My mother drinks tea every morning. She steeps a bag of English breakfast or PG Tips in a tall, narrow Mason jar of boiling water. One shelf of the walk-in pantry is lined with smaller Mason jars, each full of cloudy amber-colored honey collected from the bees on our farm. Into her tea goes a large spoonful of that honey, then a generous glug of half-and-half, which swirls elegantly into the dark liquid, unspooling in curls and ribbons and turning the tea the antique-y white of heirloom bone china.
As delicate as the brewing is, the drinking is not: she is a self-professed tea gulper, swallowing down the entire thing in thirsty sips and often making another. It’s her morning ritual, one that usually follows a long run on the trail near our house, making it a welcome bit of warmth and sustenance. She might drink it after taking our dog for a hilly hike through the woods behind the ponds, or in between mixing and kneading a triple batch of pizza dough.
My dad drinks it after dinner and just before bed: he likes Prince of Wales, a mild black tea which he finishes in the quiet, hushed kitchen once everyone else has gone up to bed. Sometimes he takes it into his office (aptly dubbed World Headquarters), sipping it as he does the secret tasks we all like to invent for such a nobly named space: writing missives to captains of industry, designing state-of-the-art farm equipment, carrying out undercover missions for the CIA. You know. Standard dad things.
I like black tea too, just as they do. I’ve dabbled in matcha (a different tea situation altogether, really) and occasionally enjoyed herbal tea, but really I prefer it strong and flavorful and of the English Breakfast ilk.
If I can’t find English Breakfast, I’ll often take Earl Grey, although it has a much more distinctive flavor: floral and perfume-y. (I just Googled it to find a more specific term that “perfume-y” only to discover that it is, in fact, flavored with oil of bergamot. So there you have it. You learn something new every day.)
Because Earl Grey is delicate and citrusy, it’s an excellent ingredient in desserts. You’ll often see it in cookies, particularly shortbread, and sometimes madeleines and macarons. And one of my favorite ice cream flavors is the strawberry Earl Grey from the Bent Spoon in Princeton, New Jersey.
When I saw a recipe for an Earl Grey yogurt cake on Bon Appetit a few months ago, I bookmarked it immediately and set about baking.
This is a sturdy, everyday sort of cake made in a loaf pan. It’s got a similar texture to a banana bread with large crumbs and a moistness that borders on dense but isn’t quite. It keeps beautifully and freezes very well.
You can eat it plain—and you should—but it’s also very good toasted with a little salted butter on top of ice cream. Another approach here, instead of toasting a full slice, is to crumble it up, toast the crumbs in a little brown butter, and sprinkle those buttery crumbs over a bowl of ice cream or yogurt. Live large, people!
I’ve tweaked the original recipe in some little ways over time, and what follows is my version but you can find the original on Bon Appetit. I use less sugar in the batter itself than the original calls for, and more sugar on top—I love the crunchy crust it gives the cake. I also prefer using part melted butter, part vegetable oil. And finally, I found it better for the rise to use slightly more baking powder.
If you have a Pullman pan (a straight-sided loaf pan), use that! It’ll give a higher rise and prettier, more uniform shape to your cake. If not, a standard loaf pan is just fine.
If you don’t have Earl Gray, you can use other tea, of course. Just know it’ll alter the flavor profile—I’m looking forward to trying the recipe using Lapsang Souchong (a smoky-flavored tea) and a pinch of cardamom.
Earl Grey Tea Cake
Adapted from Bon Appetit
1/2 cup (99g) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (113g) melted butter
1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (227g) plain whole-milk yogurt
1/4 cup loose-leaf Earl Grey tea
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons raw or turbinado sugar (or more! go for it!)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line a loaf pan (Pullman or 9” x 5”) with parchment, then lightly grease the parchment.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugar until smooth and frothy. Whisk in the yogurt, tea, and vanilla.
With the stand mixer running (or while constantly whisking by hand), gradually pour in the vegetable oil and melted butter.
Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and mix gently to combine well.
Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and sprinkle the raw sugar in an even layer over the top.
Bake for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean without any wet batter clinging to it.
Remove from the oven, run a knife around the edges, and let cool for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. To be honest, often I just leave it in the pan and that’s just fine too!