Chai Spice Cake with Honey

Office potlucks are great opportunities for experimentation - different groups of people with varied tastes, cultural backgrounds etc. offer preciously good feedback and insights. Plus, it's an excellent way to quickly disperse calories! :). It's the ideal setup for my baking experiments. 

This is a regular sheet cake made with spices that go into a typical Indian tea (chai). I also added honey to sweeten the cake and layer on top of the baked cake. It is a bigger, bolder version of this cake I tried a few years back. 

Overall, the feedback was positive. I was surprised that people wanted more spices, and one person even suggested adding grated ginger instead of the powdered version. So here's the adjusted recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups all purpose flour
2. 3/4 cup brown sugar
3. 3.5 teaspoons ground ginger (or 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger)
4. 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5. 3 teaspoons cardamom powder
6. 1/2 teaspoon clove powder
7. 1 teaspoon allspice powder
8. 1 teaspoon baking soda
9. 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
10. 1 teaspoon salt
11.  3 eggs
12. 1.25 cups honey
13. 3/4 cup vegetable oil
14. 2/3 cup milk, at room temperature

For the honey drizzle on top of the cake:

1. 1/4 cup honey
2. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F
2. Spray a 13 by 9 inch pan with baking spray and dust with flour
3. Prepare dry ingredients - mix flour, all the spices (ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, all spice), baking powder, baking soda, and salt
4. Add vegetable oil, honey, and brown sugar in a wide bowl. Whisk until they are incorporated
5. Add eggs to this and whisk until smooth
6. Add half the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and gently mix with a wooden spatula until just mixed. 
7. Add 1/3 cup milk and gently mix
8. Finally add the remaining dry ingredients and mix gently 
9. Transfer to the baking pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a tester comes out almost clean
10. Let the cake cool on a cooling rack. 
11. Meanwhile, simmer 1/4 cup of honey on low heat for a few minutes until it is liquid-y, and stir in a teaspoon of cardamom. Remove from heat and spread on top of the cooling cake
12. Cut the cake into pieces when cool, and serve

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