Right now Jeremy and I are at the Palm Desert Food & Wine Festival taking in the amazing desert scenery and the delicious food, (and wine too of course!) On top of the fun of the festival, which I’ll talk more about next week, this weekend is even more special because Monday is my birthday, so I’ve declared these two days to be my birthday weekend extragavanza! And no birthday weekend would be complete without a birthday cake. So this year I decided to turn one of my all-time favorite drinks, Thai Iced Tea, into my birthday cake. To get the Thai tea flavor I finely ground the Thai tea leaves in my little coffee/nut grinder, and then I mixed them together with sweetened condensed milk (the other standard addition to Thai Iced Tea) over low heat to help the flavor steep a bit. I also learned here that canned coconut milk can be whipped up to a near-whipped cream-like consistency, so I used a similar tactic to create the frosting. Once it was all put together in cake-form, it was like the heavens parted, and the gods of Thai food smiled down on me, giving me this wonderfully delicious and adorable gift. Basically, Jeremy and I inhaled it. Entire cake gone within a few days between the two of us. Kind of gross, I know. But to be completely fair, it looked smaller than it actually was, so we didn’t realize how much we were eating. The great thing about this cake, from a decorating perspective, was how firm and spongey it was; which made it perfect for lots of layering since it wasn’t going to get all crumbly and break apart when I started to stack it. I love it when cake decorating can be made that much easier, since it’s usually such a tedious and gentle process. I could have dropped a layer on the ground by accident and it wouldn’t have broken!
And of course, no birthday would be complete without any presents, either! A few weeks ago, Shutterfly generously offered to giveaway an 8 x 8 inch Photo Book, and today I am announcing the winner. Drumroll, please….
Congratulations Anika!
I will be getting in touch with you shortly so you can start making your own beautiful Shutterfly Photo Book.
Thai Tea Cake with Creamed Coconut Frosting
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Cooling Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients
Thai Tea Cake
- 1 Cup Plus 3 Tablespoons Flour
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 4 Eggs room temperature
- 1 14 Ounce Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 1/4 Cup Butter melted
- 1 Tablespoon plus 1 Teaspoon Thai Tea
- 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Creamed Coconut Frosting
- 1 Can Coconut Milk refrigerated for at least 4 hours prior to use
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- 1 Cup Plus 3 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Butter
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the Thai tea in a coffee or nut grinder and pulse until finely ground. Stir together the sweetened condensed milk and the Thai tea grounds in a small saucepan over low heat. Allow the mixture to warm up for 10 minutes, stirring every minute or so, until turns an orange/light-brownish color. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
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In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs until blended. Add the sweetened condensed milk mixture 1/3 cup at a time, mixing vigorously after each addition. This will help the eggs to slowly warm up, if you add the entire condensed milk mixture at once it may cook the eggs.
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In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder and stir until blended. Stir the dry ingredients, melted butter, and vanilla extract into the cake batter until completely combined.
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Pour the cake batter into (4) well-greased and lightly floured 5-inch cake pans, or (2) well-greased and lightly floured 8-inch cake pans. Place pans in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, (I used the smaller cake pans, which makes them cook a bit quicker, so if you use regular-sized cake pans you may need to add 5 or 10 minutes onto the baking time), or until golden and a knife/toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
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Remove the pans from the oven, shake them back and forth a bit to loosen their grip on the pan, and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before attempting to remove them from the cake pans. It helps if you run a spatula alongside the inside of the pan before flipping them over. Once removed, place them on a wire rack to continue to cool for 30 minutes.
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Meanwhile, you can get started on the frosting. Remove the can of coconut milk from the refrigerator and do not shake it. Remove the lid and scoop out the thick white part that looks kind of like crisco, leaving the clear stuff behind. Place the white part in a medium-sized bowl. Add the cream of tartar and 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 1 minute. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter and the remaining powdered sugar until a smooth frosting forms. Stir together the frosting mix and the whipped coconut. Cover the bowl and keep the frosting refrigerated until the cake is cool enough to be frosted, and then mix it up a bit before frosting.
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To frost the cake, simple spread the frosting between the layers and then spread the frosting all around the outside of the layered cake. Serve immediately, and refrigerate any leftovers (the frosting will melt easily due to the coconut cream).
this is really and amazing cake that I would be afraid to eat, but it still sounds delicious
This looks amazing! Super delicious – what a great flavor combo!! 🙂
This is brilliant and sounds amazing! Happy early birthday!
I love how gorgeous all your photos are. Happy belated birthday. I wish you nothing but happiness and success throughout your life.
Now on to this sky-high cake! This sounds and looks so dreamy and delicious. I know it must have made for an exceptionally fantastic birthday. Very well done. Hope you had a great weekend.
Thanks so much Tia! The weekend was a blast, a very much needed getaway 🙂
This looks beautiful AND delicious! Thank you for the tutorial 🙂
I may be a little dense (no, I'm certain that I am sometimes!) but just to clarify: you process the dry tea leaves, right? And Thai tea? Any type of Thai tea works? Thanks! Will definitely try this recipe, but don't want to mess it up! 🙂 It's a beautiful cake!
If by process you mean grind them down so that they're more finely ground, yes. I don't change the flavor of the leaves or anything. And yes, any type of standard Thai tea should work, if you're unsure of whether or not you have the right Thai tea, it should turn whatever it's soaked in orange when soaked in a hot liquid, and smells sweet and vanilla-y. Something like this would work: http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Iced-Traditional-Restaurant-Style/dp/B000UPNK9S
This is absolutely stunning! Glad to have found your blog 🙂
Thai tea is so good isn't it ?
ratedkb.blogspot.com
Love this idea! It reminds me of one of my favorite teas from Celestial Seasonings – the Coconut Thai Chai. Yum!
This just made my day. I am obsessed with Thai Iced Tea, and now that I can marry it with my love of baking, I am one happy girl!
Why is the frosting so lumpy?
After I took the frosting out of the refrigerator I just stirred it up with a wooden spoon, if you wanted it to be very smooth you could use an electric mixer, I just didn't mind the texture 🙂
What a beautiful cake!!
I recently nominted you for the Versatile Blogger award. I'm so glad to have found your blog and love all the amazing recipes you share!! You can find more info here – http://thecornerkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/03/award.html
Thanks Kelli!! Your blog is lovely 🙂
I looooove Thai Tea, but I've never considered a thai tea cake! It sounds amazing. I'll for sure be trying this one.
I highly recommend it 🙂
Deliciousness!!! I love thai tea- this must be heaven!
what a beautiful (and tall) cake. I love the idea of using tea in baked goods.
Thank you! Tea really is a great flavor addition
That's an amazingly tall cake! Beautiful!
Thanks! The spongey-ness of the cake makes it easy for tall stacking 🙂
I've been wanting to add tea to flavor a cake and your cake looks positively gorgeous. I can only dream how beautifully it must taste and smell!
Where does the melted butter get added in?
Oops! It gets added in at the same time as the vanilla extract, post is now revised 🙂
Can you by Thai Tea in the grocery store? Is it simply called "Thai Tea"? The cake is lovely…thanks for sharing!
I am not sure if they have it at places like Ralph's or Albertson's, but Whole Foods would definitely have it.
I saw this a couple months ago (pinned it) and since have been in love with the idea.
So question- I'm making it for my boyfriends birthday tonight but when I was at the store I picked up the thai tea the is already mixed with milk in a bottle. Do you think it will still work and how much of the mix should I use?
Thank you so much!
Ah! Sorry I am replying late! But I think it would work as long as you subtracted whatever amount of the pre-prepared thai tea liquid you're putting in from the sweetened condensed milk so that the cake batter doesn't get too watery.
Too fabulous for words… xv
Hi Eva
What are those sticks in the cake for? Do you cut around them.
Hi Jackie! The sticks are paper straws. They are inedible so I just removed them right before cutting the cake 🙂
I've baked the cake and it's cooling and I just went to open the coconut milk I had in the fridge for 5 hours and it is not like your ccn milk. It's still soupy and mixed in with the light stuff. Bummer 🙁
Could it be because it's a "lite" coconut milk? I just bought it last week, so it can't be old. I'm making this cake for an even tonight and my son is sleeping and I probably can't run to the store. Are there any other frostings that might go well with this cake? I have general baking ingredients. Thank you for your help. I love your recipes and make them often. This cake is DELICIOUS!
Thank you so much Nikki! I am sorry the coconut milk didn't separate, and I think you are right, it is probably because it was a light variety. It is the fat that coagulates at the top, so if there isn't any/enough fat the milk must not react the same way. I will remedy the ingredient list and specify whole coconut milk, I am glad that you are enjoying the cake though!
This is the second recipe I’ve tried for thai iced tea cake. The first one was resoundingly bad, and I have to say, I’m disappointed in this one, too. The cake is dry and still doesn’t have enough thai iced tea flavor. The icing is lumpy and unattractive, and too sweet with no real flavor-not even the coconut cream I wasted a jar for comes through flavor-wise. I guess I’m gonna just have to make my own recipe.
This cake was so dry, the driest cake I’ve ever made in my life. The frosting sucked was inedible. I had high hopes for this, sucks that I wasted money buying all the ingredients.
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