Vegivore Eats | English Lavender-Citrus Bundt Cake

Lavender: not just a pretty purple flower!  This cousin of the mint family is also a hardy, flavorful culinary herb.  It seems odd, and maybe a little scary, to put something in your food that could just as easily go in a bath product or sachet, but adding the dried buds in moderation to baked goods gives them a certain something that diners can't put their finger on, something lightly herbal that adds just the right amount of perfume to the recipe.

Take this cake for example.  A tablespoon of dried blossoms (from The Herb Lyceum at Gilson's, Groton, MA) infuses the cake with this incredible "green" taste, pairing beautifully with the lemon and orange flavors and allowing its front-and-center nature to be tempered by the tangy yogurt within and the honey glaze on top.

It's truly a winner.  Moist, with excellent crumb structure and the most subdued of full flavors, this cake tastes of sweet citrus flowers, pine and rosemary. Also -- what can I say -- I like big Bundts and I cannot lie!  The dramatic size makes quite the lasting impression -- one recipe will feed 12-16 people at once.  Combining flavor with the calming aromatherapy and infusion benefits of lavender, it's the perfect end to a progressive or multi-course meal. Perhaps one of the better cakes I've ever made, nevermind tasted.

ENGLISH LAVENDER-CITRUS BUNDT CAKE

serves 12-16

For the cake:

vegetable shortening for the pan

3 cups cake flour*

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 stick salted butter

1 stick unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 Tbs dried lavender flowers

 4 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp orange extract

1 c strawberry Greek yogurt

1 Tbs lemon zest

*IMPORTANT -- have your butter, eggs and yogurt at room temperature before beginning, about 40 minutes out of the fridge*

For the glaze:

2 Tbs orange blossom honey

1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for finishing

1 Tbs fresh-squeezed lemon juice

First, preheat your oven to 325.  

Generously grease a 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan (full size) with vegetable shortening.  Don't use butter!  The shortening will allow your cake to eventually release from the most complicated of cake pans.  Add some flour to the pan and rotate it, flouring all the greased surface and tapping out the excess.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Set aside.

Using your hand mixer on low (with beater attachment), cream the butter for about a minute.  It should be light yellow and fluffy.  Add the sugar and the lavender, and continue to mix on low for another few minutes, scraping down the bowl's sides with a spatula as needed.

Add in the eggs, approximately one at a time, while still having the mixer running, then add the orange extract.

Next, beating continuously, add a third of the flour mixture, followed by half the yogurt, followed by another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the yogurt, ending with the last of the flour. Stop to scrape down the bowl as necessary.

Fold in the lemon zest.

Plop the batter into your prepared pan, creating a kind of ravine around the center hole, ensuring that in the end the middle won't rise higher than the sides.

Bake one hour in the preheated oven.

Cool 15 minutes on a wire rack with parchment paper underneath.

During that time, make your glaze.  Gently heat the honey in a saucepan, so it gets all melty and easier to pour.  Add in the powdered sugar and lemon juice and stir until the glaze comes together.

After 15 minutes is up, it's time to unmold your cake (say a little prayer...but you shouldn't need it if you prepared your pan properly).  Carefully flip the pan over and give a good shake (close to the rack!). The cake should nearly effortlessly come out. If it doesn't, whack the bottom a few times with something like a wooden spoon.

Once the cake is out and sitting pretty, either drizzle the glaze or use a pastry brush to apply it all over the cake.

Cool at least 2 hours before slicing and serving.

.....

PRO TIP: No cake flour?  Save yourself a trip to the store and the extra expense/pantry space by adding 2 Tbs corn starch to a 1-cup measuring cup, then filling/leveling the rest of the cup with all-purpose flour.  Voila, that's one cup of cake flour.

Gluten-Free: Bittersweet Shop & Birthday Cake!

Liberty turned two yesterday. Her birthday party was on Sunday the 19th; incidentally, my mother's actual birthday.  All the specialness made it imperative to get the absolute best gluten-free cake I could find.  A possibly excessive amount of research narrowed this down to two options from an initial shortlist of five.  Bittersweet, located conveniently inside an office park in Woburn, utterly blew away the competition in the finals.

Oh yes.

Of primary importance was to have a truly gluten-free cake.  Although Bittersweet does serve glutenous food, they have a regular gluten-free menu consisting of pastries, scones, pies, cupcakes, cookies, tarts, signature cakes, lunch specials that can all be made gf and of course custom-designed special order cupcakes & cakes.  It was explained to me in detail how the store has separate regular & gf kitchens with equipment exclusive to that kitchen, exactly like a kosher kitchen would have.  Gluten-free foods are created first in the morning for extra steps to avoid cross-contamination.  As an added bonus, no artificial flavors or preservatives are used in any of their products.  Leftover cake does need to go into the freezer, not in the fridge!

I know gluten-free food extremely well... but other than making simple wheatless ones at home, I'm a cake idiot.

It's National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day!

In case you were unaware, April 2nd is National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day. Rumor has it this sandwich was invented by the soldiers during the war between the years of 1941 to 1945. The soldiers wanted to make the peanut butter a little more palatable; they combined the two items creating a sandwich that will forever be a staple in many households.

Traditional PB & J Sandwich
- 2 Slices of Bread (your choice of style)
- Peanut Butter (your choice of style)
- Jelly (your choice of style)
Spread the peanut butter on one slice of bread and spread the jelly on the other slice. Slap together. Boom. 

There is a variety of things you can do to make it a little more interesting.

- Toast the bread
- Use waffles or french toast instead of bread slices, top with maple syrup
- Use tortilla shells or pancakes
- Use pound cake and whipped cream 
- Add some jalapeno slices
- Add banana, apple, or pear slices
- Add some marshmallow or hazelnut spread
- Add some shredded coconut or dried fruit, like raisins
- Add some potato chips 
- Instead of jelly, mash up fresh berries and add some honey 
- Grill it like a grilled cheese

What kind of twist do you do with your PB&J sandwich? (leave comment below)

Happy Birthday, Bob Marley!

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