SEASONAL TREATS

Today I baked the first orange and lavender cake of the year, and it has been eagerly anticipated both by my family and the boys next door. The lavender has flowered late this year and indeed the winter was so harsh the several of our venerable bushes did not survive the freezing weather. This cake is one of the highlights of the culinary year for us and during the flowering season I make this cake often.

ORANGE AND LAVENDER CAKE

4oz self raising flour
4oz softened butter
4oz caster sugar
1 level teaspoon of baking powder
1 orange rind and juice
2 eggs
a good tablespoon of lavender flowers...stripped from the stalks of course
3oz icing sugar

Grease and line an 8” cake tin ans set oven to 370f.
Put flour, baking powder, eggs butter and sugar with half the fine grated orange rind in to a mixing bowl an d beat for about two minutes.
Place in centre of oven and bake for thirty minutes them cool on a wire rack.
Mix icing sugar, lavender flowers and the rest of the orange rind with a little of the orange juice to make a mixture that will spread.
When the cake is cool pour over the icing mix, spread and leave to set for a couple of hours.
Every one thinks it will taste like soap until they try it, it is a delicious cake for a hot day and goes well with vanilla iced cream.

Next I made a rose geranium leaf cake using the same basic mixture, leaving out the orange juice and after lining the same sized tin placing three or four scented leaves freshly picked from the plant. The baking time and temperature are the same. When the cake is cooked turn out, remove the leaves then dust the top with a little caster sugar. A fragrant and very seasonal treat with a cup of tea.

The usual loaves were made early in the morning but the kitchen still became very hot indeed so I buzzed off to the river for a little while to watch the kingfishers. Perfect.