I’m a tea lover all year round, but once the weather gets colder and things start to get cozy, chai is a staple in my tea cabinet. This spiced vanilla chai cake is that dreamy feeling of a warm chai latte in cake form – layers of soft and moist chai tea-infused cake and vanilla buttercream speckled with homemade chai spice mix. The remarkable yet perfectly balanced chai flavor makes this the ideal cake for any fall or winter gathering.
One reader, Marisa, says: “I made this cake and it was AMAZING!! I’ve been baking cakes for most of my life and this was one of the best I’ve ever made. It was so light and fluffy, with the perfect amount of spice.” ★★★★★
Why You’ll Love this Vanilla Chai Cake
Here are a few reasons why this spiced vanilla chai cake has become such a blog reader favorite over the years:
- Super soft & moist. This recipe uses a variation of my favorite vanilla cake recipe as a base, which is beautifully soft and moist from the addition of cake flour (keeps it light and fluffy) and sour cream (makes it super moist).
- Beautiful spiced chai flavor. Between steeping chai tea for the cake batter + adding tons of chai spices, I pull all the stops to create the perfect chai flavor in this recipe. It’s so cozy!
- Fun to make. The additional steps of steeping the chai tea and making homemade chai spice mix makes this recipe feel a little more complex, but in a fun way!
Perfectly Spiced Vanilla Chai Cake
There are two ways that I add chai flavor to this spiced vanilla chai cake: infusing the milk portion of the recipe with chai tea and adding a homemade spice blend to the dry ingredients and buttercream. Both of these methods add tons of spicy chai flavor, and combined with a good dose of vanilla extract, the result is perfection.
- Steeping the tea. This cake recipe begins with bringing the whole milk to a simmer in a small saucepan, then pouring it over a chai tea bag and steeping it for at least 15 minutes. After removing the tea bag, you’ll have a chai-infused milk mixture that will be added to the cake batter once it’s room temperature.
- Homemade chai spice mix. To flavor the cake and buttercream, you’ll blend together cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and cloves. This gets added to the dry ingredients for the cake batter, and whisked into the powdered sugar that you’ll add to the buttercream.
Dreamy Vanilla Chai Buttercream
To really up the flavor, this delicious chai cake gets filled and frosted with silky smooth, beautifully speckled vanilla chai buttercream. It’s essentially my favorite vanilla buttercream recipe with homemade chai spice mix added, and oh my. The combination is Fall flavor heaven! This cake will technically pair well with all sorts of buttercreams (cream cheese, chocolate, vanilla, or anything that pairs well with chai tea), but if you want the full-on chai cake experience, this is it.
How to Decorate a Chai Layer Cake
Once you have your cake layers baked, cooled, and leveled + the buttercream made, here’s how to decorate this chai cake as pictured:
Step 1: Fill and stack. Place a swipe of buttercream on top of a cardboard cake circle and place the first chai cake layer on top. Add a layer of chai buttercream and smooth it down as the filling, then repeat the process of filling and stacking the cake until you have one layer left. Place that last layer upside down.
I like to crumb coat the cake at this point and place it in the refrigerator to firm up before moving on.
Step 2: Frost the cake. I created a smooth buttercream finish with the chai buttercream.
Step 3: Add Biscoff cookie crumbs. This part is completely optional, but I crushed up some Biscoff cookies and pressed the crumbs onto the bottom third of the cake.
Step 4: Add finishing touches. I divided the rest of the chai buttercream between two piping bags, one fitted with Wilton Tip 1M and the other fitted with Wilton Tip 4B. Then, I piped rosettes with Tip 1M in a crescent shape on top of the cake and filled in the gaps with stars that I piped with Tip 4B. I topped this crescent border with more Biscoff cookie crumbs and cinnamon sticks.
However you decorate, this cake is sure to be a hit wherever it goes! Feel free to get creative with how it looks.
Similar Cake Recipes You’ll Love
Here are some other cozy cake recipes from my blog to add to your baking list:
- Spiced Chai Cupcakes
- Spiced Chai Bundt Cake
- Chai Pumpkin Cake
- London Fog Cake
- Golden Milk Latte Cake
I hope you love this spiced vanilla chai cake as much as I do! Let me know if you make it in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me if you post a photo. I love to see what you create with my recipes!
Spiced Vanilla Chai Cake
Ingredients
Chai Spice Mix
- 4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
Vanilla Chai Cake
- 1 1/4 Cups (300ml) whole milk
- 1 chai tea bag
- 2 3/4 Cups (290g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 4 tsp chai spice mix (recipe above)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 2/3 Cups (333g) granulated white sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 Cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
Vanilla Chai Buttercream
- 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp chai spice mix (recipe above)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp whole milk, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp salt
Garnish
- 5 Biscoff cookies, ground into crumbs
Instructions
Make The Chai Spice Mix
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and cloves and set aside.
Make The Vanilla Chai Cake
- Place the chai tea bag into a mason jar. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the whole milk, stirring constantly, until it begins to boil. Pour the boiling milk over the chai tea bag in the mason jar and let steep for 20 minutes before removing the tea bag. Allow the mixture to cool completely to room temperature before moving on.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (170ºC). Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch or 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a cooking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and fitting a wax or parchment paper circle to the bottom of the pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans.
- Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning and leveling it in your measuring cup. Add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, 4 teaspoons of the chai spice mix, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter for on high for two minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add in sugar and continue to mix on medium-high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, then add vanilla and sour cream and mix for one minute on high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the (room temperature!) chai milk mixture slowly and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps (without over-mixing). The batter will be slightly thick, but pourable.
- Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pans (no more than 2/3 of the way full) and bake for 30-35 minutes. They're done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they're entirely room temperature before applying any frosting.
Make The Vanilla Chai Buttercream
- With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy and light (almost white) in color. About 7 minutes.
- Whisk 1 Tbsp of the Chai Spice Mix into the measured powdered sugar. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar mixture a few cups at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next one.
- Add vanilla, milk, and salt and mix on medium-low for another two minutes until fully incorporated.
Assembly
- Once the Vanilla Chai Cakes have cooled completely, fill and frost the layers with Vanilla Chai Buttercream. To create the design pictured, add crushed Biscoff cookies to the sides of the cake by placing them into the palm of your hand and gently pressing them onto the buttercream finish. Then, fit one piping bag with Wilton Tip 4B and another piping bag with Wilton Tip 1M before filling each with Vanilla Chai Buttercream. Pipe rosettes and stars onto the top of the cake in a crescent moon shape, add some cinnamon sticks, and sprinkle more crushed Biscoff cookies on top.
Notes
- The chai milk mixture can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature before adding it to the cake batter.
- The cake layers can be made ahead and stored, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to two days. Alternatively, you can store the wrapped cake layers in the freezer for up to 2 months before thawing and frosting.
- The Vanilla Chai Buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip in your stand mixer to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency.
I made this cake for my birthday (husband isn’t a huge fan of chocolate and I wanted to try something new). The only thing I changed was adding cream cheese to the icing. This cake is so good it is practically criminal. I actually made 1.5 times the recipe and used 3- 9in cake pans to make a 3 tiered cake and they came out perfect. Honestly, I’m planning to make this cake for Christmas and may make it on Thanksgiving but may add pumpkin to the cake batter. I bet if I made it but replaced the sugar with applesauce or apple butter (for stronger apple flavor) the cake would be otherworldly! Oh yeah, totally playing with this.
Hi Jeanie! I’m so so happy this cake was such a hit and that you’re planning on making it for other occasions! Your idea of adding pumpkin to the batter is actually GENIUS. A pumpkin chai cake would be sublime. I wonder if starting with this pumpkin cake recipe but adding the chai spice mix + the chai milk would be easier? Just a thought: https://sugarandsparrow.com/pumpkin-layer-cake-recipe/ now I want to make a pumpkin chai cake!
Hi, I’m kind of new to baking for 2 1/4 tsp baking powder is that 2 teaspoons and then 1/4 tsp and does that go the same way for the salt?
Hi Dhara! Yes, exactly. 2 1/4 tsp = 2 teaspoons + 1/4 teaspoon. Hope that helps and I’m cheering you on in your baking!
Hi! My family and I love a good strong cup of chai. I noticed this recipe only had 1 tea bag for the whole cake, so I wanted to check and see what size this tea bag is. If it is standard, have you ever tried making a stronger concentrate?
Hi Anna! It’s a standard sized tea bag BUT there’s a lot of chai spice in both the cake and the buttercream recipes, so the chai flavor ends up being quite strong throughout. Hope that helps!
Hi there! I’m based in the UK and can’t wait to try this recipe! I just wondered what size/weight your eggs are? The difference between medium and large eggs here make a big difference in how a cake turns out.
Thanks!:)
Hi Gee! I always use large eggs in my recipes but I do know that US eggs are smaller than UK eggs. From what I’ve read, a large US egg is the equivalent of a medium UK egg, so I’d use either 3 medium UK eggs or 3 large US eggs. Hope that helps!
Hi how can I make this into a 4in cake?
Hi Priankah! You can make 1/2 of the recipe to have a little more than enough for a 3 layer 4 inch cake. This will mean dividing every ingredient by 2. Here’s more info on how to scale cake recipes: https://sugarandsparrow.com/how-to-scale-cake-recipes/ once you’ve got the proper ingredient amounts, be sure to fill the pans no more than 2/3 full and bake at 350F/177C for 20-25 minutes. Hope that helps!
Thrilling! I halved your recipe and it turned out perfect! Talk about an amazing Tuesday night dessert! The fragrance of the cake filled our home, then being able to enjoy the cake after chilling it for a few hours, wow! Thank you so much for enriching lives by sharing your craft. It is treats like these that make life a celebration indeed.
Yay, Claire! I’m so happy the entire experience of making this recipe was enjoyable! Thanks so much for letting me know, it means so much to me 🙂
Hi, what can I substitute Speculoos Cookies for? I don’t think we have them in Canada
Hi there! You can sub those for Biscoff cookies or any caramel/cinnamon flavored cookie!
Made this cake yesterday. Im making the buttercream today and assembling it… What is the best way to store the cake overnight?
Hi Rebecca! You can either store it at room temp overnight or in the refrigerator. I like to store mine in the refrigerator to keep the decorating looking perfect, then take it out 1-2 hours prior to serving so it can come back to room temp. Enjoy!
Hello! I am so looking forward to baking this cake! I was wondering if I could substitute brown sugar for white sugar in this recipe? Would that alter the way the cake comes out? I’ve always preferred spice cakes with brown sugar as I find it to be more flavorful, but I don’t want to mess the cake up by changing ingredients. Thank you!
Hi Susannah! You could sub the white sugar for brown sugar or do half and half but it may alter the texture of the cake slightly. Hope that helps!
Soooo gooooood!!! I’ll definitely be remaking this one! Thank you for all your helpful videos and lovely recipes & tutorials!
Yay, Ellie! I’m so happy you loved this recipe!
Hello! I just came across your beautiful cake and would like to make it for my husband’s 40th birthday! I was wondering if I need to adjust the bake time if I use 9″pans instead of the 6″ pans. Thanks so much!
Hi Marisa! I’m so excited for you to make this cake! If you’re baking two 9-inch layers, the baking time will still be 30-35 minutes. Enjoy!
Thank you so much for your helpful reply. I made this cake and it was AMAZING!! I’ve been baking cakes for most of my life and this was one of the best I’ve ever made. It was so light and fluffy, with the perfect amount of spice. I did make a swiss meringue because of personal preference, but added your chai spice mix to it. My husband was totally thrilled with this cake! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe! I will definitely be trying some of your others.
Yay, Marisa! I’m so happy you loved this recipe and it worked well with smbc! Thanks so much for following up and letting me know 🙂
I love your recipes! Just made the back cake with black cocoa powder!
I’m wondering if 290 grams is the right amount of flour here? I just made this cake ans while my kitchen smells heavenly the cake seems off- even soggy? The batter wasn’t thick like you mentioned. It was probably user error but just wanted to check because I feel crazy haha. Thanks!
Hi Jeanette! So happy you loved the black velvet cake recipe! And yes, 290g of sifted cake flour is the correct amount in this recipe. I wonder what happened!
I don’t like using American buttercream – do you think the flavors would well with Swiss meringue buttercream? Or does this cake need a really sweet icing? Thanks!
Hi Ruth! I don’t think this icing is too sweet like traditional American buttercreams since I always reduce the sugar content for my buttercream recipes, but if you’d rather use a swiss meringue you can. Just add the chai spice mix to your favorite vanilla smbc and you should be good!
Hi Whitney! Have you ever tried adding the chai spice to cream cheese icing for this cake? I always use your vanilla buttercream recipe, and it’s great, but I also love cream cheese icing!
Hi Lucia! I haven’t but that sounds like it would be AMAZING!
I used cream cheese icing with the spice mix instead of vanilla buttercream and it’s delicious! This cake is great!
Beautiful looking cake I want to make for my sisters birthday, just wanting to know if the flour is plain flour?
Thanks!
Hi Eleanor! The flour I use is cake flour that I buy from my local grocery store. It has a lower protein content than plain flour which produces a softer crumb. If you can’t find cake flour, you can make a homemade version using plain (all purpose) flour: https://sugarandsparrow.com/homemade-cake-flour