Lemon and Lavender Mother's Day Cake. (Baking)

Member Name: Machair1

Product:	Baking
Date:	15/03/09 (482 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious cake

Disadvantages: High in fat and sugar but then it is a cake so to be expected.

I love to experiment in the kitchen with recipes and often amend them slightly to ring the changes- sometimes with disastrous consequences but not as often as I used to.

With Mother's day in mind I decided to see if I could create a recipe which would appeal to mums and would have a lovely spring theme. With this in mind here is my recipe for lavender and lemon cake. The basic recipe is taken from my favourite cookbook "Barefoot Contessa at Home", but it has been changed by myself to be a cake with a delicate lavender flavour.

If you are new to using lavender in recipes it is actually something I have done many times before as it gives a really lovely delicate floral flavour. I was first introduced to it in a beautiful tearoom deep in the heart of a Scottish valley in Glenelg where they served the most divine lavender shortbread. Lavender itself is actually a member of the same family of plants as many of our common herbs, so it is therefore not a surprise that it is edible and delicious too!

Of course it is possible to pick your own lavender from the garden and use it in cooking, but a wonderful alternative for cakes and biscuits is to use lavender sugar. This is easily available from Waitrose and is a fair-trade white granulated sugar flavoured with lavender flowers. It costs £3.99 for a glass jar, but you don't need very much for this recipe so you can use it multiple times.

There are many myths regarding lavender, my favourite is that if you place a stem in the right shoe of a man it will ensure fidelity-hum I wonder if anyone has tried that!

Anyway my gran used to sit and make lavender bags out of pieces of material and our drawers would be scented with the lovely smell of flowers.I think my mum will remember her mum doing that so hopefully this cake will be popular with her too.



Lavender and Lemon Mother's Day Cake

You will need

115g margarine suitable for cooking- Olivio works well. You can also use butter but it needs to be left at room temperature for a few hours first.
200g caster sugar
25g lavender sugar
2 extra large eggs
The grated zest of 2 large lemons.
¼ teas baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
170g self raising flour.
75mls lemon juice
75mls buttermilk

And for the sugar infusion

55g lavender sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

For the icing
225g icing sugar
About 2 tablespoons lemon juice

To decorate
Lavender sugar
Slices of fresh lemons

You will also need a 2lb loaf tin which I line with a ready made parchment lining. These are available from www.lakelandlimited.com and really make the job easier, but you can grease and flour the tin instead.

Method
Cream the margarine with the sugar and lavender sugar and when it is light and fluffy add the eggs one at a time. I use a hand electric mixer for this. Then add the lemon zest. Then mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda together in a separate bowl and also in another bowl combine the buttermilk with the lemon juice and add this alternately with the flour to the main bowl until combined well ending with the flour.

Pile into the tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 160 degrees centigrade (Gas 2/3) until a skewer comes out clean.

Then leave in the tin for 10 minutes while you prepare the sugar infusion. Heat up the lavender sugar and lemon juice on a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn out the cake and place on a wire rack over a baking tray to catch any drips and pour over the lemon and lavender syrup onto the cake. This will ensure it is moist and melts in the mouth. Don't worry about the lavender flowers which settle on top of the cake, these will be covered by an icing later.

When the cake is completely cold transfer it onto a serving plate and make the icing by mixing the lemon juice with the icing sugar until you get a nice consistency for spreading. Then spread over the cake and sprinkle with lavender sugar and arrange slices of fresh lemon over the top.

Then serve for mother's day on a table decorated with fresh daffodils.

The cake is moist and delicious due to the lovely sugar syrup and the delicate lavender flowers merge with the fresh lemon to create a lovely blend of flavours.

Hope you enjoy.I made this for my husband and son and they have both loved it so next week I'll make it for mum. Lets hope she likes it!

Summary: Enjoy!