Birthday Cake Club: Milk Chocolate Earl Grey

with a blackberry jam filling.

Hi Bakers!

This month’s Birthday Cake Club recipe is sensational, if I may say so myself. It has layers of Earl Grey chocolate cake, blackberry jam, and silky milk chocolate buttercream.

The cake is so fudgy, with that distinctive bergamot black tea flavor infused into the batter and cake soak. Chocolate and Earl Grey go together shockingly well, and the sweet, tart blackberry jam adds the perfect punch of flavor. 

Happy Birthday, February babies! And a special cheer for all you Leap Year kids.

I had this idea that Earl Grey and chocolate would go really well together. I added caramel sauce and worked the Earl Grey into the buttercream. And then I put it out into the world, in print.

It was a bit of a delightful little shock that the London Fog Cake from my cookbook Layered became one of the most popular recipes from the book. I mean, rightfully so - that frosting is delicious! As a long time London Fog lover, this was my dream cake. I just wasn’t aware there were so many other Earl Grey fans and flavor seekers out there.

Flash forward to this month’s cake. I was craving silky, creamy frosting to go along with the Earl Grey-infused chocolate cake. Instead of a heavy fudge frosting, melted chocolate is added to Swiss meringue buttercream. I added a bit of cocoa to deepen the flavor without compromising that light, cloud-like quality of Swiss meringue buttercream. 

Unless you are supremely opposed to fruit and chocolate together, don’t skip out on the blackberry jam. It awakens the whole cake with its sharp yet sweet flavor.