Layers of cake made with flavors of honey, lavender oil, and almond extract and topped with a whipped honey mascarpone frosting. The perfect cake for a springtime birthday!
Baby Rou's birthday is May 1st which, in my opinion, is the best day ever. I always loved the first of May growing up. May promises flowers, sunshine, and the idea that summer is just around the corner. Flowers become abundant and with them the fresh smells of a warm spring. I literally get this itch to put lavender in everything.
If you weren't aware, May 1st is a historic day dating back centuries where the holiday was known for its general frivolity, feasting, gathering flowers, and dancing around the maypole. Last year for baby Rou's birthday I actually made a maypole. I might have been going through an insane period where I thought that was a completely normal thing to have at a child's birthday. But you know what, I do not regret it and I see more maypoles in the future. This year we tamed it down a bit. We gathered flowers, there was an air of frivolity, definitely some dancing (sans maypole), and had an excellent feast (if I do say so myself). Generally the food you consume on May 1st should include herbs, spring vegetables, honey, strawberries, shellfish, mead, etc. You get the picture. We had a spinach salad with strawberries and a poppyseed vinaigrette, grilled shrimp, roasted leeks, this honey lavender cake for dessert, and some mead (milk and honey for the baby of course). It was so delicious and I basically ate everything just so I could get to the cake.
I used gluten free flour of course for this cake which can be easily substituted cup for cup with regular flour. Lavender oil/extract can sometimes be a little tricky to find depending on where you live but if you happen to not be able to find it you can always use dried lavender buds that have been steeped in the water used for this recipe and then strained out. Or you could even forego all of the lavender (one time making this cake I forgot to add it in and it tasted just as good).
Recipe adapted from Cooked, the recipe is in grams
Ingredients:
280g Gluten-Free Flour, or regular flour
200g sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, separated
100ml canola oil
100ml water
1 tsp lavender oil
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Frosting:
250ml whipping cream
250g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
90g confectioner's sugar
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Grease two round cake pans.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, and baking powder. In a second bowl, whisk together egg yolks, canola oil, water, lavender, almond extract, and honey.
3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, it will be a little stiff.
4. Using a stand mixer or hand-held mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
5. Add a little bit of the egg whites to the batter to loosen it up and then combine the rest of the egg whites in.
6. Pour batter evenly into both cake pans. Bake in preheated oven about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. For the frosting: In a stand mixer, whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Add in the mascarpone and honey until just combined. Add in the confectioner's sugar until just combined. Wait until the cakes are completely cooled before assembling cake. Enjoy!