Lavender Teacake

I was babysitting some friend’s children on the weekend, which in itself is really fun. I get to be a kid again and eat jelly beans. Its not overly taxing as they generally just want to watch movies, so that’s what we did.

It was during the second film, The Spiderwick Chronicles that my sense of nostalgia and inspiration was struck. The Field Guide that the boy finds and reads is full of lovely ink and water colour illustrations that are reminiscent of the old scientific botanical books I used to sprawl over as a child and make up stories to go with the illustrations. Some that I really love are by illustrator Colin Stimpson in a book he was asked by the Duchess of Northumberland to illustrate called The Poison Diaries.

What I loved most though, were the dried flowers and animal bones/beetles that were stuck in the Spiderwick Chronicles book in the movie. It took me back to when I would stay at my Grandmother’s house and after family weddings she would take the bridal bouquets and hang them to dry in the big, musty old garage, where they stayed forever, forgotten by everyone except me. I would always be so disappointed that the flowers hadn’t changed but only gathered more dust and so I would ask to dry my own, which was when I was taught how to press flowers in books. Exciting at first, then incredibly boring for such a high energy/low attention span child, although the beauty wasn’t lost on me.

So my favorite dried flowers, lavender, seemed most appropriate to use in my next baking venture:

Lavender Teacake

Ingredients
(makes one 25cm cake, serves... a lot like 12?)

120g butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
2/3 cup (160ml) milk
3 teaspoons dried lavender
topping:
30g butter, melted
some caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC. Grease and flour side of a 25cm round pan, line base with parchment paper. Sift self-raising flour, set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, with a wooden spoon or a manual whisk, beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in the egg gradually, beat well each time egg is added.
   Add in vanilla extract, mix well.
3. Add in shifted flour and milk, stir with a spatula until smooth. Stir in dried lavender.
4. Spread batter into prepared pan, bake for 25mins till the cake turns golden or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5. Stand cake in pan for 5 mins. Turn onto cooling rack, brush top with melted butter and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Recipe source: The Australian Women's Weekly,Food We Love

The result was lovely, very buttery with a subtle lavender fragrance and aftertaste. It really felt like something to be eaten in an enchanted garden after meeting with the local fairies. Enchanted Royalty. Really.