Lavender baby cakes with lemony mascarpone
Lavender baby cakes with lemony mascarpone
Recipe
This recipe makes gorgeous, delicate little gems, which are so simple to make. You could make 10 regular cupcakes with this recipe, but I quite like them to be bite-sized.
For the cakes
2 tsp dried edible lavender petals / 8 fresh lavender heads
200g caster sugar
200g butter, softened
4 free-range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g ground almonds
50g plain white all-purpose flour
Pinch sea salt
60ml milk, of your choice
For the whipped mascarpone
200g mascarpone
200ml heavy cream (fridge temp)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp lavender extract (optional)
For the decorations
¼ cup of edible dried or fresh lavender petals
- Preheat oven to 180C fan bake. Grease 24 holes of a mini muffin tray, or use papers if you prefer.
- In a small blender, blend the lavender and sugar until the lavender is broken down and incorporated into the sugar.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and lavender sugar until pale, light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, along with the vanilla.
- In two parts fold in the ground almonds, flour and salt. Next fold in the milk.
- Spoon the batter into the mini muffin holes, filling them about 3⁄4 of the way up.
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes. The babycakes are ready when golden in colour, springy to the touch, and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool for around 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, make the whipped mascarpone. In the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, or using a hand held electric whisk, whip all the ingredients together until thick, smooth and soft peaks have formed. Be careful not to over whip it though!
- Once the babycakes are fully cool, ice each one using either a piping bag, a snaplock bag with a corner cut off, or a palette knife. Decorate with a scattering of lavender petals, if desired.
- Serve at room temperature.
- Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.