Cake in Provence

Long story short. I knew I had a recipe involving lavender and a tart pan. When I went to look for it in the book I knew it was in...it wasn't there. Some little book fairy came into my library and stole a recipe right out of a book! Seriously, I have no idea where it went! I'm not telling you the plan for the lavender and tart pan, cuz someday soon I hope to surprise you with it!

So, I now have lavender and don't know what to do...well...I insist that my secret recipe is out there somewhere, so I search and I search...no luck. But I did find several other recipes that were appealing.

Here's one of them!

Quatre-Quarts au Lavande
kah truh / kahr / oh / lah vahnd
Lavender Pound Cake

Recipe found on About.com

½ cup sugar
1 ½ TB dried lavender blossoms
4 eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
¾ cup sour cream
2 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup granulated sugar
1 TB vanilla
1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 TB unsalted butter, melted
3-4 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice

Put ½ cup of sugar and the dried lavender into a food processor and blend.

Take the eggs, butter and sour cream out of the refrigerator and allow them to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325F and grease and flour 2 loaf pans (8x4x2-inch size) and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the lavender sugar, granulated sugar, 1 cup of butter, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy; about 3-4 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed.

Alternately add the flour and the sour cream, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined.

Stir in the lemon peel and divide the mixture between the two pans.

Bake for about 45 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack for 10 minutes then remove from the pans.

To serve:
Mix the confectioner's sugar with the melted butter and lemon juice until it is of drizzling consistency. Spoon over the cakes and serve.

The Lavender Sugar~~so aromatic. What an amazing scent!

The final cake! I lined my pans with parchment paper, which made for the easiest removal possible.

Big fat slices for dessert.

Garnished with honey sweetened whip cream. We had raspberries as well, but...well...they were in the fridge for too long and turned a little...well...fuzzy!

The flavor was perfectly subtle. Just lingering on your tongue with the combination of citrus and floral. The cake was perhaps the lightest pound cake I've had. Tender and moist. Not dry, crumbly or oily! The honey sweetened whip cream was great addition at the last minute. The honey matched the floral notes of the lavender perfectly. This will be a great spring/summer dessert.