Chai Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Deliciously spiced Chai Cake with a brown butter cream cheese frosting - this cake is full of deep flavors and is perfect for the colder weather that comes with this time of year.

When the weather turns a little colder and the days are shorter, there's nothing quite like chai spices to warm your cockles. This perfect cake is packed full of aromatic spices and has the perfect balance of warmth from the cake and sweet, tangy nuttiness from the brown butter frosting. It's almost like an elevated carrot cake (without the carrots of course), with a deeper flavor and a more sophisticated frosting.

The flavor goes a little deeper than the typical spiced flavors that fall baking brings - such as in my Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes or Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies. Chai cake has a much more intense, deep, rich flavor that makes you feel cozy on the inside with every single bite.

Jump to:

• What is Chai?
• Ingredients
• How To Make the Chai Cake
• How to Make Brown Butter
• How to Make the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
• Assemble and Decorate
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
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• Recipe

What is Chai?

Chai is a black tea blended with strong spices like cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and black peppercorns. Chai originates from India, though there are many different variations of it across the globe.

Chai tea is often brewed in milk with a sweetener to create masala chai - similar to what we know as a chai latte. Chai is now often used to make various hot beverages and baked goods, such as this chai layer cake.

Traditionally, the chai would be brewed using black tea and whole spices in milk or hot water, but now, pre-blended chai tea is readily available at the grocery store.

Ingredients

• Milk - The milk will be infused with the chai tea to bring that wonderful chai flavor, so I recommend using whole milk as the fat content will help to carry the flavor. However, any milk work.

• Chai Tea - You can use chai tea bags or loose-leaf tea - whatever your personal preference is. I tested the recipe with both and they both brought similar results.

• Butter - It's best to use unsalted butter and make sure it's at room temperature before you begin (as with all the other cold ingredients).

• White Sugar - This cake recipe uses two kinds of sugar. The white sugar should be extra fine (caster sugar in the UK).

• Brown Sugar - You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, it's totally down to your preference. Dark brown sugar will taste a little more of molasses.

• Eggs - Always use large eggs and free range if you can.

• Sour Cream - Sour cream helps add moisture and a lovely texture to the cake.

• Oil - I used vegetable oil but any kind of flavorless oil will do the trick. e.g. Canola oil

• Flour - I used all-purpose flour, but you could also use cake flour for this cake if you want. Cake flour will make it slightly more tender, though it's already a soft cake.

• Vanilla - The vanilla helps to round off all the warm spices, try to use a high-quality vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. Note, this won't make it taste like a 'vanilla chai cake' as the chai spices will be the star of the show.

• Spices - Alongside the chai tea, we will be adding some actual spices to the cake batter to punch up the chai flavors. I used ground cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and nutmeg in this recipe, but you could also add some star anise or cloves.

See recipe card for quantities.

How To Make the Chai Cake

• The first step is to steep the chai tea in hot milk to release those wonderful flavors. This is actually the process of making masala chai (also known as a chai latte). The process is the same whether you are using chai tea bags or loose-leaf chai tea. Put the milk and tea into a small saucepan and slowly warm it over low heat until it begins to simmer - do not let the milk boil. Once it starts to simmer, remove it from the heat and let the tea continue to steep in the milk as it cools.

• Once the milk has completely cooled, remove the tea. If you are using loose-leaf tea, simply run the milk through a fine mesh sieve to remove all the tea. If you are using teabags, just pull them out. Make sure to squeeze each chai tea bag to get any excess liquid out of it.

• Once the milk has cooled and you are ready to start baking the chai spice cake, preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C and grease two 8-inch cake pans. I like to line the bottom of my pans with parchment paper cake circles and then spray all over with cake release spray.

• In a large bowl, beat together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. If you are using a stand mixer, do this with the paddle attachment at medium speed. It is definitely possible to do this by hand, it's just a bit harder work. You could also use an electric mixer.

• Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition. I find it best to crack the eggs into a small bowl first to make sure I don't get any egg shells in the cake batter.

• Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients (except the milk), so this includes the sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Scrape down the bottom of the bowl.

• In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, including the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

• Add one-third of the flour mixture to the main cake batter and mix it in completely at a low speed.

• Pour in half of the chai-infused milk and mix it until totally incorporated.

• Add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk and then the remaining flour. It's important to mix well in between each addition, otherwise, the milk and flour will make a gluey mess.

• Now is a good time to taste-test your cake batter to see if you might want to add more spices.

• Pour batter into the cake pans, try to get evenly distribute the batter so you have half in each prepared pan.

• Bake at 350°F / 180°C for 35 - 40 minutes or until a skewer or cake tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.

• Let the spice cake cool for at least an hour in the pan before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.

How to Make Brown Butter

It's best to brown your butter earlier in the day so it has time to cool and harden before you make the frosting. I actually have a whole blog post about how to brown butter if you'd like a more in-depth guide.

• Put the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and let it melt. As it heats it will start to froth and then bubble up with a sort of crackling sound.

• Once the crackling sound subsides a little, the butter will very quickly start to deepen in color. Once you can smell the gorgeous nutty aroma and it looks a golden brown color, take the butter off the heat and transfer it to another bowl to cool. make sure you scrape all the little brown milk solids into the bowl too - that's where all the wonderful flavor comes from!

• Once the butter has completely cooled, it should be the consistency of regular room temperature butter. Only then is it ready to use in the frosting. This may take a few hours so it's best to do this earlier in the day if you can, or even the day before.

How to Make the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

This brown butter frosting is a true masterpiece and it pairs absolutely perfectly with the chai sponge. The nutty flavor that comes from the brown butter really carries through the frosting and makes it so much more than just a cream cheese frosting. For more details on this part, check out my Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting recipe post.

• Beat the room-temperature brown butter and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl until smooth and combined. Make sure you get all the milk solids (brown bits) in with the brown butter.

• Sieve the powdered sugar into a medium bowl and then add it to the cream cheese mixture, a little at a time, mixing in between additions. If you add it all at once you'll end up with an icing sugar cloud all over your kitchen. It's important to sift your powdered sugar or you may end up with lumpy frosting.

• Add the vanilla and salt and then beat the frosting on high speed for one minute. I don't recommend trying to make this brown butter frosting without a stand mixer or electric whisk as it does need a lot of mixing.

Assemble and Decorate

• Once your cakes have completely cooled, slice off the dome of the cake. I like to use a cake leveler to ensure completely flat and even slices.

• If you want to have two thicker layers of cake, proceed to the next step. If you want to have four layers of cake, slice each cake in half horizontally to make four thin cake layers.

• Stack your layers of chai cake, spreading even amounts of brown butter cream cheese frosting in between each layer.

• Once you reach the top layer, spread a thick layer of frosting on top of the cake and smooth it out or texture it as you like (I did a basic spiral on mine).

• If you'd like to make the semi-naked cake style as I did, take a small amount of frosting and scrape it all around the sides of the cake using an offset spatula or bench scraper, filling in any gaps but leaving some of the cake showing through.

• Decorate the top of the cake with some ground cinnamon and some cinnamon sticks or star anise.

Substitutions

Whole Milk - While I recommend whole milk, you can use any kind of milk you like, even something like oat milk or coconut milk - whatever your preference is.

Sour Cream - You can replace the sour cream with greek yogurt for a similar result.

Chai Tea - If you'd rather not include the tea element, you can still make this cake with the spices alone. Try steeping some whole spices in the milk instead of the chai tea, then continue the recipe as normal.

Variations

Sheet Cake - If you'd prefer a square slice, need to feed many people, or just don't want the hassle of stacking and frosting an entire cake, try baking the chai cake in a square or rectangular cake form instead and spread the frosting on top to make a sheet cake.

Different Frosting - While I think the brown butter cream cheese frosting is the ultimate match for this chai cake, you could play with other kinds of frosting. A simple vanilla frosting could work well, or even a swiss buttercream. Or to kick up the heat, try adding some spices to the frosting itself for an even more intense flavor.

Citrus - Try adding some citrus to the chai cake with a little orange zest and juice in the cake batter for a little lift.

Equipment

• Large bowl
• 2 x 8-inch cake pans
• Saucepan
• Stand or electric mixer for frosting
• Cake Leveler

Storage

Once the cake has been filled and frosted with the cream cheese frosting, it will need to be stored in the fridge because of the dairy. Put it in the fridge in an airtight container - it will be good like this for up to five days.

If you have made the cake layers in advance and have not yet frosted it, wrap it in plastic wrap and store it at room temperature until you are ready to frost.

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