Whoops, and I was being so good with cooking and posting about good healthy food. Then today it was time to bake some nice Lavender Cupcakes. Now, just to say that these aren’t for me and Hana but are a present to take to a friends birthday Saturday evening.
Fresh Lavender is not always easy to get, especially when you only need a few bits to top off some Cupcakes. Living in a flat we don’t have a garden or even a window box where we can grow lovely plants such as Lavender and buying a plant to let it die out seems such a waste. On the way to the tube station we walk down a nice street of terraced houses with nice front gardens. Growing in one of the front gardens Hana had seen Lavender plants growing. We just needed a few springs to top them off so with crossed fingers and a little nervousness we knocked on the door to ask for some Lavender.
The door opened and I asked if we could buy a few sprigs? The man behind the door was very nice and asked what we would use them for? I said they were to top Cupcakes, and he seemed to like the Idea. He said we didn’t need to pay for the Lavender and could pick as many bits as we needed! A big thank you to that person.
The inspiration for this recipe came from a Cupcake book we have but as always Hana changed the recipe a little and made it out own. Here is Hana’s recipe.
Pretty Lavender Cupcakes
Lavender Cupcakes
Ingredients, get everything out 10 minutes ahead of time so they get up to room temperature.
- 115g caster sugar
- 115g self-raising flour, sifted
- 1tsp dried Lavender
- 115g unsalted butter
- 2 eggs
- 2tbsp full fat milt
- 1tsp vanilla essence
to decorate,
- 185g icing sugar, sifted
- 1tsp dried Lavender
- 1 egg white
- purple food colour, approx 1/4tsp
- 12 sprigs of Lavender to decorate the top with
12 hole cupcake tin lined with paper cases.
Recipe.
Do make sure you allow your ingredients to get to room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/Gas 4.
The Cupcakes
Put the sugar and dried lavender in a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Tip the fragrant Lavender sugar into a mixing bowl with the butter and beat together until light, pale and fluffy. One at a time beat the eggs into the butter/sugar mix. Add the vanilla essence. Sift the flour and fold it into the batter. Pour the milk in and stir till a smooth batter.
Spoon the batter into the paper cases, filing them to about 2/3s of the way up. Bake in the oven checking after 20 minutes. Our oven always takes a little longer to cook things than a recipe states. Check the middle of a cake with a skewer, if it comes out clean then its done.
Cupcakes ready to decorate
The Icing
Blitz the icing sugar with the dried lavender. Using an electric whisk. eat the icing sugar into the egg white in a mixing bowl. Add just a touch of food colouring. Hana used a non natural food colour and with these you need to be very sparing. Beat together till a smooth texture and colour.
Decorate
Decorate with a spoon of icing, smooth it over and top with a sprig of Lavender.
Lavender Cupcakes
I think Hana should be very pleased with these. We boxed them up to make a nice present for our friend and took them to the party last night. They went down well, as they look very pretty. I hope they are enjoyed. We also left a couple of cupcakes on the doorstep of the person who donated the lavender and I hope these were well enjoyed too!
A RussellsKitchen Cupcake box!
russellskitchen 