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.
This recipe looks amazing and I am planning to bake it as a 3-layer celebration cake decorated with fondant icing. I am worried the buttercream filling would be too sweet together with the fondant icing, would you recommend adjusting the recipe?
Yay, Hawthorn! I’m excited for you to make this cake. If you want to lower the sweetness of the buttercream you can reduce the powdered sugar amount by 1/2 Cup and then add a little less liquid than the recipe calls for to keep the consistency ideal. Hope that helps!
Heyy!
I do have chai Spice mix on its own it already has the looser ingredients. Would you say count everything together and do that as the mix i have. Or stil doing it with the loos spices?
Greeets mandy
Hi Mandy! Yes, you can use your chai spice mix and just measure out an equal amount for the cake and buttercream recipes. Enjoy!
Hello, could I use vegetable oil instead of butter in the cake batter? Every cake I’ve made with butter, seems too dry. Thank you so much!
Hi Kelly! I haven’t tried this with oil instead of butter, but I have subbed some of the butter with oil (1/4 Cup oil, 3/4 Cup softened butter). Add the oil in with the sugar during the creaming process. Hope that helps!
I’d like to make these as cupcakes. Any idea how many it would make and what the bake times might be?
Hi Perryn! Yes, you can make this recipe as cupcakes. This recipe should make about 30-35 cupcakes. Bake at 350F for 14-18 minutes.
Hi! This recipe looks so delicious! I was hoping to make them in mini cake form 🙂 I was thinking of reducing the bake time and checking after 15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean? Also was thinking of adding a little bourbon to the cake batter, do you think it would work okay?
Hi Mallika! This recipe will bake well in 4-inch cake pans at 350ºF for 18-24 minutes. As is, the recipe will make about 9 4-inch layers, so if you want to make a smaller batch I’d recommend halving the recipe or reducing it by 2/3. And as far as bourbon goes, I haven’t tried that myself but I think it will work! I’d look at other cake recipes that use bourbon to see how much to try adding. Hope that helps!
What the heck did I do wrong for the frosting? It was wayyy too sweet. For my taste as well as anyone else who test tasted it. I added the rest of the chai mix and then had to add a ton (that’s an eyeball ton) of dark cocoa to cut the sweetness. Recipe was checked by others. I have a sweet tooth so something being too sweet is odd for me. It turned out ok with the cocoa but it’s a different cake now.
Hi Jan, the frosting is an American buttercream, which is typically the sweetest of any buttercream type. I don’t find it too sweet, but next time if you’d like to reduce the powdered sugar by 1/2 Cup or so, that could help. You could also add more salt to balance the sweetness.
The icing was so sweet I couldn’t eat it, and the cake was dry.
The flavor was good overall. If I made it again, I would drastically cut the sugar in the icing and try to figure out how to make the cake more moist.
I love chai and this cake deliciously embodied it. My 10yo son asked for a chai cake and he was completely satisfied by this recipe. My husband also said that “this cake get even better as it ages”. I’ll be making this recipe for a long time!
Made this cake for my beautiful godmother’s birthday and I stuck to the recipe ingredients I just made a Swiss meringue buttercream instead and also added a pecan pie filling to cake layers instead of all buttercream it was amazing
Yum! That sounds amazing, Stacey! So happy this recipe was a hit!
I’m trying to adapt this recipe for my friend’s wedsing cake. Any recommendations for how many times to multiply the recipe or what cake tins to use for 60 people?
Thanks!
Hi Helen! That’s so fun that you’re making this cake flavor for your friend’s wedding! To serve 60 people, I would recommend making a tiered cake like a 2 or 3-layer 6 inch cake on top of a 3-layer 9 inch cake. I have a chart that can help you plan what sizes your tiers could be: https://sugarandsparrow.com/cake-serving-guide/. As far as scaling the recipe, you’ll probably need about 2.5x the recipe. I would make one batch for one of the tiers, then make 1.5x the recipe for the larger tier. Hope that helps!
Hi, I made this cake for Thanksgiving 2023. It was very delicious! Now I’m being asked to make this for a friend’s wedding, they want a tiered semi-naked cake. Do you think this type of cake is suitable for tiers? I am doing 3 tiers of 6 inch, 8 inch and 10 inch 3-layer cakes. I plan to use this recipe for one of the tiers (not all), but not sure which tier it would be better for. Will be sturdy enough as a bottom tier? at hey also want a lemon cake with raspberry filling and a vanilla cake with strawberry mousse filling. Also, since this is made with cream cheese frosting, is that type of frosting okay to use for wedding cakes?
Sorry for so many questions. Thanks in advance!
Hi Verna! Yes, you can absolutely use this recipe for a tiered cake, even the bottom tier. Just be sure to properly dowel it so that the upper tiers don’t put a lot of weight on it (as you would do for any bottom tier). You can use cream cheese frosting for wedding cakes and I would recommend this recipe: https://sugarandsparrow.com/cream-cheese-buttercream-recipe/. There are some helpful articles in my FAQ section to calculate how much cake and buttercream to use for these cake sizes: https://sugarandsparrow.com/category/faq/
This was really good. We have bees so we have honey we use in everything we can. With that being said I substituted 1 1/4c milk with 1 cup milk and I only used 3/4c sugar and a cup of honey. I also made muffins instead. Came out perfect. Honey goes well with Chai. Thanks for the recipe.
Excellent chai cake! My family of little taste testers have approved this as the official chai cake recipe! I made this using two 9 inch pans, and the cake itself had an amazing taste but was definitely not as large as I’d like it be for my purposes. I would love to make this recipe for a 3 tiered naked wedding cake for my brother’s wedding. What would you recommend ratio wise for making this recipe into 3 in tall cake pans (6 in, 8 in, and 10 in). I want nice thick cake layers that look better on naked cakes. For instance, when I made this in my 2 in tall 9 in cake pans, the layers were awfully thin. I did not achieve the height I wanted when sticking to the recipe and using the recommended cake pan size. I would have been happy doubling the recipe and using half per pan. I made some slight adjustments to the recipe from my previous baking expereince with this flavor profile. I swapped the granulated sugar for light brown sugar, and added 1/4 tsp nutmeg to the spice mix. Neither of those things should affect the height of the cake. Would you be willing to collaborate with me on recipe specs to get the correct proportions to make this into a thick layered 3 tiered wedding cake using 3 in tall cake pans in the 6 in, 8 in, and 10 pan sizes?
Hi Sarah! I’m so happy you loved this recipe! The cake pans I use are 2 inches tall, so to create 3 inch tall layers you’ll need to make 1.5x the recipe for 3 6-inch layers (or 2 8-inch layers) and about 2.5x the recipe for 2 10-inch cake pans. I don’t know how many layers you want to make total, but what you can do is measure how much batter you need per 3-inch tall cake pan, add it all up, and divide by 6 Cups (which is how much batter this recipe makes) to get the amount for scaling the recipe. I hope that helps!
Hi there- I just wanted to say that I made this cake yesterday, and it has turned out perfectly! I was a little scared as I had not make it before and it took some time, but I’m so thrilled I tried it! Everyone loved it and it is perfect for people who don’t like overly sweet things. Really beautiful, deep, spiced flavour and the icing is lovely. Thank you so much! Will have a look through your other recipes now 🙂 Happy new year!
Yay, Lydia! I’m so happy to hear it was a hit! Happy new year to you too 🙂
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
I used this cake sponge recipe, but made a brown butter cream cheese frosting to go with it instead of the regular cream cheese frosting. I also baked it in two 8 inch round pans at the same temperature for approximately 30 mins. The sponge turned out great. It was moist, flavorful, and had a nice texture! I will definitely use this recipe again. Thank you!!
Hi! Planning on making this for Thanksgiving…can I make the cake and chill the layers one day and then frost the next?
Hi Monisha! You can absolutely make the cake layers one day ahead. Instructions for storage are in the notes section of this recipe. I also made a blog post about making all the elements of a cake ahead just in case that would come in handy: https://sugarandsparrow.com/making-cakes-ahead/