We Should Cocoa ~ My Birthday Cake

When Choclette announced that this months challenge for We Should Cocoa was to be tea I was pretty excited, I'm a tea kind of a girl.  I knew just the book to head to for inspiration, imaginatively enough called the Tea Cookbook, which I'd picked it up in the Borders sale when they closed up shop (a dark day in my book loving history!!)

The Green Tea Cake with Green Tea and Lime Buttercream looked just the ticket but I've never tried green tea before and I wasn't sure I'd like it so I took matters in to my own hands and created my own version, a White Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Tea Infused Sugar Syrup and Vanilla Buttercream.  Sounds pretty decadent huh?  That was when I decided to make it for my birthday cake and based the decoration on this cake that I had seen previously on foodgawker.

Tea plantation - the wee blobs are women picking the tea leaves

The view whiel we were tea taste testing

Packaging the tea

The Vanilla Tea came from Mauritius.  While we were there we drank it every morning at breakfast and most afternoons with our afternoon tea too.  Mauritius isn't famous for its tea production which is a shame, but they produce enough to keep themselves going and to supply the thirsty tourists who pass through.  I took a tour of their tea production plant while I was there ... seems a weird thing to do while on honeymoon but I am a food geek through and through.  We got to see the tea production from plantation right through to the packaging in the factory and then we got to take part in a tea taste test ... gotta love a taste test!!  Vanilla was my fave but I also really liked the Dodo Tea which is coconut flavored and not Dodo flavoured!!!

So for this cake, and to fit in with the challenge, I made a half batch of the White Chocolate Cake and then spooned over some very generous quantities of the Vanilla Tea Infused Sugar Syrup.  I then made a double batch of vanilla buttercream which I used to layer the cake and also used it as a crumb coat.  I gave it two crumb coats just to be on the safe side.  Then I made another two batches to make the roses.  I takes a while to do as the buttercream needs to firm up in the fridge once applied to the cake and this has the knock on effect of drying the cake out but this is where the syrup helped enormously.  I can't say the flavour of the tea really shone through, far too much buttercream for that to happen, but it was there in the background giving a subtle hint to something else than the normal cake.

Vanilla Tea Infused Sugar Syrup
1 cup water
4 vanilla tea bags
1 cup sugar

On stove top, heat water to boiling in a saucepan. Remove from heat, add tea bags and allow to infuse for 5 minutes.

Remove tea bags. Return saucepan to stove top and bring to a slow boil. Stir in sugar, stirring constantly.

Continue stirring until sugar is completely dissolved, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Simple Syrup can be stored in a sealed glass container and refrigerated for up to 1 month

Found on the Republic Of Tea website
Only thing is that there is masses of this cake left, we can't get through it all as it is so rich ... any takers?