Dimbula Tea and Orange Loaf Cake
A moist, citrus-bright loaf cake steeped with Dimbula Ceylon and orange zest, glazed with a tea-spiked icing — a teatime classic built around the tea's own flavor.
This loaf cake leans into Dimbula's natural citrus character rather than fighting it, pairing the tea with fresh orange in both the batter and the glaze. The result tastes like a more grown-up, less sweet riff on classic orange cake, with a gentle tannic backbone running underneath.
Steeping the tea leaves directly in warmed milk before mixing the batter is the key technique — it infuses the crumb evenly with Dimbula's brisk, bright flavor rather than leaving it as a vague background note, the way simply adding brewed tea as a liquid often does.
The cake stays moist for days thanks to the orange juice and zest, and it actually improves a day after baking as the tea flavor settles into the crumb. It's the kind of cake that's equally at home cut into thick slices for breakfast or thin ones for afternoon tea.
Finish with a simple glaze made from icing sugar and a spoonful of strong brewed Dimbula instead of plain water or milk — it ties the whole cake back to the tea it was built around, and adds a faint amber sheen to the top.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2 tbsp loose Dimbula Ceylon tea (or 2 tea bags)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- Zest of 1 orange
- 2 tbsp fresh orange juice
- 1 cup icing sugar (for glaze)
- 2 tbsp strong brewed Dimbula tea, cooled (for glaze)
How to make it
- 1Warm the milk until just steaming, add the tea leaves, cover, and steep 8 minutes. Strain, pressing the leaves to extract all the liquid; let cool slightly.
- 2Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F) and butter a loaf pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.
- 3Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, then the orange zest.
- 4Alternate adding the flour mixture and the tea-infused milk to the butter mixture, mixing just until combined. Stir in orange juice.
- 5Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake 45–55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool fully.
- 6Whisk icing sugar with the cooled strong tea until smooth and pourable. Drizzle over the cooled cake and let set before slicing.
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