When a friend had a birthday coming up and requested something “citrusy lavender,” I wasn’t sure where to start. I make lavender macarons all the time, but I had never actually tried lavender in a cake. There’s a fine line when it comes to using lavender in food … you want a hint of floral goodness but not so much that your mouth feels like it was rinsed with soap.
I chose a cake format because I love the traditional idea of a birthday layer cake. To tone down the lavender, I combined the scent with fresh strawberries. Both cake and frosting were whipped up and ready within a couple of hours and ended up being a huge hit at the party.
The cake turned out incredibly moist and fluffy from the strawberries, smelled wonderful from the lavender and paired nicely with a super soft and light lemon mascarpone frosting.
Although I still prefer chocolate to citrus, this cake hit just the spot for the birthday girl, as it was meant to.
Strawberry Lavender Layer Cake with Lemon Mascarpone
Makes 3 6-inch cakes (or 2 8-inch layers)
This recipe also works for cupcakes, making about 24 8.75 oz. cake flour
11.5 oz. sugar
3½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
8 oz. puréed strawberries
3.5 oz. butter, softened
4 oz. sour cream
5 oz. egg whites, room temperature
½ tsp. lavender extract
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.*
• Add the first 8 ingredients (stopping at the eggs) to a large mixing bowl. Use an electric beater on medium-high to combine for about 80 seconds, then pour in the egg whites in 2 batches. Mix well after each addition. Stir in the extract.
• Fold the batter into 3 well-greased cake pans and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached.
• Let cool completely before inverting the cakes from the pans. This is important because the fruit purée causes it to stick to the pan. I would even recommend refrigerating it to cool it down faster.
• Freeze the cake layers separately in plastic wrap, until cold and very firm (for as little as a couple of hours or as long as several months).
• Depending on how frozen the cakes are when you’re ready to ice them, let them thaw until cold but no longer frozen.
• Set the first layer on your cake stand and ice the top and sides. Top the layer with the next layer and repeat. Repeat with the third layer.
• If there are crumbs in the icing and you wish to make the cake appear smoother, put the iced cake in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes and then ice the cake again.
*For cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes.
Lemon Mascarpone Frosting 1 8-oz. container mascarpone cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
Pinch salt
3 Tbsp. lemon curd (or more to taste)
1½ cups heavy cream
• Whisk all of the ingredients except the cream in a bowl. Do not use a beater because the cheese can curdle from overbeating.
• In a separate bowl, beat the cream to stiff peaks. Then, fold it into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients until combined. Add more lemon curd according to taste.
• Frost and serve.
This article appears in November 2012.
