Rooibos Infused Vanilla Cake

Ingredients - Cake

3 Laager Rooibos teabags

300ml boiled water

600g self-raising flour sifted

A pinch salt

½ a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

250g of castor sugar

100g of honey

1 cup of sunflower oil

4 large eggs

¾ cup of buttermilk

1 tablespoon of vanilla essence

butter/cooking spray, to grease

½ cup Raspberries

Ingredients - CreamCheese Icing:

250g of cream cheese,at room temperature

50g of butter, softened

450g of icing sugar

zest of 1 lemon

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C, grease 2 round cake tins,line it with baking paper and set it
2. Place the Laager Rooibos teabags in the boiled water and let them infuse for 15 minutes, then remove the teabags.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda and set it aside.
4. Using a mixer, beat the castor sugar, honey, sunflower oil, cooled Laager Rooibos tea and the eggs together in a mixing bowl until they have combined well. Stir in the buttermilk, the vanilla essence and zest from one lemon.
5. Once all the wet ingredients have combined well, fold them into the dry ingredients.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake in the preheated oven for 30 – 40 minutes. To check if the sponge is baked through, insert a skewer through the centre of each sponge – if it is ready, the skewer will come out clean. Remove the sponges from the tins, with the baking paper facing upwards, and place them on a tray to cool completely.
7. Let’s get started on the icing. Beat the cream cheese and soft butter using an electric mixer for about 1 minute until the mixture is smooth. Add in the icing sugar and beat until smooth and well combined, then add in the lemon zest.
8. Once the cake sponge has completely cooled, peel off the baking paper. Place them facing the correct way up, ice the top of one of the sponges and place the second sponge on top of the other sponge. Apply a thin layer of icing over the entire cake and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the icing to set.
9. After 30 minutes, remove the cake from the fridge and add a final layer of icing over the entire cake and top with raspberries.

Tips:

• Use a springform cake tin, about 18cmsin diameter each, this makes removing the sponge a lot easier.