Mini Lemon Lavender Cakes
These mini lemon lavender cakes are naturally sweetened with honey and bursting with fresh spring flavours.
It’s been unseasonably warm these last couple of weeks. Has it been the same where you are? While I love all the coziness that winter has to offer, I have to admit that this warmer weather has me longing for flowering trees and seaside trips. So today I’m sharing these very springy mini lemon lavender cakes in an attempt to coax the warmth into sticking around!
Lemon is one of my absolute favourite flavours. It’s so fresh and light that even lemon pound cake feels like you’re sinking your teeth into a cloud. Before I made the decision to start eating and baking more naturally, one of my favourite treats was the lemon cake from Starbucks. I loved the intense lemon flavour, the soft, squidgy sponge, and the thick layer of tart icing on top.
Lavender is a new find. Since I started blogging, I’ve loved experimenting with different flavour combinations and discovering new ingredients to bake with. For these mini cakes, I decided to push my boundaries a little and use this popular floral flavour.
What kind of lavender can you cook with?
Sadly, you can’t just frolic through a lavender field, picking the herbs willy-nilly, and then go home and add them to your meals. (Although that would be fun.) All lavender is technically edible, but you want to ensure you’re purchasing food-grade lavender, whether dried or fresh.
When buying lavender to cook with, make sure it’s labelled “culinary lavender.” Never eat flowers from florists, nurseries, or garden centres as they’ve often been treated with pesticides. Fresh lavender flowers can be used to add colour to salads, to decorate cakes, or to add a delicate flavour to honey. Dried lavender buds can be used in sponges, hearty stews, or to perfume custards and ice creams.
English lavender is the sweetest and most commonly used in cooking. The flowers, buds, and stems can all be added to dishes to enhance the flavour and appearance. Be warned though – lavender has a very strong flavour and too much can quickly add a pungent soap-like essence to your baking. As with salt and vanilla, a little goes a long way, so taste as you go and add more when you need it.
Originally, these mini lemon lavender cakes were going to be bundtlettes. Unfortunately, the only bundtlette pan I could get here in the UK on short notice had to be ordered from the US and was hella pricey. So that plan was swiftly scrapped in favour of the swirl ring tin I could easily purchase from Lakeland. I think they still look pretty, despite their short stature! This pan is quite shallow, so if you want to make these mini cakes into bundtlettes, you will probably have to double the recipe to have enough batter to fill the tin.
If it’s still snowy where you are, hang in there! It’ll come to an end really soon. Maybe make a batch of these mini lemon lavender cakes and put them out as an offering to Mother Nature. Or, you could just eat the entire batch and pretend you’re sitting amongst a field of lavender flowers, basking in the glow of a warm spring sun.
Either way, you get to eat cake, which feels like a win to me.
Looking for more sugar-free spring desserts?
If you make these mini lemon lavender cakes, don’t forget to take a photo and tag me on Instagram and use the hashtag #naturallysweetkitchen, so I can share your pictures! It makes my day to see these bakes come to life in your kitchen.
Mini Lemon Lavender Cakes
These mini lemon lavender cakes are naturally sweetened with honey and bursting with fresh spring flavours.
Ingredients
Lemon Lavender Cakes
- 125 g unbleached plain flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 ½ tsp dried culinary lavender buds
- 56 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 110 g unpasteurised honey
- 100 g Greek yogurt room temperature
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 ½ tbsp lemon zest
Lemon Glaze
- 1 tbsp unbleached plain flour
- 5 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp unpasteurised honey or agave nectar
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 2-3 tsp lemon juice depending on your taste
Method
Lemon Lavender Cakes
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC (325ºF) and generously grease a 12-cup swirl ring tin with butter.
- Sift the the flour, baking soda, and sea salt into a large bowl. Add the lavender buds and whisk together to combine.
- Using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and honey until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the yogurt, egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest and beat well.
- Tip in the dry ingredients and beat on medium-low speed just until the flour disappears. This batter will be quite thick.
- Ladle the batter into an open-ended pastry bag and pipe the batter into the prepared tin cavities. Be sure to only fill these two-thirds to three-quarters full.
- Smooth out the top of the batter to the edge of the cavities and then bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn them out on a wire rack to finish cooling completely before glazing.
Lemon Glaze
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the flour and milk until it thickens to the consistency of a loose custard, about 2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and add the honey, sea salt, and lemon juice and whisk vigorously to combine.
- Allow the glaze to cool slightly before drizzling over the cakes. Should the glaze thicken too much, simply whisk in more milk 1 teaspoon at a time until it reaches a pourable consistency.
Notes
These cakes are best served the day they are made.
