After a few years of doing this I am excited to finally be hosting a blogging event! I didn’t start my own but rather have the opportunity to host Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging this weekend. I am even luckier because this is the 100th event of WHB. Myriam from Once Upon a Tart was supposed to host and she was willing to switch me because of some last minute travel plans of mine, so a huge thanks to both Kalyn and Myriam for being so accommodating! So don’t forget to check back here this Sunday to see all the fabulous dishes I have already started to receive.
Since I get to host I knew I had to make something special. So three weeks ago I was at the Mayne Island farmer’s market and I saw a chocolate lavender cake for sale. I almost bought it but resisted because I had a whole cheesecake at home and even I am not that indulgent. However it has been haunting me for almost two weeks now. Does that happen to everyone else? Obsession over some food thing until you can get it out?
So the weekend before last I was over at my parents and picked myself some fresh lavender so I could make a cake. Since I only have a loaf pan at the cabin my options for a cake recipe were limited but I found a Nigella recipe online and modified it a bunch to suit my needs (thanks goodness I have internet there now). The original post is here.
This is the first time I have really cooked with lavender and it was a good learning experience. I only used one flower and that was plenty – my reading suggested you go easy on it to avoid ending up with a ‘perfume-y’ flavour. Of course making a chocolate cake you miss out on the wonderful purple colour but the flavour came through great. It almost had a gingery spicy flavour.
I am crazy busy this week and I have already started receiving posts which is very exciting, keep them coming!
(makes 1 9×5″ loaf)
1 cup soft unsalted butter
1-¼ cups dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lavender flower, crushed and chopped
4 ounces best semi-sweet chocolate, melted and minorly cooled
1-⅓ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
Preheat the oven to 375F. Line the 9×5″ loaf pan with parchment and grease it.
Cream the sugar and butter then beat in the lavender, eggs and vanilla. Fold in the melted chocolate but don’t over mix. Stir together the flour and baking soda. Alternately add a tablespoon of the flour mixture and hot water stirring.
Pour into the pan and bake for 30 minutes on top of a cookie sheet to avoid spills. Reduce oven temperature down to 325F and bake for another 15 minutes. Let it get completely cool before removing it from the pan as it will not be very firm.
Note: This cake gets better with age and freezes well.
More Recipes:
Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing
Classic French Lemon Tart
Brownies
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Very unusual and interesting!! I did not know you can use lavender in baking…
Greetings, Margot
what a good idea. i’ve been kind of obsessed with lavender recently, especially in this amazing lavender duck recipe i have. i’ve had lavender creme brulee but never lavender cake. definitely something to try!
Interesting indeed! I have seen a lot of lavender recipes around lately. Your combo though is one of the very best!
That looks really good. I have never tried cooking with lavender before. I will have to try it.
I am looking forward to this weeks Weekend Herb Blogging roundup!
Sounds interesting. Your photo is just fantastic!
I had some lavender salt once, but it did turn out to be too perfumey for me, so I think it’s good advice to go easy on the lavender.
Lavender adds a wonderful delicate flavour when infused with the cream or water in a dish. They should make your chocolate lavender cake at the Lavender Ferstival here in July. It would be a sure hit!!!
What a fabulous cake! I’ve just sent you my entry. Thanks so much for hosting
A very nice idea to add lavender flavour in your chocolate cake.
And you succeeded – a very special cake, indeed!
I look forward to the round-up #100!
Round up is coming it is amazing how neat it is to read everyones post thoroughly, and yet a lot of work!
What a delicious cake. I´ll fetch some lavender and try it!!
)
Really lush result, so delicious, can’t wait to try it out this weekend. Look forward to your future mouth watering posts.
This looks Delicious and the combination of chocolate and Lavender is hard to beat. I love the photographs. I must say I also love the chocolate Cake.Maybe I`ll try it on next Saturday. Thank you so much.