About a month ago, I had the pleasure of meeting some incredible women for an afternoon of tea.   It turns out that one of the women, Annelies, of The Food Poet,  has been in the food business for several years. She mentioned that she previously worked for a tea company.  We got to talking about the different flavors of tea and using them to cook.  I told everyone at the table that my experience with using tea as an ingredient in cooking was that the flavor of the tea just did not come through in the end product.  But Annelies assured me at it does.

I decided to put the tea to the test.  Stash is a great brand of tea that I know has strong flavors, and happens to be one of my favorites.  I am also partial to Mighty Leaf and Numi teas as well.

I selected Chai Spice to use in this Banana Cake recipe inspired by the Tea Chef.

Ingredients

If you slice the cake into 10,  each slice will be 6 PP

• 1/2 Cup Chobani Plain yogurt
• 1 Cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 medium-sized very ripe bananas
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup Spice Chai tea, brewed strong!

Preheat oven to 350

Directions
In a the mixing bow, add yogurt, sugar, beaten eggs and mashed bananas. Continue blending.

Sift flour with salt and soda and add slowly, followed by wheat germ and tea. Blend until mixed. Pour batter in a Bundt pan.

Bake 40 minutes if using Bundt pan.  The cake is done when a skewer in the deepest segment comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let the cake cool about 10 minutes before you remove it from the pan.

OPTIONAL: When cooled, drizzle with a glaze of 1/4 cup strong brewed Chai Spice mixed with one cup confectioners sugar.

By the way, Annelies was right, cooking with tea is a good thing.