Honey Lavender Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I can't remember the last time I made a cake - not cupcakes. But this was for a festive situation - a semi-formal surprise birthday party! It must be a cake with proper candles and everything.



This cake is pretty marvelous. It is delicate and complex. White chocolate compliments but doesn't over power lavender. The lavender comes on very subtly after the first bite. Since I have lavender scented hand soap and dish liquid, I was afraid the cake would taste like soap. But not at all. In fact, I was so good I had to stop eating. I, who's possibly the fastest cake eater in the whole wide world, slowed down so that I could appreciate all the flavor notes from a bite of this cake. It's that good.


I need more practice frosting a cake...

I started with half my usual vanilla cupcake recipe because this cake would feed only 10 people. I added 2 teaspoons of dry lavender, substituted 1/4 cup of honey for 1/4 cup of sugar and omitted vanilla extract. The cake is baked in two 9-inch cake pans in 350 degrees oven for 33 minutes. The cakes was totally brown within 30 minutes but they weren't cooked. My friend, Hannah, suggested that I bake them at 300 degrees for longer time to get lighter color cake and flatter layers. I'll remember to do that next time.

Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour


• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1 stick of butter - at room temperature


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 2 eggs


• 1/4 cup honey


• 2 teaspoon dry lavender


• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.


2. With an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar for a couple of minutes until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg. Add honey and lavender.


3. Sift a third of flour mixture into the wet ingredients alternately with buttermilk. Stir (the mixer's lowest setting) until no streaks left.


4. Divide the batter onto 2 lined and greased 9-inch cake pans. Spread the batter to cover the pans surface. Bake for 33 - 35 minutes. Rotate pans after 15 minutes.


5. Remove from the pans and let cool on cooling racks.

White chocolate cream cheese frosting

• 1 stick of butter - at room temperature


• 1/2 cup of confectioner sugar


• 1 package cream cheese


• 1 cup chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Melt the white chocolate. I did with a microwave. If you don't have a microwave, melt it in a pot over boiling water. Be careful not to burn. White chocolate burns easily because it has a lot of sugar. Also make sure that everything is dry and no water drips on the chocolate. It seizes up really easily. Let cool a little.


2. With an electric mixer and wire whisk attachment, beat butter with sugar. Add cream cheese. Add white chocolate. Beat at high speed until light. Add more sugar if you want it sweeter. If it's too runny, refrigerate for 10 - 20 minutes before frosting.

To assemble, drop a teaspoon of frosting on a cake board or serving plate to prevent the cake from sliding, place the first layer with the flat side up. Spread about half a cup of frosting on the first layer. Place the second layer on top with the flat side down. Smack the layers in place. Cover the entire cake with frosting. Sprinkle the top with shaved white chocolate.

Orange Blossom Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

I have been wondering if I can bake with orange blossom water and if the fragrance will remain after the oven. All the recipes I tried in the past just brush the water over baked cake or incorporate it in the frosting.

This one will be for the sake of experiment.



I decided to pair the cupcakes with white chocolate frosting as opposed to just butter cream to make them even more interesting. I started with my favorite cupcake recipe. Reduced the number of eggs to 3 because I didn't want the batter to be so egg-y. Substituted 1/4 cup of buttermilk with orange blossom water. And added orange zest of two small oranges.



The cupcakes didn't dome well coming out of the oven. But they were fragrant and had delicious crumbs.



For the frosting I chopped up about 2 cups of white chocolate. Melted it in a microwave and beat it with a package of creamcheese and less than half a cup of confectioner sugar. I'm usually extra careful about the amount of sugar whenever I use white chocolate. I feel it always come already super sweet.



The result? The cupcakes smelled really really good. But the frosting was to die for. I need experiment with white chocolate + creamcheese frosting more often!

Mini Yogurt Orange Blossom Cupcakes

"It's like spring exploding in your mouth..." - Heng Cheng

I love baking with citrus. It leaves my apartment fragrant for hours. I don't remember how I came across this recipe from Australian GourmetTraveller.com. The measurement was in metrics. It would be the first time I had to convert a recipe into American measurement. Nevertheless, I was so delighted I couldn't wait to try it. I got a bottle of orange blossom water for last year's orange blossom cake. I haven't touched it since. It's expiring at the end of this year. I need to find ways to use it more. Maybe I'll just put it in a spray bottle and use it as perfume.... It smells that good.

I decided that I would make these cupcakes smaller than usual. I'm bringing them to a dinner party where a few people would bring baked goods for dessert. This way, we could try all the yummy cakes and cookies.


Tiny orange cake from my tiny kitchen

These mini cakes were delicious and light coming out of the oven. They settled and got a bit denser overnight. It might be because I didn't sift flour according to the original recipe.


Mini cupcake before frosting.

Ingredients - Make 30 mini cupcakes

• 2 cups all purpose flour


• 2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1 1/2 cups vanilla yogurt


• 1/4 cup buttermilk


• Grated orange rind from one orange


• 1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons) at room temperature


• 1 cup sugar


• 4 eggs


• For Frosting


• 1/2 stick butter (4 tablespoons) at room temperature


• 1 cup confectioner sugar


• 1 stick cream cheese


• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water

Frosted cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin pans with liners.


2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk yogurt, buttermilk and orange rind together.


3. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.


4. Alternately stir (at the lowest setting) in flour mixture and yogurt into the batter in 3 batches. Stir until just combined and there's no visible white flour.


5. Drop the batter by rounded tablespoon into the prepared muffin pans. Fill only up to 1/3 to make mini cupcakes. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack.


6. To make the frosting, beat butter and confectioner sugar together with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese and orange blossom water. Beat the frosting until fluffy.


7. Drop a rounded teaspoon of the frosting on top of cooled cupcake. With the back of a spoon, spread the frosting to fill up to the top of liner. Decorate with orange rind.

Ready for dinner party

I love this recipe and how the cakes tasted and smelled. I might have to find some kind of excuse to make this again.

Orange Blossom Cupcakes with Fresh Berries

Cupcake version of yesterday's cake.

Orange Blossom Cake with Fresh Berries

Was just done having 5 people over for dinner. It was so much fun! Plus we got a firework spectacular show at end the evening. We had Spinach Salad (without hard boiled eggs - but with grilled shrimp) for appetizer, beef massaman curry with steamed jasmine rice for main dish, and this cake for dessert. I got original recipe from Epicurious.com. I made a bunch of changes to the recipe: I had only 8 eggs in the refrigerator - so I used 8 instead of 9 and adjusted all other ingredients with my mad math skills. I made a 9 inch round cake and 12 cupcakes out of the batter. I only served the 9-inch cake instead of 2 layers of 10-inch cakes. It's more manageable for 6 people.

There's a special ingredient for this recipe: Orange Blossom Water. I got mine from Dean and Deluca. Oh my god.... The thing smells heavenly. I wish I can use it as perfume. It transformed the cake from ordinary sponge cake to the most fragrant and delicious cake I have ever tasted...



Ingredients

• Cake


• 2 sticks butter (1 cup) - room temperature


• 1 3/4 cup sugar (1 1/4 cups + 1/2 cups)


• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 4 cups self-rising cake flour


• 1 1/4 cups whole milk


• 8 egg whites



• Syrup


• 1 cup sugar


• 1 cup water


• 1 table spoon orange blossom water



• Frosting


• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) - room temperature


• 1 package cream cheese (8 oz.) - room temperature


• 1/2 a box confectioner sugar (about 2 cups)


• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water



• Berries


• 1/2 pound strawberries - half the best looking 6 strawberries and quarter the rest


• 1 pint blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners. Grease 9-ince springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.


2. With electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla.


3. Alternately, stir in flour and milk into butter mixture in 3 batches.


4. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer at medium speed until foamy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar while the mixer is running. Beat until the mixture forms peak.


5. Gently fold egg white mixture into the batter until there's no white streak.


6. Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes and the cake for 40 minutes. Cool cupcakes and keep for other occasion. Cool cake in a pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely.



7. To make syrup, boil water and sugar together. Reduce heat to medium low and let reduce to about a cup. Turn off the heat. Add orange blossom water. Let cool completely.



8. To make frosting, beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy. Add sugar. Add orange blossom water.



9. To assemble, slice off the dome top of the cake. Cut the cake in half horizontally. Spoon half the syrup on top of the bottom layer. Pile half of the frosting on top of the cake. Sprinkle quartered strawberries and half of blueberries on top of the frosting. Press the fruit a little - making sure that the surface is quite flat.


10. Place the second half of the cake on top of fruit. Spoon the rest of syrup on the cake surface. Frost with the rest of the frosting. Decorate with the rest of strawberries and blueberries.

It took me 2 days to prepare this cake. I baked the cake on Friday night. Prepared syrup in the afternoon the next day. And 2 hours later I whipped the frosting and assembled the cake. A lot of work - but it was well worth it. The cake was beautiful , not too sweet, and smelled like fresh summer.