Wednesday 4 November 2009

Lavender and Lemon Drizzle Cake


I wasn’t quite sure how to name this cake. The lavender is in the cake rather than the drizzle, but it becomes a bit long-winded if you call it a lemon and lavender cake with lemon drizzle. I’m sure people get the idea anyway. The photo isn't the greatest either - the sun was too low - but it was good practice.

The inspiration for this cake came after I found some lavender in the supermarket. I have wanted to cook with it for ages, but we can’t grow our own as we don’t get enough sun, and it has proved difficult to source.

The first thing I made with it was some lavender shortbread, which made a lovely accompaniment to the chocolate sorbet. I was then toying with what to do next. I assume now that it is open it will lose its potency pretty quickly. R has been talking about lemon drizzle cake for ages, and I can’t even remember the last time I made one. The more I thought about it the more I thought the addition of lavender to this cake might be a good one.

The floral note contrasts well with the sharpness of the lemon. I upped the lemon quota a bit from my normal recipe, and the balance seemed pretty good. Next time I might try using partly ground almonds and partly flour (gluten-free) to try and get the damper texture I was after. This would make a great cake for tea party, with its delicate floral-ness.
Lavender Lemon Drizzle Cake
150g butter
225g caster sugar
225g plain flour (I used Doves gluten-free)
4 eggs
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1/2 lemon (you might not need this with regular flour)
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
75g caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and sugar until pale, then add the eggs one at a time, followed by the flour and lemon zest a bit at a time, then stir in the lemon juice. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 50 mins, until a skewer comes out clean. Prick the cake all over with a fork (or the testing skewer).
Stir the remaining lemon juice and sugar together and then pour over the cake while it is still hot. Leave in the tin to cool completely.

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