I have always wanted to bake with lavender, but I could never easily get my hands on some. So I couldn’t believe my luck when Tariette a new online grocer selling produce sourced directly from small producers in the Haute Provence region got in touch. Provence is famed for its lavender production as well as items like calissons and olive oil. When they sent me this wonderful lavender I just had to create a lemon and lavender drizzle cake.
Tariette is a family run business and their carefully crafted hampers full of delicious Provençal goods are proving to be very popular. I was fortunate enough to receive a wonderful hamper full of ingredients and treats handpicked by Thomas Jacquel – one of the founders of Tariette- along with his recipe for lemon and lavender drizzle cake.
The culinary lavender they sent me was absolutely amazing, it was fragrant and had a very gentle flavour which meant it was subtle in the finished cake and not overpowering, nonetheless you could taste it was there. This is such a simple recipe that is really big on flavour, the syrup that is added to the cake whilst it’s still warm gives the loaf cake a moist, almost doughnut-like taste.
I can see that Tariette are extremely passionate about the products they sell and how they source them, selecting ingredients from small producers with traditional methods. The Provence region of France has an amazing bounty and they have a wide-range of items like honey, calissons (a delicious almond paste biscuit), tapenade and nougat. Check out their website for more of their range.
This cake is very easy to make, it keeps well for a few days, give the recipe a try I think you’ll really enjoy it. All you need is a
Lemon & Lavender Drizzle Cake
Ingredients
- ***Cake***
- 150 g Caster Sugar
- 150 g Unsalted Butter softened
- 3 Eggs beaten
- 1 Lemon zested
- 1 Tsp Culinary Lavender Flowers
- 175 g Plain Flour
- 2 ¼ Tsp Baking Powder
- ***Syrup***
- 75 g Caster Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Lemon Juice approx. 2 lemons
- ***Icing***
- 50 g Icing sugar sifted
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice approx. ½ lemon
- Culinary Lavender Flowers to decorate
Instructions
- Grease and line the base and sides of a standard 1lb loaf tin with baking parchment, preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4.
- Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat them together until they are light and fluffy.
- Slowly add the eggs and beat them in between each addition letting them mix in completely.
- Add the lemon zest and lavender and beat them in slowly. Combine the flour and baking powder and sift them into the beaten egg mixture. Slowly beat in the flour, be careful not to overmix the cake.
- Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and using a dinner knife run a line the length of the cake straight down the middle, touching the base of the tin. This will help the cake rise with a nice even line down the middle.
- Bake for 45 minutes until the cake is golden and a cocktail stick comes out clean.
- While the cake is cooking, make the syrup by gently heating the caster sugar and lemon juice together in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- When the cake is cooked remove it from the oven and pierce it all over with a cocktail stick, take the syrup and pour it all over the cake so that it seeps in. Leave the cake to cool in its tin.
- When the cake is completely cooled, make the icing by mixing the icing sugar with the lemon juice until you have a pourable icing. Add more lemon juice if necessary.
- Drizzle the icing over the cake and then sprinkle the top with some more of the lavender. The cake is ready to serve.
Thanks for reading,
Angela
I was very kindly sent a hamper to review by Tariette - All opinions are my own.
Alice
Hi, this recipe looks like it ticks all my boxes, but I do have one question before I start – can you please include the dimensions of the 1lb loaf pan you used? Where I live it’s not standard to include volume/weight measurement on the loaf pans, so I have no idea what size I have! (And the internet gives varying answers so not particularly helpful for working out individual recipes). My pan is about 23 x 13 x 7 cm, which I think might be too big and I’ll need to double the recipe?
patisseriemakesperfect
Hi, I think the size you have is about right, they all vary slightly, but you definitely don’t need to double the recipe. The tin I used is 25 x 10 x 8, so I think the volume would be about the same size as the tin you have. If you did want to increase the recipe, 1 1/2 times should be enough, remember to adjust the cooking time as well.
Anymore questions please ask and thanks very much for commenting.
Alice
Thanks very much for fishing out your tin and answering! I made it last weekend and decided to increase it by one and a half. I’m glad I did – I think if I had done it as written it would not have been enough and turned out a very flat/shallow cake. And double would have been slightly too much. 1 1/2 was about right. Took about 50-55 minutes to cook. And delicious!
patisseriemakesperfect
Hi Alice – thanks for sharing what you did and that it worked. As you can see from photos, it produced quite a small cake, so it’s probably best you did increase the recipe. I am so glad you enjoyed it.
Mel P
Unfortunately the mixture completely overflowed my one pound loaf tin whilst it was baking. Managed to get it out of the oven and transfer to a two pound tin. Still baking so hoping for a success.
patisseriemakesperfect
Hi Mel, I’m sorry you had problems with this. You definitely used plain flour without any raising agent? I cannot see any reason why this would explode.
I hope it worked out OK when you moved it to the new tin.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and let me know.
Angela
Jodie Dodd
What a wonderful little gift Angela! Love that these companies send you their products and I swear you can taste the love and care these smaller family businesses put into their products. The cake looks lovely too! I’m not a huge fan of lemon but after eating a few bites it tends to grow on me. 🙂 x
2pots2cook
So into edible flowers ….. Thank you very much !
patisseriemakesperfect
You’re welcome – me too! Enjoy.
Sarah Hopkins
Fabulous, I have loads of home grown Lavender, good to know I can bake with it as well. Lavender is pretty much pest free, so there really is no need to use pesticides
Jeanette
Such a pretty touch with the purple lavendel and the cake looking good:)
patisseriemakesperfect
Thanks Jeanette – it’s a very easy cake to whip up as well!
Bintu (@recipespantry)
Love the flavour combination of lemon and lavender – sounds like a great pairing and the cake looks super moist and tasty – I’d love a slice!
patisseriemakesperfect
Isn’t it just! You’ll have to make this – it’s lovely with a cup of tea!
Sarah Hopkins
lovely, any reason why one couldnt use garden grown lavender?
patisseriemakesperfect
Thanks Sarah – there’s no reason you can’t use home grown lavender, you just have to be sure that no weedkiller or pesticides etc have been used on them. Then give them a good clean. I don’t have any lavender at home or access to any that I can be confident hasn’t been sprayed – so I have to buy it.
I think you’d need to hang the lavender first too, to dry it.
Marie @ Yay! For Food
I love the smell of lavender. This cake looks so delicious (so fluffy and light) and the flavours sound sensational!
patisseriemakesperfect
Thank you Marie – I love lavender too, it’s really delicate to work with, but so lovely.
shashi at savory spin
I have yet to bake with lavender – but I have had the pleasure of enjoying it in baked goods before and I gotta say, your kitchen must have smelled wonderful! This cake looks simply scrumptious – now am off to Google Tariette!
patisseriemakesperfect
The kitchen did smell wonderful and I have lots of lovely lavender left to do yet more baking.
Rebecca | Nourish Nutrition Co
I need to go get lavender just for this cake! it looks delicious
patisseriemakesperfect
Do it Rebecca – it tastes amazing.