Chocolate Chai Tea Cakes
Hello loverlies, my friends and I are hosting a bloggers version of a cookie exchange today. I have a super easy recipe to share with you today. It tastes good and looks beautiful.
My chocolate chai tea cakes are filled with flavor and taste oh so loverly.
I miss seeing everyone in person and tasting all their treats.
I guess the bright side, is that when we host a cookie exchange on our blogs, it gives us the chance to share our recipes with you.
Your friends will question whether you actually made them or bought them from the store.
The recipe is reminiscent of one of my favorite throwback shows, Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee.
Miss Sandra would take simple recipes, like boxed cakes, and tweak them just a bit to make them FABULOUS.
The options for this simple little tea cake are endless, but for the holidays I am going to mix a couple of my favorite flavors, chocolate and chai tea.
To start, grab yourself a spice cake or chocolate cake mix.
I went with a spice cake this time.
Then, brew yourself some STRONG chai tea.
Loose leaf tea is preferred as the flavors are so rich and deep, but any chai tea will do.
You can even buy an ARBB bottle from the grocery store [all ready been brewed].
The back of the box shows the ingredients that you will need to mix the cake, but we are going to modify them a wee bit.
Let’s preheat that oven, because this is going to be quick! Follow the directions on the box as the temp and ingredients will vary depending on the type of cake mix you use.
The recipe calls for 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and 3 eggs.
We are going to substitute the water in the recipe with cooled chai tea.
YUM!
You can use this trick for ANY cake you bake, it adds a bit more flavor to the cake.
Let’s mix it up
Combine your eggs, oil and tea with your cake mix and stir until the lumps are smooth.
Once your batter is nice and smooth, pour it in to your greased cake pan and pop it in the preheated oven to bake.
The cake batter color for a spice cake doesn’t look so good, but the cake mix and chai tea together smell soooo good.
I wish you could smell it baking.
Waiting is the hardest part.
Now you may be asking yourself, I thought these were CHOCOLATE chai tea cakes.
Don’t worry, there will be chocolate wrapped around chocolate mixed with our chai tea cake.
Once the cake is done baking, remove it from the oven and let it cool.
This next part is great to get the kids to help because you get to squish the cake.
It’s like making cake balls, or cake truffles. Have you ever made those?
It doesn’t look pretty, but they are so delish. you just need to wait for the big reveal.
Please don’t be judgy with the pics, they are there to show you the process.
Stick with me, I won’t send you down the wrong path…but be kinds about this next group of photos.
Back to our chai ta cakes, it’s almost time to introduce the chocolate.
Now that the cake is cooled, you need to break up the cake.
Yeah, the onet you just beautifully baked.
Then crumble it up.
Then grab a can of chocolate frosting.
Frosting, meet cake.
Mix about 2/3rd of the can of chocolate frosting with the broken up cake.
Smush it, or have the kids do it. Just make sure to wash your hands first!
You want the consistency of play dough.
Glamor shot!
Now that the cake and frosting mixture is combined, sandwich it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and flatten it to about 1/2 inch thick.
Then we are going to cut out flattened cake and frosting mixture into squares.
The size will depend on what size silicone molds you have.
I love these 2 x 2 square silicone molds from Wilton.
They are perfect little 2 bite sized tea cakes.
You want the pieces to be a bit smaller than the mold, the better for covering in more chocolate.
Melt chocolate melts per the instructions, either a double boiler or in the microwave.
Add a dollop of chocolate in the square mold and then place a square piece of cake and give it a bit of a smush.
You want the chocolate to pop up around the edges, but don’t push it so far down it hits the bottom of the mold.
Once you get a row complete, use an offset spatula and smooth out the chocolate.
You can add a bit more melted chocolate if needed.
Keep going until the silicone mold is full of delicious chai tea cake wrapped in little chocolate presents.
Then pop the mold carefully in the freezer to set the chocolate.
How GORGEOUS is this picture? Ok, so it looks like a hot mess, but stick with me, we are almost at the reveal.
Now carefully flip over the mold and pop out your little chocolate chai tea cakes.
The silicone mold makes it so easy.
Aren’t they are so cute? I do think they still need a little sparkle.
I used a sharp knife to trim the edges and make them nice and neat.
A little embellishment of white chocolate and snowflake sprinkles make them ready for their close up.
Didn’t they turn out loverly?
The perfect mix of chocolate and chai tea wrapped up in a pretty little package.
These tea cakes are super easy to make and the flavor options are endless.
Are you a chai tea fan or are you going to try a different combination?
I have a few more options that are just as delicious.
If you liked the recipe, don’t forget to save it for later, pin it or send it to a friend.
Chocolate Chai Tea Cakes
Chocolate Chai Tea Cakes perfect for Holiday cookie exchange or party.
Ingredients
- 1 Boxed Cake Mix - spice cake or chocolate cake
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 chai tea bags or teaspoons of loose leaf chai tea
- 1 container chocolate frosting
- dark chocolate candy melts
- white chocolate candy melts
- sprinkles for decoration
- silicone candy mold 2 x 2 square
Instructions
- Brew a strong cup of chai tea. If you use loose leaf tea, use double the amount or use 2 tea bags for a cup of tea [8 oz]
- Prepare box mix according to instructions, but replace the water with chai tea
- Bake cake per instructions on box
- Let cake cool, then crumble baked cake in a large glass bowl
- Mix 2/3 of the container of chocolate frosting with crumbled cake to form a dough
- Press/roll cake/frosting mix between 2 pieces of parchment paper about 1/2 inch thick
- Cut cake into approximately 1.5 x 1.5 inch squares
- Melt chocolate or candy melts according to package instructions
- Place a TBP of melted chocolate/candy melt in each square of the first short row of the silicone mold.
- Top each dollop of melted chocolate/candy melt with square piece of cake and gently press into mold so that chocolate fills in the mold.
- Cover cake with a TSP of chocolate/candy melt.
- When first row is complete, smooth tops with offset spatula.
- Repeat process for remaining rows, working one row at a time.
- Place filled mold into the freeser for 5 minutes to set.
- Remove from mold and embelish your chocolate chai tea cakes
Notes
Engage your kids to work the frosting in to the crubled cake. Most kids will enjoy smushing the cake and frosting together to mix it.
When you start assembling the tea cakes in the mold, work with one short row at a time. This helps it so that the chocolate/candy melt does not harden before you top it off.
If your candy melts start to harden as you are working, you can remelt unused chocolate/candy melt per the package instructions.
Have fun
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Hello Juliet, I love how you’ve repurposed the chair legs into candlesticks!! I was happy to share your post at this past Wednesday’s Share Your Style #303 for you. A couple of years ago I made over some thrift store lamp bases into candlesticks and they turned out really well.
Fun ideas!!! Sorry if this is on the wrong post, but this was the Comment section that I found. 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Hugs,
Barb 🙂
They turned out beautiful and look delish! What a fun idea to have a blog hop cookie exchange. Wish I had thought of that. Thank you for sharing this idea at the Friday with Friends link party.
When the holidays are near, I will have another cookie exchange blog hop – I hope you can participate!