Earl Grey Loaf Cake is light and tender with the perfect touch of earl grey flavor. Perfect for tea time… and beyond!
This Earl Grey Loaf Cake it essentially a pound cake with earl grey tea baked right into it! It’s not a pound cake in the original sense of the word, where the recipe calls for a pound of each ingredient, but the texture is perfect and that touch of earl grey flavor is sure to bring a smile to your face 🙂 Let’s make it!
Disclaimer: this post may contain affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase any of the items linked in this post, I should earn a small commission. This creates no additional cost to you and helps support the work that goes into running The Fig Jar. Thank you! -Becky
Ingredients
Earl Grey Loaf Cake
Very simple ingredients for this light and tender little loaf cake! To make it, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter: you will need to start with softened butter but it should still have a firmness to it. You don’t want it to be greasy or melty.
- Sugar: just buy regular granulated sugar, don’t substitute brown sugar as it has a higher moisture content and will affect the cakes structure.
- Eggs: you will need 5 eggs to make this cake! You’ll notice this cake doesn’t call for baking powder or baking soda, that’s because the eggs make up the main leavening source in this pound cake.
- Earl Grey tea: just buy single-serve tea bags and cut them open. I used 4 tea bags to get the 1.5 tbsp the recipe calls for.
- Vanilla
- Lemon zest
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
How to make an earl grey loaf cake
To make this cake, you’ll want to get out that stand mixer (affiliate link). If you don’t have one, you can still use an electric hand mixer, but it’s going to be a tad more work.
First, cream the butter by itself, then gradually add the sugar and beat until lightened in color and creamy. This will take about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile whisk the eggs, earl grey tea, vanilla and lemon zest together in a separate bowl.
And sift flour, cornstarch and salt. Set this aside until ready to use.
Once the butter and sugar creaming has occurred, gradually add the egg mixture, about 1 tbsp at a time, then beat for about 3 minutes.
Then add the flour gradually (in 3 additions) while beating on low speed until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Scrape the batter into a greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and bake at 325F until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This can take up to an hour and fifteen minutes. Worth it though!
Whisk up the icing and drizzle onto the (cooled) cake! I topped mine with dried edible flowers for a fun special touch, but that’s totally optional.
What flavor goes with earl grey?
I think earl grey is delicious all on its own, but it is lovely paired with cream, lemon and lavender. Maybe not all together. But this cake recipe calls for lemon zest and there is a creamy element in a sense with the sweet cake dough and creamy icing!
What does the name earl grey mean?
Ever wondered where the name “Earl Grey” came from? Me too! It’s name after British Prime Minister from the 1830’s, Charles Grey.
Does earl grey have caffeine?
Yes, earl grey has caffeine as it is made with black tea. You can however, find decaffeinated earl grey tea. Just keep in mind that decaffeinated teas still contain a small amount of caffeine. I am caffeine sensitive and mostly drink decaf coffee and tea and do not find that they bother me.
Tried this recipe?
If you try this recipe, please consider leaving a comment/rating below and let me know how it went. I’d love to hear from you! You can also connect with me on instagram and Pinterest.
More earl grey recipes to try
Earl Grey Loaf Cake
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- 9 x 5 inch loaf pan
- Mixing bowl
- Rubber spatula
Ingredients
Earl Grey Loaf Cake
- 5 eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 tbsp earl grey tea about 4 tea bags, emptied
- zest of one lemon
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp salt
Icing
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 1/2 tbsp milk
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 325.
- In a bowl, separate from the stand mixer, whisk together eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and earl grey tea.
- Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Beat the butter on medium until creamy.
- With the mixer still on medium, gradually add the sugar, increase speed to medium-high and beat for about 5 minutes, until lightened in color and texture.
- Gradually add the egg mixture, one tbsp at a time. Then beat for about 3-4 minutes on medium high. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour, cornstarch and salt, in 3 additions. Increase speed to medium and beat until smooth. You can add the cornstarch and salt all at once with the first addition of the flour.
- Scrape the batter into a greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This may take up to 1 hr and 15 minutes. Allow cake to cool for about 15 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool fully before adding the icing.
Icing
- Whisk together powdered sugar and milk in a bowl until smooth. You can add more milk by the teaspoon if you want a thinner consistency.
- Drizzle the icing onto the (cooled) cake. Allow icing to set, slice and enjoy.
Hi! I love earl grey, and I really wanted to make an earl grey cake that wasn’t too simple or too difficult, and I found this one to be quite manageable!
I do have just a few notes though after making this cake. First, I expected the batter and the cooked cake to be pretty firm, but this cake came out more dense than I thought. Secondly, I forgot to add corn starch and salt because it wasn’t written in the directions. Should they be added with the flour?
Even though the cake is pretty dense and I left out the cornstarch and salt, it still tastes very good!
Hi Abigail! Agh, so sorry I missed that in the directions. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I will fix it!
I’m glad you enjoyed the cake. It is on the denser side, but the cornstarch does help make the cake lighter so if you make it again, you’ll probably get a better result. You can also swap the all-purpose and cornstarch entirely for 2 cups cake flour if you want to. I just typically don’t like using cake flour as I just don’t have it on hand all the time and know a lot of others may not either. So I essentially made my own cake flour by adding the cornstarch. This worked out for me so that’s how I wrote the final recipe to keep it simple.
Thank you for the feedback!
Becky