This cake is easy to make, and gets just a little extra flavour from the Zeeuwse Tea. The tea, with its summery scent of mango and naranjilla, a tropical citrus fruit, tastes delicious in this cake, which is also lovely and fresh thanks to the lemon curd.
The Zeeuwse Knop cake tin is the perfect finishing touch. If you don't have one, you can also use a springform tin about 20–24 cm in diameter.
Black tea adds a little more flavour to your cake batter than green tea. But some herbal and fruit teas also work well, as in the Pear Cake with Toffee Pear.
Adding tea flavour
To add tea flavour to your recipe, you could simply add tea leaves to your batter. But although tea leaves are technically edible, most tea blends are made for brewing tea, not for eating.
You can't add much extra liquid to a cake recipe. If you add a cup of brewed tea, your batter will be very runny. You could compensate by adding more flour, but that can quickly throw off the balance between the sugar, butter and flour.
A better option is to steep (infuse) the tea in your butter. That way, the tea flavour comes through in an ingredient you need anyway.
Ingredients
For this cake, you'll need:
- Round springform tin, 20–24 cm
- 125 grams liquid margarine
- 125 grams butter
- 30 grams Nijmegen tea
- 200 grams sugar
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 30 ml milk or Greek yoghurt
- 200 grams cake flour (or self-raising flour + a sachet of vanilla sugar)
- 25 grams custard powder
- 200 ml lemon curd
Butter tastes best in cake. But liquid margarine is a little healthier because it contains more unsaturated fatty acids, which are better for your cholesterol. I usually go half and half. Just to ease my conscience a little, you know.
Baking the cake
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Once melted, add the tea and let it warm gently for 5 minutes. Don't let the butter get too hot or turn brown. This changes both the flavour and texture of the butter. After 5 minutes, remove the butter from the heat and leave the tea to steep for another 5 minutes.
Place your mixing bowl on a scale and set it to zero (tare). Strain the tea-infused butter into the bowl and use the back of a spoon to press as much butter as possible out of the tea leaves. Check the scale to see how much butter you have. The aim is to have 200 grams of butter. I usually fall just short, so I add a little more butter afterwards. Leave the butter to cool completely and solidify at room temperature.
You can do this ahead of time to avoid having to wait for the butter.
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees, using conventional heat (top and bottom).
Grease your cake tin well. Dust (only) the base with a little flour.
Then line the sides with a strip of baking paper about 10 cm wide, extending above the top of the tin. This stops the tin from overflowing as the cake batter rises—and gives you a lovely tall cake.
(If you're using a regular springform tin, you don't need baking paper. Greasing and dusting with flour is enough.)
Add the sugar to the butter and beat with a stand mixer on low until nice and creamy. The butter will gradually become lighter in colour. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each until fully incorporated. Then add half the cake flour. Mix it in thoroughly on low speed. Add the other half, along with the custard powder and milk/yoghurt. Beat for a few more minutes until light and fluffy.
Spread the batter evenly in your springform tin and bake the cake for 60–75 minutes, until cooked through. It's ready when a skewer comes out clean, or the top springs back when you press it gently.
Leave the cake to cool for a few minutes, then remove it from the tin and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely, covered with a tea towel.
Cut the cake in half horizontally and spread a layer of lemon curd over the bottom half. Homemade is of course best, but shop-bought works too. Just give it a good stir first.
Place the top half back on and dust with icing sugar. Simple but effective.
It's best to store the cake well covered or in a cake box. I find it tastes even better after a day than when freshly baked. By then, some of the lemon curd has soaked into the cake.
