Earl grey, Orange and Chocolate tart (vegan)

Boy do I love earl grey. I have recently found one that feel super rich and has this creamy flavour and I cannot live a day without having it. Hence my insomnia again, because I literally keep pouring this liquid dessert all day long while working and in the evening I am tired from the working day but weirdly excited. It took me a few days to realise that ’twas the early grey. Nevertheless, I decided not to give up on this habit just yet. 

I had many oranges and I thought orange goes amazingly well with earl grey because it’s similar to bergamot. Bergamot was nowhere to be found so I decided to make the most out of the citrus sweetness of the orange and pair it with earl grey and dark chocolate and caramel. It was impossible to fail with these flavours and indeed, this was one of my most successful creations to date, as it lasted less than 12 hours. 

If you try to make this I promise that all the effort will be absolutely repaid in full by the flavour. 

Ingredients for a 16x16cm square cake tin – please, do use something specifically for tarts and not for mousses if you can. I used a mousse square ring and I had to play all my tricks to keep the pastry in place ( but I was set on a square tart and I love to think that I am ingenious even though my experiments do not always work). 

Almond sablee crust 

160 g flour

100 g butter – it should be cold and cubed, I usually like the vegan block one for this kind of pastry because it’s harder and works better 

60 g icing sugar

Zest of 1 orange 

40 g almond flour

Pinch of salt

40g melted dark chocolate 

Orange cake 

60g flour 

2g baking powder

606 caster sugar 

Pinch of salt 

Zest of 1/2 orange 

Zest 1/2 lemon

35g almond milk

25g sunflower oil 

28g greek yoghurt (Alpro)

15g orange candied peel 

Orange simple syrup 

Peel of 1 orange

60g sugar 

30g water 

Orange gelee

150g orange juice

25ml lemon juice

20g brown sugar

2g pectin

2g agar agar + 5g water

Caramel 

140 g Coconut sugar (it will give a oomph to the caramel flavour!)

272 g heavy cream 

20 g agave syrup

80g vegan white chocolate

80g rice milk chocolate

48 g soft butter, to room temperature 

Earl grey ganache 

200g heavy cream (then 170)

10g early grey 

170g veg chocolate 

50g butter

ready for some deliciousness?

Directions – Ingredients are repeated for each section because this is how I follow my own intricate recipes 🙂 

Almond sablee crust 

160 g flour

100 g butter – it should be cold and cubed, I usually like the vegan block one for this kind of pastry because it’s harder and works better 

60 g icing sugar

Zest of 1 orange 

40 g almond flour

Pinch of salt

40g melted dark chocolate 

Sift the flour and the cold butter, the sugar, orange zest and the almond flour and the salt and mix until you have breadcrumbs. Then add the melted dark chocolate, preferably melted over a double boiler or at 45C in the microwave. Shape the dough into a ball and then put in a ziplock bag/cling film, flatten it and let rest 1h in the fridge. 

Remove from the fridge and roll out, place it in the baking tin (greased, floured and covered in parchment) and freeze for 30 minutes.  With the leftover dough, cut out small shapes (I made circles) and bake them at 160C for 10 minutes: you can decorate the cake with them, or eat them with some tea 🙂 

Preheat at 160 C fan. Put the cake in the oven and blind bake for 30 minutes at 150 C fan (lowering the temp).

Orange cake 

60g flour 

2g baking powder

606 caster sugar 

Pinch of salt 

Zest of 1/2 orange 

Zest 1/2 lemon

35g almond milk

25g sunflower oil 

28g greek yoghurt (Alpro)

15g orange candied peel 

Mix the dry ingredients and then add the milk, oil and the yoghurt. Finally, add the candied peel. 

Bake at 160C fan for 10-15 mins in the pre-baked tart shell. 

Orange syrup 

Peel of 1 orange

60g sugar 

30g water 

Put water and sugar in a saucepan, together with the orange peel and cook. Do not bring to a boil, just let the syrup thicken. Once thick, brush it on the sponge cake. 

Orange gelee

150g orange juice

25ml lemon juice

20g brown sugar

2g pectin

2g agar agar + 5g water

Put the juices  a low flame and then (40C) add the sugar and the pectin. Once the mixture starts to simmer, add the agar agar mixture. Bring to a boil and pour in a baking dish, covered with cling film touching the top. Once the gelee is firm, cut it in the desired shape and freeze. 

Caramel 

140 g Coconut sugar (it will give a oomph to the caramel flavour!)

272 g heavy cream 

20 g agave syrup

80g vegan white chocolate

80g rice milk chocolate

48 g soft butter, to room temperature 

For the caramel layer: 

Place 1/3 of the coconut sugar in a saucepan over low-medium heat and wait until it’s dissolved without stirring. Do not leave too long on the heat because it might become bitter, due to its unrefined nature. Add another third of the sugar. Stir to combine and put back on the heat without stirring. Repeat this for the rest of the sugar. 

In the meanwhile, heat the heave cream and the agave syrup. 

When the sugar is melted, remove from heat and pour on the warm cream. Do this in three batched and stir well to combine. The cream you will obtain has to be smooth. Pout on heat and keep cooking until the caramel reaches 104 C (when I did this, my thermometer was broken so I patiently waited for it to become bubbly, but I wouldn’t recommend to do this as it feels very risky and could end in utter disaster!). Do not over worry if the mixture is not 100% smooth at the beginning, when it will heat up everything will be melted and silky if things have been done right. 

Chop the chocolate and let sit in a bowl. Once the caramel and cream mixture is ready pour in on the chocolate (use a sieve to avoid any potential solids to end in there). Once the chocolate is melted, transfer to a blending glass and emulsify. Add the butter when the cream has cooled down to approx. 35C and emulsify. Transfer to a baking dish and then cover with cling film touching the surface. Let set in the fridge for about 2 hours. 

After this time, put the caramel in a piping bag and pipe it evenly on the gelee square. Freeze for about 2h. 

Earl grey ganache 

200g heavy cream (then 170)

10g early grey 

170g veg dark chocolate 

50g butter

The day before assembling the cake, or at least 2h, heat the cream with 10g of earl grey. Remove from the heat and let sit as long as you wish. I left it overnight and the earl grey was still very present in the tart, despite all the other strong flavours, so I would recommend leaving it. Discard the earl grey and weigh the cream: if it’s less than 200g (which is highly likely) just add enough to reach 200g. 

Melt the chocolate with a double boiler system or at 45C in the microwave. 

Warm the cream and pour on the chocolate. Let sit for a minute before stirring to combine and moving to a blending glass. Blend until the cream is smooth, silky and cools down. Then add the butter and keep blending. 

Remove the caramel+gelee from the freezer and place on top of the cake, with the gelee part facing the sponge. Pour the ganache on top and let set. 

Decorate as you please! 🙂 For my decoration I used vegan choux puffs filled with an orange creme pat and with candied orange slices dipped in dark chocolate and with sable circles, dipped in chocolate. 

Let me know whether you try this here or on instagram @cake_files_ ! I promise this tastes like a tea party!