Chai Masala Chocolate Cakes: Gorgeously Egg-Free

Sweetly spiced little fairy cakes made with milk chocolate, chai masala tea and spices. Transform these egg-free chai masala chocolate cakes into fifteen cupcakes if you require something a little larger.

Last week was the nationwide Macmillan Coffee morning. It’s held annually to raise funds for cancer care. I took along a batch of these chai masala chocolate cakes to Jelly Pebbles, which was our venue for this most excellent of fund raisers. I also made some, on a third day of baking, for the Town Team’s bake sale.

The Great Chocolate Bake

Despite many attempts to oust it in popularity, it seems the cupcake is here to stay. To celebrate its Fine Cooks’ chocolate range, Dr Oetker have issued a new cupcake challenge – The Great Chocolate Bake.

Apart from the fun to be had in creating your own cupcake design, there is quite an incentive to win. The prize is a trip to the home of the cupcake itself, New York. You have until the 17th of October to make some sort of chocolate cupcake and enter it on the Dr Oetker Facebook page by submitting a photograph of your masterpiece.

Dr Oetker have a number of chocolate products that are ideal for making and decorating cupcakes. These include a dark 72% as well as a 54%, a milk 35% and white chocolate in 150g bars. They also offer chocolate chips and chunks in dark, milk and white.

With all this talk of cupcakes and a veritable cornucopia of Dr Oetker chocolate sent to me to use, my contribution was definitely going to be of the cupcake variety.

Chai Masala Chocolate Fairy Cakes

As regular readers will know, taste and texture are my prime concerns. The rest is literally icing on the cake. I’ve long been a fan of chai tea, despite my lack of partiality for the black stuff. I’ve always thought it would make an excellent flavour in cakes, but until now I haven’t tried it.

I adapted a recipe for Chai Masala Cupcakes from Indian Inspired Desserts by Roopa Rawal, mostly by adding chocolate. I’ve had my eye on this recipe for ages; it is a particularly interesting one as it is made without eggs.  Although I normally bake with dark chocolate, chai is such a sweet drink, I decided that milk chocolate would be the best choice in this instance.

I had to bake these in two batches as I didn’t have enough bun holders and just as well I did. The first batch fooled me and I thought they were done when in fact they weren’t. This resulted in a deliciously light yet fudgy consistency, but had the downside of sinking in the middle and pulling away from the bun cases which I wasn’t best pleased about.

The second batch I baked for a little longer and luckily they looked a lot better.

The cakes have a definite, but not overpowering taste of sweetly spiced chai tea. The texture is moist but also very light with a slightly fudgy consistency which everyone found most appealing. I was gratified to get some positive feedback from the two people who tried them before I left to go home and get my next next batch of cakes started.

I think these chai masala chocolate cakes are now my favourite fairy cake recipe. It’s an all round winner.

Other Little Cupcake Recipes You Might Like

• Apple crumble & custard cakes
• Chocolate whisky cakes
• Mini chocolate surprise cakes
• Mini orange cakes
• Rum & raisin cupcakes

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these chai masala chocolate fairy cakes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips?  Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

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If you’d like more egg-free recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Chai Masala Chocolate Cakes. PIN IT.

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5 from 2 votes

Chai Masala Chocolate Fairy Cakes

Little cakes made with milk chocolate, chai masala tea and spices that could easily be transformed into 15 cupcakes if something a little larger is required.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time45 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Steeping Time8 hours hrs

Total Time50 minutes mins

Course: Afternoon Tea, Snack

Cuisine: British

Keyword: cakes, chai, chocolate, chocolate cake

Servings: 20 fairy cakes

Calories: 283kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

Chai

• 450 ml milk ( I used the milky whey left over from making paneer)
• 2 tsp black tea leaves
• ¼ cinnamon stick crushed
• 1 whole clove
• 3 cardamom pods lightly crushed

Cakes

• 80 g milk chocolate (Dr Oetker 35%)
• 170 g unsalted butter softened
• 150 g golden caster sugar (I used cardamom sugar)
• 50 g dark muscovado sugar
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 190 g flour half wholemeal, half plain
• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• ¼ tsp Himalayan pink rock salt
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar or cider vinegar

Chai Chocolate Icing

• 50 g milk chocolate (I used Dr Oetker 35%)
• 110 g unsalted butter softened
• 150 g icing sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• ⅛ tsp ground ginger
• ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

Chai

• Bring the milk to the boil along with the tea and spices. Turn the heat off, cover the pan and leave to infuse overnight.
  450 ml milk , 2 tsp black tea leaves, ¼ cinnamon stick, 1 whole clove, 3 cardamom pods

Fairy Cakes

• Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling, water. Leave to cool a little.
  80 g milk chocolate
• Cream the butter and sugars together until pale in colour and fluffy.
  170 g unsalted butter, 150 g golden caster sugar, 50 g dark muscovado sugar
• Add the spices and cream some more.
  1 pinch ground cloves, ¼ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger
• Sift in the dry ingredients and then stir adding 390 ml of the chai tea as you go.
  190 g flour, 3 tbsp cornflour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), ¼ tsp Himalayan pink rock salt
• Stir in the vinegar and melted chocolate.
  1 tsp white wine vinegar
• Divide the mixture between 20 bun cases, filling them to about ¾ of the way up. Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 20 mins or until they're well risen and a cake tester came out clean. Leave for a couple of minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
• Allow to cool, then top with icing of choice and dark chocolate. I used a half quantity of chocolate chai buttercream (see recipe for Chocolate Chai Masala).

Chai Chocolate Icing

• Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling, water. Leave to cool a little.
  50 g milk chocolate
• Cream the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy.
  110 g unsalted butter, 150 g icing sugar
• Beat in the vanilla extract and spices followed by 40ml of the remaining chai. Stir in the melted chocolate until just incorporated.
  ½ tsp vanilla extract, 1 pinch ground cloves, ⅛ tsp ground ginger, ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
• Spread on top of the cooled cakes then decorate with milk chocolate drops if wished.

Notes

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 283kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 37mg | Sodium: 75mg | Potassium: 122mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 25g | Vitamin A: 436IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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The letter selected for AlphaBakes this month is C. This means I could theoretically enter every bake I post this month using C for Chocolate. However, I am going for something a little bit different and am entering these as C for Chai. This is a monthly challenge hosted alternately by The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes.

As this is a recipe I’ve had my eye on ever since I got the book last year, I am submitting this to Bookmarked Recipes over at Tinned Tomatoes.