Now that Fall is here it’s going to be all pumpkin spice everything. I know most people think it’s just the greatest because pumpkin is delicious.
I’m about to drop a major truth bomb, I’m just not that into pumpkin spice everything. You know what I like pumpkin spiced? Pumpkin pie. End of list.
Do you want to know the true hero of Fall? The chai latte. It’s just the perfect blend of Fall flavors and guess what? You can get it all year round!
Even better than a chai latte, a chai latte cupcake from Sprinkles. Mmmm. I miss living a few blocks from Sprinkles in Houston.
Since we aren’t fortunate enough to have a Sprinkles in St. Louis, I found my own way to make this delicious, rich, flavorful treat for all your sugar needs.
Here’s everything you need to make your perfect chai latte cake.
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temp
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk
Go ahead and preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour your pans so the cake doesn’t stick.
I went ahead and made a double layer cake, but you can do this recipe with cupcakes, a sheet cake, whatever you want.
First, in a small bowl, combine the ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and black pepper. You’ll want this mix in a bit, but for now set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and the butter until it’s light and fluffy. Then you’ll beat in the egg and vanilla, make sure to scrape down the bowl as you go.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 tsp of the spice mixture. Then alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to your butter and sugar mixture. Beat this until it’s all combined.
Next you just pour your mixture in you cake tins. Then bake for 20 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
While that’s baking, go ahead and whip up your icing. I love to use cream cheese icing for this cake. It’s just the perfect amount of sweet to match the spices of the chai. You’ve definitely seen my favorite cream cheese icing recipe on my cinnamon rolls before. I use this for everything.
4 tbsp butter, softened — I just let mine sit out on the counter while I’m doing the other steps, because I actually don’t like my butter all that soft for this frosting.
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
Mix the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. Whisk together until smooth, then add powdered sugar and whisk again on low speed. Once all of the powdered sugar is mixed in, add the heavy cream and whisk on medium speed for a minute or so.
Just pop this icing in the fridge to sit until your cakes cool enough to frost.
By now your cakes should be perfectly baked. Let them sit on a rack in the tins for a while until they are cool to the touch.
Once they are cool, you can go ahead and pop them out of the tins and ice them.
I chose to do mine just iced on top. I like the look of a not totally frosted cake.
