Earl Grey, Orange and Elderflower Cake (My Birthday Cake!)

In case you haven't gathered from the title of this post - it was my birthday recently! One week ago to be precise... the biggie - 18!! This was my birthday cake which I requested my friend Ellen to make for me, because let's be honest, who wants to make their own birthday cake?! (it's a bit on the sad side if you ask me, I know, I know, I've made it in the past for myself but this year I just wasn't feeling it.) Anyway, me and Ellen have this deal where she makes mine if I'll make hers, and she's also 18 in June so I think we're on even par when it comes to making an equally impressive cake for a rather momentous celebration. 

The flowers give this simple naked cake an elegant touch with a sense of 'spring is here!' feel to it, which is quite the opposite to what it actually felt like given the huge amount of snow that fell on my birthday, putting almost a stop to all celebrations I had planned for the weekend. Ironic eh? (It always snows on my birthday - without fail every year, whether it's a foot deep or a slight dusting, you can count on it!) 

The flavours in this cake are spring-like too, with floral notes of elderflower in the icing and a zesty kick of orange together with the tea gives the impression that your drinking lady grey which altogether was perfectly light way to finish a meal! 
Due to the time of year, Ellen couldn't actually source elderflowers which would have made sense to decorate the cake with given that it's in the icing, so instead she picked a mixture of roses and white elderflower look alikes, but anything that you fancy would go well, just pick what's in season and that's not poisonous of course! 

Earl Grey,  Orange  and  Elderflower  Cake

Ingredients 

For the cake: 240 ml whole milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 bags Earl Grey tea/ 2 tsp loose leaf Earl Grey tea + 1 tsp finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves 360g all-purpose/plain flour 2½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature 400g caster sugar 4 large eggs Zest of 1 orange
For the icing: 300g unsalted butter, softened 450g icing sugar, sifted 4 tbsp elderflower cordial Zest of 1 orange
To decorate - a selction of flowers (non poisonous)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ gas 4. Grease and line 3 x 7 inch cake tins.
Put the milk and vanilla in a pan and heat. Once simmering add the tea, turn off the heat and  then leave to infuse for 20 mins.
Remove the tea bags (strain if using loose leaf tea) and leave to cool completely . In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, ground tea leaves, and salt, then set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated, then add the orange zest.
Mix in a 1/3 of the milk and then 1/3 of the flour into the creamed butter and sugar mix. Repeat until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Equally divide the mixture between the 3 tins and bake in the centre of the oven for 35-40 minutes. When cooked, cool the cakes in their pans for 15 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 
To make the icing, beat the butter until soft then add the icing sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Add the elderflower cordial and orange zest. To ice the cakes add 1/3 of the icing onto each layer and arrange a selection of your chosen flowers on top.