Position a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter or coat an 9-inch round cake pan with nonstick spray. Line the pan with a circle of parchment paper cut to size. 

1. In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar and eggs until pale and foamy, about 1 minute. Add the peanut butter and whisk until smooth. Add the buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and kosher salt. Whisk until smooth andemulsified.
2. Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk until well-combined and smooth.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, tap the pan gently on the counter to release any air bubbles, and smooth the top of the batter with an offset spatula.
4. Bake the cake until puffed and golden, and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes depending on your oven. Set the pan on a rack to cool for about 15 minutes, then turn out the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

1. Melt the butter, brown sugar, cream, and water together in a saucepan set over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a full rolling boil and cook for 3 more minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool for 3 minutes, stirring once or twice to release the heat.
2. After 3 minutes, whisk in the kosher salt and confectioners’ sugar until smooth and slightly thickened.
3. Spread the icing over the cooled cake and sprinkle with flaky salt, if using.
4. Let the icing set for about 20 minutes before slicing the cake. Store the cake, covered, at room temperature for up to three days.

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Butter three 7×2 inch round pans and line with parchment paper circles.

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Start the steeped milk and butter mixture: place a small saucepan on the stovetop and heat the milk and butter together until liquefied and hot, but not boiling. Add the loose tea and steep on low for five minutes.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together the eggs and white sugar on medium high speed until tripled in volume and light yellow in color, about five to seven minutes.
4. When the egg mixture is whipped, add the flour in short bursts on low speed to incorporate, careful not to overmix.
5. Pour the steeped tea hot milk mixture, vanilla extract and vegetable oil into a medium bowl. Carefully add two cups of the egg batter into the milk mixture, whisking to combine. Add this mixture slowly back into the rest of the egg batter on low speed until just combined, scraping down the bowl if needed and doing a few folds with a spatula to finish.
6. Distribute batter evenly into the three prepared cake pans.
7. Bake for 23-25 minutes until tanned and golden, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs. Be careful not to overbake.
8. Note: while the cake is in the oven, begin to prepare the Swiss Meringue Buttercream steeped butter. In a small saucepan set on the stovetop over medium heat, melt one cup of butter with the ¼ cup of loose black tea leaves. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for five minutes, steeping the tea in the butter. Remove from heat, and allow to steep for five minutes further before straining butter through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Little flecks of tea may remain but not to worry. Refrigerate the melted steeped butter for 20 minutes or so to firm it up to the consistency of room temperature butter. It may appear to be a shade of green at this point but will change to light tea colour once whipped.
9. Let cake cool completely before frosting.

1. In a small saucepan set on the stovetop over medium heat, combine the evaporated milk and loose tea leaves until hot but not boiling, a low simmer.
2. Steep the leaves for ten minutes in the milk then strain into a liquid measuring cup. Add 3 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk, or more to taste.
3. Set aside to soak cake layers and use for Swiss meringue buttercream.

1. Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisking to combine. Set the bowl on top of a medium saucepan filled with a few inches of water on the stovetop – creating a bain-marie to gently heat together the egg whites and sugar, heating on medium-high heat, whisking throughout, until mixture registers 160F (70C) on a candy thermometer.
2. Carefully remove the bowl from the saucepan and place back into stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat the egg white mixture on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stop the mixer, and swap out the whisk for the paddle attachment.
3. With the mixer on low speed, add the tea-steeped butter and other cup of butter a tablespoon at a time. Add the vanilla extract, increase the speed to medium high and beat until thickened and silky smooth. Add the steeped milk mixture, one tablespoon at a time, continue beating another minute to incorporate.

1. I used a gold 10 inch round cake board for the cake to add some Lunar New Year flair. Place a cake board or plate on your cake turntable. Add a dab of buttercream to the center and add the first cake layer. Using a serrated knife, evenly level your cake by trimming off dome shape. Using a spoon, evenly soak the first layer of cake with around six tablespoons of steeped milk mixture.
2. Fill your first layer with milk tea buttercream.
3. Trim the second layer, and carefully soak the top and bottom of the cake layer with the milk tea mixture. Place cut-side-down on top of the first layer. Repeat with the third layer.
4. Using an offset spatula, frost the entire exterior of the cake, using a cake bench scraper to smooth your first layer of buttercream. Chill the cake in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes to set. Frost the cake with a second layer of milk tea buttercream, using the cake bench scraper to smooth to your liking.
5. Time to decorate! Fill a piping bag fitted with a large multi-pronged open star tip such as Wilton 6B with remaining milk tea buttercream. Decorate the top and sides of the cake with alternating drop stars with fresh red raspberries or any other red berry, along with gold foil chocolate coins. Place a gold ball dragée sprinkle on top of the piped drop stars or dust the cake with gold sprinkles. You could also decorate with mini sesame balls, mini almond cookies or edible gold leaf.
6. The Milk tea buttercream cake is best enjoyed fresh, but it can be covered well and refrigerated for up to three days. Bring cake to room temperature to enjoy!

Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. 

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars on high speed until pale, light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. With the mixer off, pour the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. Pulse for a few seconds to gently combine and not cause a flour dust storm, then mix on low just to combine, ten or so seconds.
3. Add the chocolate and toffee bits and pulse a few times to combine the dough without over mixing.
4. If you want large round cookies, use a 2 tbs retractable cookie scoop to dole out even balls of cookie dough. I also used a 1 tbs scoop for some of the cookie dough to make them perfect kid’s lunchbox size! Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets, leaving room for the cookies to spread. You can freeze any leftover dough balls and save to bake later.
5. Bake the cookies between 11 and 14 minutes, depending on your oven (mine has a fan so I used a slightly shorter baking time) until cookies are lightly golden. Remove from oven, pan-bang as noted above if desired, reform any cookies with an offset spatula back into round shapes if desired, then sprinkle each with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt. Note: you can let the dough rest for an hour, as per Erin’s recipe in the fridge, to help hydrate the dough and develop flavour. Or, you can be a hungry cookie pig and bake them off straight away with similar amounts of deliciousness.

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
2. Combine the flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mixture by smushing the cubes with your fingers, working until a homogenous dough forms. The resulting dough should be smooth and supple.
3. Press the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, using your palm to flatten it into an even layer. Place the tart on a baking sheet to catch any butter drips that occur during baking and to provide stability as you transfer the tart shell in and out of the oven.
4. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool completely.

1. Lower the oven temperature to 350ºF.
2. Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and massage together, making sugar very fragrant.
3. Pour the sugar into a 2-quart saucepan. Add the lemon juice, eggs, egg yolks and salt and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat so mixture is warmed through. Add the butter gradually and stir until all the butter has melted. Continue cooking over medium heat until mixture is thick enough to coat a spatula, 5 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the corners of the saucepan. Remove from the heat and strain the curd through a fine-mesh-sieve.
4. Keep the baked tart crust in the tart pan on its baking sheet. Pour the curd into the tart crust and smooth the surface using an offset spatula.
5. Bake the tart for 5 to 10 minutes, just to set the filling. The edges should be solid while the center retains the slightest of jiggles.
6. Cool completely before adding meringue.

1. Set the metal bowl of your stand mixer fitted on top of a small sauce pan filled a quarter full with water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water.
2. Place on stovetop and heat the water to a gentle boil on medium heat.
3. Add the egg whites and sugar to the bowl, whisking to combine.
4. Continue to heat the egg white mixture until a digital thermometer inserted into mixture reads 160ºF.
5. Carefully remove the metal bowl from the saucepan and place into stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
6. Whisk the mixture on low speed for one minute until frothy. Add a pinch of salt.
7. Increase the speed to medium-high speed and whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
8. Fill a piping bag fitted with an open star tip with the meringue.

1. Pipe drop stars or a decorative border on top of the cooled lemon curd tart. You can fill the entire tart or leave some bright yellow tart visible.
2. Using a handheld kitchen blowtorch, toast the meringue until lightly browned. You may also broil it in the oven, but watch it like a hawk – 30-60 seconds, or until toasted brown.
3. Finish the tart with fresh raspberries if desired.
4. Extra meringue can be piped onto a parchment covered baking sheet and baked for one hour at 200º until crispy and dry.