I bet I got you wondering with that title. didn’t I?

I want my kitchen to have a feel more than a look.  It has always been hard for me to explain but I think the kitchen is one are that has to have a feel, an ambiance, and a presence.  It can be the poster-kitchen for a decorating magazine but if it doesn’t have that feel then I am not interested.

It has to do with the way a kitchen smells, too.  Vanilla, chocolate, spices, and fruits…ham, roast, homemade bread…all of these scents make the kitchen beautiful.  How do you translate that to a decorating magazine?  Well, if you want your kitchen to smell like a combination of Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie, with a Mitford fusion then this recipe is a must try.

I don’t know if you are familiar with Yogi Teas, they are an organic brand available at most health food and natural food stores.  They have some unusual flavors, one of which is their Himalayan Apple.  Anyway, the tea has a distinct, fresh apple flavor; clean and fresh like a Macintosh almost.

The ingredients from the back of the bag read:

• Organic Assam Black Tea Leaf
• Organic Cinnamon Bark
• Organic Ginger Root
• Organic Nutmeg
• Organic Clove Bud
• Organic Black Pepper
• Organic Stevia Leaf
• Other Ingredients: Organic Pear Flavor, Apple Powder,
• Organic Apple Flavor.

It does sort of remind you of an apple flavor chai.

I wanted a pound cake but also wanted something unusual.  I had a few bags of the tea left and decided that it might be an interesting flavor.  I was not sure how it would respond in cake but nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

Himalayan Apple Spice Pound Cake

• 3 cups sifted cake flour, sift  before measuring and measure gently
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup organic  unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup triple infused Himalayan Apple Spice Tea, cooled
• 1 cup chopped pecans, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350F; grease and flour a bundt pan.
2. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together three times.  Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each.
5. Starting with the flour mixture, alternately add flour and tea to the butter mixture.  Begin and end with the flour.  Be sure that the ingredients are well blended.
6. Fold in the pecans.
7. Spoon into the bundt pan and bake for 1 hour until cake tests done.
8. Cool about 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

This cake is very delicate when warm so allowing it to cool down is imperative in being able to get it from the pan.

Serves 10