Recipe: Teh tarik cake (milk tea cake)

It's been months since I last updated my blog. Pictures are still in the RAW format and I still haven't had the time to edit them. Recipes are written somewhere in the head, and I just need to blog to have them out again. Sometimes when you have too many things to do, or you just had busy days, all you want to do during the weekend is to lazying around. That is how I'm feeling at the moment, and yet I'm forcing myself to write this before this blog being untouched for a longer time.


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This cake was made during spring. It was the time when the weather was still chilly, and I was hoping the day is getting warmer and sunnier. A cup of warm tea brightened up my day, and a sip of it brings out the happy memory that I have had almost forgotten. Teh tarik - milk tea made out of black tea and condensed milk, is my personal favorite during the cold season. It reminds me of my childhood, and the warm and sunny Malaysia. Strong black tea with a hint of sweet and creamy condensed milk, that's how I like mine to be.


I tried to recapture the taste of the tea that I like so much into a cake, and had fun creating it...

When I think back, the joy of making this cake came from remembering the things and moments that not present here. I was relieving the past...and not feeling melancholic about it. 

Teh tarik cake (milk tea cake)
[click for printable version]

Ingredients:

Milk tea
8 bags extra strong black tea
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup condensed milk (adjust the sweetness based on your liking, the condensed milk in Europe is not as sweet as the one in Malaysia)

Cake
125 g butter
5 tablespoons sugar (add more if you like it to be sweeter)
3 eggs
150 ml milk tea
300 g flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt


Milk tea frosting
60 ml milk tea
400 g cream cheese
20 g butter
*add icing sugar if you want it to be sweeter


Directions:
1. Brew the tea bags with hot water for 30 minutes. Remove the tea bags and stir in the condensed milk.
2. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease four 6-inch pans. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl, set aside
3. Beat the butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one followed by a tablespoon of the flour mixture to prevent the batter from curdling. Add half of the flour mixture, followed by the milk tea and the rest of the flour mixture. Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Put the cake pans onto the wire rack and take out the the cakes when the pans are cool.
4. While waiting for the cakes to cool, prepare the cream cheese frosting by adding all the ingredients into a small bowl and beat them slowly.
5. Assemble the cake by spreading the frosting onto each layer and cover the whole cake. Pour the remaining milk tea on the cake.