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Osmanthus Boba Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

food
5
food
150 mins
cake/sweets
dessert
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by Natasha
Published on 21 October 2022
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Don’t you just love boba milk tea? I know I do. Growing up in an Asian household and being raised in an Asian environment has led me to try all kinds of Asian food and drinks.

The first-ever introduction of a boba drink was indeed a boba milk tea. I grew up in the United States, and for the longest time, I’ve always known them as boba milk tea. Once I came back home to Indonesia, however, people didn’t know them as boba milk tea, instead pearl milk tea, tapioca milk tea or bubble milk tea. But only nowadays that some places have been commonly referring to all four names.

What is boba milk tea?

Boba milk tea is a Taiwanese drink that consists of milk tea (tea-infused milk) along with chewy tapioca balls known as boba (the actual Chinese name), bubbles, or pearls (which refer to its similar appearance). There are many flavours and varieties when it comes to these drinks, including the types of tea that you use, the types of milk and even its toppings.

The Popularity of Boba Milk Tea

Boba milk tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s. However, its worldwide popularity came around during the 1990s when a Taiwanese immigrant brought it to the United States and popularised it within the East Asian communities, thus leading up to its worldwide popularity throughout the years.

Today, there are many companies dedicated to selling these Taiwanese drinks. Those popular companies include ChaTime, Xin Fu Tang, Ben Gong’s, and many more! Some may even say that boba milk tea is a staple of our drink options now in many countries, including Indonesia. The demand never dies down and for good reasons, they’re amazing!

This popular product has even gotten its ice cream flavour and some have even included cakes too. Which is what we will be making today.

Searching for the best Boba Milk Tea

I have had my fair share of boba milk tea, including the original, which is earl grey. But recently, I’ve discovered my favourite flavour of boba milk tea, which is osmanthus boba milk tea. I discovered this when I purchased from the brand Ben Gong’s, and I have to say, it’s one of the most unique and amazing flavours that I’ve ever tried.

Osmanthus tea is a light oolong tea, that is blended with a slight fragrance of osmanthus flowers. This makes osmanthus tea a great pairing as a milk tea. Not only is it delicious and fragrant, but it also has many benefits, including being full of antioxidants, helping with detox and many more.

I thought that this flavour was one of the most unique ones I’ve tried and although the original boba milk tea is great, I wanted people to try something new and osmanthus is the right flavour to do it.

Making the Boba Milk Tea Cake

I’ve never tried a store-bought boba milk tea cake nor have I officially seen anyone in Indonesia selling it, but I did come across a picture of this cake a few years ago. No one knows the origin of this boba milk tea cake, but I’m sure it’s just an experiment that people have made and thought would be a great idea for a cake. Honestly I just love boba milk tea and that is what inspired me to make this cake.

This might not be a cake for beginners, since there are so many components that you do have to make: the boba, the cake and the cream topping. But I can assure you, it’s not as hard as it seems.

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When people think about boba, they think it’s manufactured and would believe it’s hard to make; well, it isn’t. This recipe is surprisingly, really easy, but it does take alot of time and patience.

When making the boba itself, takes about one and a half hours to make, and the cake itself takes about 1 hour to bake. It seems jarring but the effort is so worth it. You will realize how good homemade boba is compared to the ones you buy at your favourite boba joint.

The cake itself is a chiffon cake that has osmanthus milk tea infused into it and the result is a nice, light and fluffy cake topped with an osmanthus-tea-infused whipped cream and the homemade boba you’ve made yourself.

This is honestly such a rewarding recipe to make. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to make and how impressed people will be when they know you’ve made this. I’m so proud of this cake and I do hope you get to try making this at home yourself!

Some tips that might be useful:

  • You will need these extra tools: an acetate plastic sheet and transparent scotch tape.
  • Make sure to cook the boba at the right amount of time so that it will be cooked all the way through and come out with the right texture.
  • You can choose not to use any food colouring but the colour of the boba will not be black.

Some terms you might need to know:

Osmanthus Boba Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

by Natasha
servings
4 people
prep time
60 mins
dish type
Cake/Sweets
cook time
90 mins
course
Dessert
total time
150 mins

ingredients

  • for the boba pearl, making the boba pearls dough

    • 30 gramtapioca starch
    • 10 grambrown sugar
    • 1 pinch(es)salt
    • 18 mlwater(for paste)
    • 2 dropsblack food colouring(as needed)
    • 1 tsptapioca starch(for paste)
    • 5 gramtapioca starch(as needed, for dusting)
    • 125 mlwater(for boiling)

  • for the boba pearls, cooking the boba

    • 8 grambrown sugar
    • 15 mlwater

  • for the milk tea

    • 1 tsposmanthus tea leaves(for the milk tea)
    • 35 mlmilk(for the milk tea)

  • for the chiffon cake

    • 2 pcseggs
    • 12 mlvegetable oil
    • 46 gramcake flour
    • 0.25 tsposmanthus tea leaves
    • 38 grambrown sugar

  • for the cream tea topping

    • 50 mlheavy cream
    • 0.5 tbsposmanthus tea leaves
    • 5 grambrown sugar

instructions

Making the boba pearls

  1. In a bowl, add tapioca starch and set it aside.
  2. In a saucepan, add brown sugar, salt, tapioca starch (for paste), black food colouring and water (for paste). Stir until it’s well combined.
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  3. Cook the mixture on low heat, constantly stirring, until it forms a thick paste. Turn the heat off.
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  4. Add the prepared tapioca starch from the bowl to the saucepan. Mix until it comes together as a dough.
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  5. Place dough onto a work surface and knead the dough until you can’t see any dry ingredients.
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  6. Shape the dough into a rope and cut it into tiny pieces. Shape into small boba balls.
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  7. Dust some tapioca starch (for dusting) into the boba and rub it so that it’s covered with tapioca starch to prevent it from sticking to each other.
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  8. In a saucepan add water (amount for boiling) and let it boil.
  9. Add the boba (that we made previously) and cook for 30 mins. Stir occasionally to prevent it from sticking.
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  10. Once the 30 mins. are up, turn the heat off and cover the saucepan with a lid and let the boba sit in the pot for 30 mins.
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Making the cream tea topping

  1. In a saucepan, add heavy cream and the osmanthus tea leaves. Let the cream come to a simmer and turn the heat off.
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  2. Steep the heated cream for 20 mins. and strain the steeped cream and put it into a bowl.
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  3. Now cover the bowl of the steeped cream and put it in the fridge to cool until ready to be used.
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Make the milk tea

  1. In a saucepan add milk and osmanthus tea leaves and bring over medium heat. Let it come to a boil and turn the heat off. Set it aside to steep for 20 mins.
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  2. After that, strain the steeped milk from the leaves. Set it aside.
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Make the chiffon cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 160 C.
  2. Grab a 12cm-round cake pan and line it with baking paper. Set it aside
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  3. Grab 2 bowls and separate the eggs from the whites and the yolks.
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  4. In the bowl with the yolks, add vegetable oil and milk tea and mix the mixture until fully incorporated.
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  5. Now add cake flour and osmanthus tea leaves (for the cake). Whisk everything until fully incorporated.
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  6. Grab the bowl of egg whites and whisk with an electric mixer. Gradually add the brown sugar into the egg whites while mixing until a soft-peaked meringue forms. This will be the meringue.
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  7. Take a spatula and fold the meringue in gently into 3 parts. (First adding 1/3, fold, then 2/3, fold then the rest of the meringue and fold). This will be your cake batter.
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  8. Pour the cake batter to the cake pan.
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  9. Bake the cake for 50 mins. or until the cake comes out clean when a toothpick is inserted.
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  10. Let the cake cool for an hour or until completely cool to the touch.
  11. Run a knife on the edge of the cake to take the cake out of the pan. Place the cake onto a plate.
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Continue to cook the boba

  1. Strain the boba from saucepan.
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  2. In another clean saucepan add water (from part 2), brown sugar (from part 2) and the cooked boba.
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  3. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook the boba for 5 minutes, constantly stirring. Turn the heat off.
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Continue to make the tea cream topping

  1. Take the bowl of cold cream tea from the fridge and add the brown sugar. Whisk using an electric mixer until its soft peaks.
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Assemble the cake

  1. Take some acetate plastic sheet and tightly wrap it around your cake and seal it with some transparent tape.
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  2. Add the cream tea topping on top and spread the cream evenly until the top of the cake is fully covered.
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  3. Take some of the boba and place it in the centre of the cake.
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  4. Now you can prepare it for a dessert and take the acetate off to wow your guests!
cake/sweets
dessert
chiffon
cake
boba
milk tea
osmanthus
user_default.png
Natasha
Bake it till you make it!

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