, you won’t regret it.
Ingredients:
For the candied lemons:
2 organic lemons, sliced
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
For the cake:
90g cake flour
1tsp baking powder
4 eggs, separated
80g sugar
70ml evaporated milk (with 2 Lipton (or other black tea) teabags steeped in it)
50ml oil
Fillings
250ml of whipping cream
A few drops of yellow liquid food colouring (as needed)
1 teaspoon of lemon essence (to taste)
1 package of powdered gelatine
1 mug of strong Lipton black tea (no milk needed)
First, prep the candied lemons. Combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Slide in the lemon slices, and simmer until the piths look a little translucent, roughly 20 minutes. Set these aside on a kitchen towel to cool, and refrigerate until you need them. Save the candy syrup as well.
Next, it’s time to bake the chiffon cake. Start off by steeping 2 tea bags in warmed evaporated milk. Set this aside to cool until lukewarm.
In a clean bowl, whip up the 4 egg whites until they form stiff peaks, adding in 60g of sugar slowly as the egg whites get whipped up.
Whilst the egg whites are being whipped, combine the evaporated milk/tea mixture, egg yolks and remaining 20g of sugar in a separate bowl. Whisk these until the mixture is fluffy, and a foam forms.
Sift in the flour and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture, and lightly fold in. Pour the oil into the egg yolk mixture, and fold until just combined.
Fold in spoons of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture, being careful not to deflate the batter.
Pour the batter into a 8 inch round cake tin, and bake at 125°C for 30 minutes. Then, bake the cake at 150°C for 25 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool the cake upside down in the oven, with the door slightly ajar.
Whilst the cake is cooling, make the lemon and tea jellies. To make lemon jellies, slightly thin out the lemon candy syrup with hot water, and add powdered gelatine (following the instructions on your package of gelatine!). For the tea jellies, add powdered gelatine (also following the instructions on your pack of gelatine) to a mug of strong black tea. Refrigerate both mixtures to set.
Whilst the jellies are setting, prepare the lemon whipped cream by whipping the cream until it forms soft peaks. Fold in the yellow gel colouring, lemon essence and icing sugar to taste.
To assemble, slice the cake horizontally to form three thin slices of cake. Generously spoon in the lemon whipped cream on top of a layer of cake, followed by a few of the lemon and tea jellies. Top with a slice of cake, and repeat. Frost the top layer lightly with the remaining lemon whipped cream, and layer on the candied lemons. Serve immediately.