Lavender Cake
A delicious tea infused cake kissed with lavender. You can make this cake with a much simpler decoration scheme but since it's the beginning of spring I wanted to go all out and do an Italian meringue buttercream in a pink to green ombré along with a wreath of flowers on top. It's a lot of buttercream so you could easily scale back, and of course skip the flowers on top. If you've tried tis recipe out please leave a comment and rating!
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS:
For the Cake:
- ▢1 ⅔ cup all-purpose flour 213g
- ▢1 cup granulated sugar 190g
- ▢1 tsp baking powder 3g
- ▢¼ tsp baking soda 1g
- ▢1 cup whole milk 180ml, room temperature
- ▢2 tbsp black vanilla tea loose
- ▢½ tsp culinary lavender
- ▢¾ cup unsalted butter 165g, almost melted
- ▢½ cup sour cream 120ml, room temperature
- ▢3 tsp vanilla extract 10g
- ▢3 egg whites large, room temperature
For the Italian Meringue Buttercream:
- ▢4 egg whites room temperature
- ▢1 1/3 cups granulated sugar 275g
- ▢1 Pinch kosher salt optional
- ▢2 cups unsalted butter 456g, room temperature
- ▢1 tsp vanilla extract
- ▢1 dash cream of tartar
- ▢1/3 cup water 80mL
- ▢pink and green food coloring
For the American Buttercream:
- ▢2 lb confectioners sugar 907g
- ▢1 lb unsalted butter 450g unsalted, room temp
- ▢1 tbsp vanilla extract
- ▢1-2 drops lavender essential oil optional
- ▢Purple, pink and green food coloring
Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS:
For the Cake:
Preheat oven to 340F. Butter and flour three 6-inch cake pans. Soak baking strips in water. (If you're making three 8" layers then double the batter, three 9" layers would need triple the batter.)
Sift dry ingredients (including sugar). Whisk to combine.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, culinary lavender and loose black tea. Give it a quick stir. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Strain into a bowl to cool. Measure ½ cup for the batter. Reserve the rest for the buttercream.
In a medium bowl, combine the wet ingredients, including butter and ½ cup of the infused milk.
Combine the wet and dry mixtures. Whisk until combined.
Add damp baking strips to the cake pans.
