Earl Grey Lavender Coffee Cake

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Earl Grey Lavender Coffe Cake || To Salt & See

I have been getting episodes of anxiety lately, and if you know me, you know that I am not an anxious person. In fact, I often get assigned to the anxious patients at my work due to my calm and collected nature. But lately it feels like time is speeding by and there is still so much to do before we leave for vacation at the start of May. When we get back, we are giving ourselves about 1.5 days to move out. So before we leave for vacation, we need to sell the furniture we aren’t planning to take with us, sell our car, find housing in LA, finish planning our vacation, etc, etc, etc. And the tough thing about these tasks, is that they take time and effort to complete each one, which means that I am pretty much glued to the computer at all hours of the day.

Personally, this is my fourth time needing to find housing in a different state. The first time was when my college roommate, Tessa, and I decided to move to Oahu for the summer (though lucky her, she is still living the Hawaiian life) after we graduated from college. We put a craigslist ad out that we were looking for housing, and an incredibly sweet and generous family reached out to us. We rented their disconnected mother-in-law suite at a reduced rate in exchange for babysitting their 3 kids. Then while living in Oahu I had to look for housing in Portland, Oregon for nursing school. Then while living in Portland, I had to look for housing with my now husband (who at the time was living in California) out in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In renting all 3 of these accommodations, I had not seen what they looked like prior to signing the rental agreement. But by the grace of God, He provided over and over, and each place worked out wonderfully. Oh, and thank goodness for google maps to help give you a sense of what the surrounding area looks like!

This time is a little bit different though because my in-laws live near LA, so if needed, they are able to check out the potential rental for us. One thing that I have noticed about trying to find housing in LA is that the vast majority of the places for rent are available NOW. I’m not sure if they don’t need to put places up in advance because they are confident with the large amount of people who need housing that they won’t have any issue with filling the space? But since we aren’t ready to move in right now, it has been tough to find housing without having to pay double rent in order to save the spot!

But enough about those troubles, let’s talk about this Earl Grey Lavender Coffee Cake! I have seen numerous recipes in the past that have been Earl Grey flavored and I have always been so curious about them. I decided to pair two tea flavors - earl grey and lavender- in order to create a unique and light coffee cake. The trick to getting these flavors infused into the cake is to steep them in warmed milk for 1 hour, after which you will strain. I was a bit skeptical that this would be able to sufficiently transfer the tea flavors to the batter, but boy was I wrong! This coffee cake is popping with earl grey and lavender flavors.

The citrus undertones of the earl grey and the floral flavorings of lavender make this coffee cake a perfect addition to your Easter brunch (or any spring occasion). I kept some of the classic coffee cake elements though, such as the cinnamon sugar middle and streusel topping. This cake is easy to make and can be made the night before or the morning of (just remember to include that hour of steeping time when planning out your time)!

Earl Grey Lavender Coffee Cake

Prep time:

Wait time:

Bake time:

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 10 Earl Grey tea bags
  • 2 Tablespoons culinary lavender
  • 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided
  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups + 1/3 cup sugar, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 cups flour, divided
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions:

  1. Melt 1/2 cup butter and the milk in a small saucepan over low heat until steamy. Remove from heat. Add the teabags and lavender, making sure that the teabags are submerged in the liquid. Steep for 60 minutes. Squeeze bags to get all the tea infused liquid out. Pour through a strainer into a separate bowl.
  2. Preheat oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan, spray the bottom and sides with nonstick spray. Set aside.
  3. Make the cinnamon sugar filling: combine 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tablespoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
  4. Make the streusel topping: combine 1/2 cup flour, 4 Tablespoons room temperature butter, the brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Set aside.
  5. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the tea-infused milk mixture and vanilla. Stir to combine. Set aside.
  6. In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 1/2 cups flour, the baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
  7. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir until just combined when no more flour is visible. Batter will be thick.
  8. Transfer half of the batter to the prepared springform pan. Spread evenly. Add the cinnamon sugar middle layer. Use an offset spatula to gently spread evenly. Add the remaining cake batter. Again, spread evenly. Evenly distribute the streusel topping.
  9. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for ~10 minutes before remaining the side of the pan.