Vegan Chai Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

Tea Ingredients

•  6 black tea bags
•  ⅔ cups boiling water
• 1½ cups oat milk (or other alt milk)

 Spiced Butter Ingredients

• 10 tbsp Miyokos Plant-Based Butter
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp ground cardamom

Dry Ingredients

• 5½ cups cake flour
• 2 cups + 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp kosher salt (or 1 tsp table salt)

Whipped Foam

• 6 tbsp aquafaba (liquid from canned chickpeas, see note at end of recipe)
• 1 tsp cream of tartar

Frosting

• Two 8-oz packages of Miyokos Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature
• ½ cup Miyokos butter, softened at room temperature
• 2½ cups powdered sugar
• ¼ tsp kosher salt (or ⅛ tsp table salt)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF and gather all of your ingredients. Grease and flour two 8” or 9” round cake pans.
2. Measure boiling water into a glass measuring cup. Add tea bags and steep for 5 minutes. Remove and squeeze tea bags to extract as much liquid as possible. Add oat milk and set aside.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan, and add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. Continue to heat butter until foamy. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.
5. Whisk aquafaba and cream of tartar together in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
6. Make the batter: Combine tea mixture and spiced butter. Add dry ingredients and whisk slowly and gently to combine. Stir about one-third of whipped foam into the batter to create a thinner texture. Fold in the remaining foam with a rubber spatula.
7. Transfer batter to prepared baking pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, between 24 and 30 minutes. Allow the cake to cool thoroughly, about 1-3 hours at room temperature.
8. To make the frosting, whisk butter and cream cheese together in a medium bowl until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add powdered sugar and salt, and whisk to combine (gently at first, so the sugar doesn’t fly everywhere).
9. Spread frosting evenly over one layer of the cooled cakes. Add the top layer and repeat with frosting. Slice and serve.

Recipe Notes and Variations

• This recipe for vegan chai spice cake was developed using Miyoko’s Salted European Style Cultured Vegan Butter and Miyoko’s Classic Plain Vegan Cream Cheese, but feel free to use your favorite plant-based butter and cream cheese or a lemon glaze.
•  This recipe calls for a hand whisk, but you can certainly use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer if you’ve got one.
• To obtain aquafaba, open and drain a can of chickpeas into a strainer set over a bowl. Reserve the chickpeas for another use, like hummus, curry, or a salad. Whisk the liquid to distribute the (invisible) starch before using it. The starch contains the magical foaming power!