rose karak tea cake, rose and orange icing glaze

For the cake: 

• 280g butter 
• 280g caster sugar
• 5 eggs
• 280g self raising flower
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp of ground karak tea blend (you can also use a masala chai blend, the key is a good quality spiced black tea blend). 
• Pinch of nutmeg 
• 2 tbsp rosewater
• 2 tbsp milk 

For the icing glaze:

• 300g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp rosewater
• 1 tbsp milk
• Juice of half an orange 

To decorate:

• 1-2 tbsp toasted almond flakes
• 1 tbsp crushed pumpkin seeds and/or pistachios
• 1-2 tbsp of rose petals and/or rosebuds

1. Heat oven to 170 degrees (fan) 
2. Grease and lightly flour a 26cm bundt tin
3. Thoroughly cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl.
4. Beat in the eggs (1-2 at a time) and mix in the rosewater
5. Thoroughly mix together all the dry cake ingredients, sieve the dry mix into the wet mix and then gently fold the dry mix into the wet mix with a wooden spoon.
6. Gently stir in the milk to loosen. You will have a consistently close to a drop batter consistency. 
7. Pour the batter into the tin, aiming for a level surface all round (you can use a palette knife or flat utensil to help).
8. Bake for 40-45 mins, until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Leave the cake to settle and cool in its tin for 5-10 minutes, before holding a plate on top of the tin to flip the cake and transfer it to the plate.
10. Leave the cake to cool.
11. Whilst the cake is cooling, mix together all of the icing ingredients 
12. Pour the glaze onto the cake in circles, decorate and enjoy! 

• See reels on toyotastes (IG) for visual aids. 
• If unfamiliar, karak is a beautifully fragrant, strongly spiced black tea very popular in the Gulf states, with roots in masala chai (brought over to the region by South Asian migrants).
• Make sure your cake ingredients are at room temperature before you begin!
• If your tea blend is not in powder form, you can use a spice or coffee grinder to grind it, or a good smoothie maker (I use my Ninja smoothie attachment). It doesn’t need to be a powder as fine as icing sugar, but ideally you want particles finer than coarse black pepper.