Mild and earthy, chaga tea is a lovely drink all on its own, as well as a great addition to recipes both savory and sweet. Since wild chaga is abundant in the birch-heavy woods of the Northeast and stores easily, the mushroom tea can be used year-round in place of half of the stock called for in many soups and rice dishes, and strongly brewed chaga works perfectly in cookies, cakes and muffi ns.
Spiced Chaga Zucchini Cake pairs together the rich, slightly sweet fl avor of chaga with grated zucchini (either fresh or frozen and put away during the fall harvest). Finished with a maple-chaga glaze, this spiced cake is a crowd-pleaser on days with more than a little chill in the air, and it’s perfect served alongside a steaming mug of chaga tea.
Pairing reccommendation from EmpireWine.com
Helderberg Meadworks Maple Mead NV—Oak aged with a smoky caramelized maple flavor, this mead will hearken back to memories of tapping maple trees as a child or boiling down the sap you collected to make syrup.
Ingredients
- ½ cup chaga tea, steeped strong to a dark amber color*
- 1 cup grated zucchini (defrosted if frozen)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
- 2 cups white flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- Scant ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (about 3 pods worth of seeds)
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon chaga tea
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8- by 8-inch baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together chaga tea, zucchini, vanilla, eggs, sugar, maple syrup and melted butter. In a separate bowl, mix together the fl our, salt, baking soda, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry-ingredient mix to the wet ingredients, stirring until just combined.
Pour batter into the greased baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes. Rotate the dish and bake up to 30 minutes more, checking frequently during the final 15 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake or cake will be dry.
While the cake is cooking, whisk together all of the glaze ingredients, making sure to get out the lumps of confectioners’ sugar.
If the glaze is too thick, add more chaga tea in quarter-teaspoon increments until the mixture can just barely be poured. If the mixture is too runny, add small amounts of confectioners’ sugar to achieve that same, barely pourable result.
Wait until the cake has cooked completely before pouring the glaze over the top, and let glaze harden slightly before serving.
Note: To brew chaga tea, place a few small chunks of chaga in a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Lower to barely a simmer until your tea is a deep amber color, or approximately 1 hour. Any leftover tea can be stored in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
