Chocolate Cinnamon Tea Loaves as Gifts

I love these disposable and pretty paper baking pans, don't you? They come in all different sizes and are perfect for giving as holiday gifts (with a cake inside of course).

The trick is you have to lower the temperature by 25 degrees and they need no greasing. Perfect. No pans to wash either!

I decided to try them with these cinnamon tea loaves from the beautiful Australian site "What Katie Ate". I played w/ the ingredients a bit, since the recipe is in metric, and I didn't have caster sugar or vanilla bean paste.

David Lebovitz says caster sugar is just superfine sugar in the UK and Australia, and all you have to do is whiz some regular granulated sugar in a food processor or mini chopper for a few seconds, and there you have it, caster sugar. Done.

I did not have vanilla bean paste, so I took the liberty and just substituted regular vanilla.
For the "mixed spice" in the recipe, I used cloves, and for the topping, I used this crazy stuff I found at Trader Joe's. Not sure why I bought it, but glad I did.

It's a pepper grinder, and inside is raw sugar, coffee and flecks of chocolate. I was intrigued. You grind it like you would black pepper, and I used that as the topping instead of the confectioner's sugar, as well as on top of the foam for my cappuccino.



Though my breads (cakes) didn't rise that well (because the author forgot to include baking powder in the ingredient list, and I guessed at 1 teaspoon, but I think a tablespoon would've helped them along much better), these lovely little cakes were still a nice little treat with coffee or tea, not too sweet and nice and moist.



Here is Katie's original recipe with my changes in italics for us Americanos!:

Chocolate Cinnamon Tea Loaves: (from What Katie Ate)

makes 6 mini bundts or 4 mini loaf pans (6" x 2.5" size)

200g unsalted butter, softened (14 tbsp or 7/8 cup)
3/4 cup caster sugar (whiz some granulated sugar in a food processor)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (I used 1 tsp vanilla)
2 free-range eggs
1.5 cups self-raising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (I used Dannon full fat plain)
70g good quality dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids min.)
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice (cloves? why not?)
1/4 cup Icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
1/2 teaspoon extra ground cinnamon for dusting

Preheat oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Butter liberally 6 mini Bundt cake tins or mini loaf pans.

Fill a small saucepan 1/3 full with cold water then place over a low heat. Place a heatproof bowl on top of the pan into which add the chocolate and warm until melted, stirring occasionally. Once fully melted, remove bowl from pot and set aside to cool a little. (you could also cheat, like I did, and melt the chocolate in the microwave on medium power for 45 seconds).



Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter, vanilla bean paste or vanilla and caster sugar and beat on medium speed using the paddle attachment for 10 minutes until really light and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating after each addition then continue to beat for another 5-6 minutes.

Turn off the mixer, remove the bowl then sieve in the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and cocoa. Return to the mixer and continue to beat (use a slow setting at first or the dry ingredients will fly everywhere!). Whilst (that is obviously Katie's word, I have never used the word "whilst") contents are mixing, add in the cooled melted chocolate and yogurt and beat for a final 2 minutes.



Pour mixture into prepared individual cake tins and bake for about 40-45 minutes or until the middle of the cakes are cooked through ~ test using a skewer.



Remove from oven, allow to cool then turn out onto a wire rack. Combine icing sugar with extra ground cinnamon and dust over cakes.



I have had many emails asking where to purchase these disposable baking pans.
Just click here and it will take you right to the link to purchase them!

Pin It

Share|