Earl Grey Lemon Loaf
A zesty loaf made with milk fragranced with darjeeling earl grey tea, and finished with a lemony syrup that makes the cake beautifully moist.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 125 ml whole milk
- 4 Earl Grey tea bags I like Whittard's Darjeeling or Earl Grey
- 115 g unsalted butter softened
- 225 g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 125 g self-raising flour
- 125 g plain flour
- Zest 1 lemon You'll also need the juice
For the syrup
- 3 lemons juiced
- 6 tbsp icing sugar sifted
For the icing
- 1 lemon juiced
- 200 g icing sugar sifted
Instructions
- To begin, place the milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Take it off the heat and immerse the Earl Grey tea bags in the hot milk. Cover the pan and set aside for 40 minutes.
- Squeeze the teabags out of the liquid and set aside to cool some more.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line a 1L loaf tin with baking parchment.
- Cream the butter and sugar together using an electric whisk for about 5-7 minutes. Scrape down the bowls from time to time to make sure everything is nicely incorporated.
- When it’s light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then add the lemon zest and vanilla extract, mixing again to combine.
- Add half of the flour and half of the tea-infused milk, mixing until combined. Add the rest of the flour and milk and mix until there are no traces of flour in the bowl.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Bake for 1hr 15mins – 1hr 30mins until golden brown and a cake skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, with only a few crumbs clinging to it.
- Make up the syrup in a small bowl by sifting the icing sugar and adding the juice of 3 lemons. Mix until smooth and runny.
- Once the cake has finished baking, remove it from the oven, place on a wire rack and prick all over with a skewer.
- Pour your syrup over the entire cake so it soaks it up while warm.
- To make the icing, mix the lemon juice and icing sugar together into a smooth paste. It should be quite gloopy so it doesn’t dribble too much down the sides {though a little dribble is okay}.N.B. You might not need all the lemon juice so add half and then add a bit more sparingly until you get the consistency you want.
- Pour over the loaves and leave the icing to set for about 30 minutes.
Notes
I like to use TeaPigs Darjeeling Earl Grey for this loaf, or their Strong Earl Grey for a fuller flavour.