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Over 15 years ago this girl from Southern California was introduced to chai in latte form, and I instantly fell in love. It was like pumpkin spice on steroids in that all the flavors were more intense and bold, and I’ve pretty much been hooked ever since. While I no longer love the typical sticky sweet chai lattes you come across at mass chain coffee shops, I still love the warmth and distinct flavor of chai, and so decided to play around with incorporating it into a cake, and I was pretty happy with the results. I found a couple of different recipes online that sounded good enough, so after playing around with them and tweaking it to better suit what I was after, I decided upon this recipe I’m sharing with you today. And the buttery apple and almond compote, which complements the chai perfectly an adds a seasonal touch, almost deserves to be a recipe all on its own it’s so delicious, so lucky you, you’re getting a 2 in 1 recipe today 😉
What is Chai Spice?
Chai is the word for tea in many parts of the world, and chai from India is a spiced milk tea that typically consists of black tea, milk, a sweetener of some sort, and a combination of spices. Those spices may vary from region to region, but most common chai spice mixes consist of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pepper. Because of the popularity of chai lattes here in the states, you can now easily find premixed chai spice in most markets, but if you cook/bake on a regular basis, you probably already have these spices in your cabinet, so may as well make your own!
Making the Apple Compote
A compote is fruit preserved or cooked in syrup. This one is primarily cooked in butter haha, but we do add a bit of honey to enhance sweetness. Now I should add that this extra step of making the compote is of course not necessary, but trust me that it will definitely enhance the overall flavors of the dessert. Plus, it’s so ridiculously easy that you’ll likely want to make this your go-to topping for all sorts of things, from waffles and pancakes to warm cookies and even when chilled, added in to yogurt or cottage cheese for a healthy-ish snack.
As always, thank you for reading and I hope you love this cake as much as my family did! We ate half for dessert the day I made it, and ate the other half for breakfast the next morning. A slice, along with coffee in the morning was just about the best way to start the day.
Please share with me if you do make this beauty, and consider rating the recipe if you enjoyed it 🙂 Thanks as always!
Andrea
Warm Chai Pound Cake with Apple & Almond Compote
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup honey plus 1 tbsp
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 tablespoon cinnamon plus 1tbsp for the compote
- 2 teaspoon ginger
- 2 teaspoon cardamon
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup Greek yogurt at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 small apple sliced
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- ⅛ cup slivered or sliced almonds
- Vanilla ice cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar and honey until well combined and smooth.
- Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing in between each addition, and scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.
- Mix in the baking powder, baking soda, salt and chai spices.
- Stir in the flour one cup at a time, mixing gently as to not over-mix. Stir in the sour cream or yogurt and vanilla till combined, scraping the sides as needed.
- Grease a 9" bundt pan or loaf pan and scoop the batter into the pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes, till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove and let cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan.
- To make the compote, simply warm butter in a saute pan over medium heat and add the sliced apples. Stir in 1 tablespoon cinammon, the honey and the almonds, cooking over medium-low heat until apples are warm and soft but still slightly crisp.
- Slice cake and spoon compote and vanilla ice cream on top.
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