Cold Night, Warm Chai

It has been really chilly in Santa Cruz the past couple days.  I woke up and had pretty rough time prying myself from my warm bed to hop on my bike at 7 in the am.  After a day of biking and walking around in the late February chill, I decided that the perfect thing would be a Chai Cake from a recipe I have been wanting to use for a long time.  

Erin, one of my coworkers at Patagonia, made delicious gluten free, processed sugar free, dairy free CHAI cupcakes for me last week and I have been wanting to make some of my own.  Unfortunately, as we don't have a real oven or many baking tins, I decided to bunt it (use a bunt tin).  

It's supposed to rain tonight and be stormy all through tomorrow.  While I am excited to hunker down in our cozy new home, I knew that I would be even more excited if I had delicious chai cake to wake up to...the one thing I am lacking is frosting so I may have to run to the store in the morning to augment the cake.  I'll just have to wait and see if it needs the extra kick of sweetness.  

Given my dietary restrictions I was pretty excited to find this ready made recipe on a food blog called WHAT I CRAVE ...the name couldn't have been better considering this is literally what I have been craving.  Enjoy!

Chai Cake

Makes one 8 x 8 square cake or 12 cupcakes

3/4 cup coconut milk, full fat

3 chai tea bags (I used rooibos chai tea)

6 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 to 1/3 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon stevia

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup almond flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease or line cake or muffin pan.
2. Steep tea bags in coconut milk over low heat for 5 – 10 minutes.
3. Mix wet ingredients together.  Slowly add tea infused coconut milk.
4. Mix dry ingredients together.  Combine wet and dry ingredients thoroughly.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes for 8 x 8 cake or 18 minutes for cupcakes.  Because honey tends to burn, check the cake periodically and adjust the temperature as necessary.