Chamomile Cake with Honey Creme Fraiche #CakeSliceBakers

May 19, 2020

Chamomile Cake with Honey Creme Fraiche #CakeSliceBakers

I am SO enjoying working my way through "The New Way to Cake" by Benjamina Ebuehi! Every month, I look at the Cake Slice Baker choices and flip back and forth between the pictures--trying to decide which cake I want to bake and blog about.

Check out the links at the bottom of the post to see what the other bakers picked!

What interested me in this cake was the author's description:

"If this cake was a person, it would be someone who appeared rather demure at first glance but within a few minutes would open up to reveal an exuberance that you couldn't help but want to be around." (pg 119)

Seemingly demure, but with a punch.

Like a nun that moonlights as a cage fighter. Wait--that's basically the plot of Nacho Libre.

Anyway, I had to try it.

I love tea, but I'll admit--when I look through my tea collection, I rarely choose chamomile. In fact, I rarely choose an herbal tea at all. I tend to prefer more assertive (and caffeinated!) flavors like Earl Grey or Constant Comment.

This cake will make me reevaluate my choices in the future, though.

Chamomile has long been used to calm anxiety, ease stomach issues, and promote relaxation. It has a slightly sweet, slightly earthy, floral, smooth taste...and gives this cake a very complex, sophisticated, and multi-layered flavor. And the "not too sweet" honey creme fraiche frosting complements it perfectly.

The flavor sneaks up on you subtly, and has dimension. It is not weird, though. My picky daughter loved it.

These are chamomile flowers--so pretty, like little tiny daisies. We have some little wildflowers growing in our back yard that kind of look like this, but turns out they are something else--still pretty, but with the unfortunate name of "fleabane."

The recipe suggested garnishing the cake with whole, dried chamomile flowers. The picture in the book looked beautiful, but I wasn't sure I'd like eating them on top of the cake. I'm sensitive to textures these days.

In keeping with the "demure" description, I decided to garnish the cake with tiny wafer paper "chamomile flowers" made with a daisy craft punch, topped with the teensy-est ball of yellow gumpaste. I have played around a lot with wafer paper, and was worried that it would just melt into goo. The flowers did absorb moisture and flatten, but didn't get gross. Score!

The frosting, as I mentioned, uses creme fraiche and honey. That's it. You'll never make an easier frosting. Creme fraiche is similar to sour cream, but thicker, creamier, and less tangy. In a pinch, you could probably just use sour cream. But if you can get a hold of some creme fraiche, it's worth it.

Give this Chamomile Cake with Honey Fraiche a try. You can have your cake and tea together:)

Chamomile Cake with Honey Creme Fraiche

from The New Way to Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi

Cake:

1 1/2 c flour

1/2 T baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 c plus 1 T milk

6 bags of chamomile tea (or 5 T dried flowers)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 c butter

1 c sugar

2 eggs

Frosting:

3/4 c creme fraiche

2 T honey

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8" cake pans with oil and rounds of parchment paper.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, heat the milk, vanilla, and chamomile to a simmer (without boiling). Cover, and allow to steep for 30 minutes before straining.

4. Using a stand mixer, beat the butter together with the sugar until fluffy and lightened in color. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure mixture is well beaten after each addition. Add 1/2 of the flour and briefly combine. Add the milk, the rest of the flour, and mix until just combined.

5. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for about 20 minutes (check at 18), until a toothpick comes out cleanly. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn cakes out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

6. To make the frosting, whisk the creme fraiche and honey together for one minute, or until it reaches soft peaks. Frost one layer with a thin layer of creme fraiche, place the other layer on top, and frost with a thicker layer of goodness. Garnish as desired.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The New Way To Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details. The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.