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For Jasmine
Date: Jun. 19th 2007
Category: Cookbooks, Flavour of the Month, Cakes, Cheesecakes, Cupcakes and Muffins
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the greatest benefit of blogging is the chance to meet so many wonderful people.
Shortly after I began blogging I had the good fortune to meet Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Sensual Gourmet. Intelligent, warm, witty, sexy, sweet, beautiful - these are all adjectives that could very easily apply to Jasmine.
But the one adjective that is most popular with me is generous.
A little over a month ago, I was moaning and complaining to Jasmine about how difficult it was to find certain ingredients in Toronto. As great a city as it is, in terms of baking products and equipment, Toronto can be a very small pond.
I was in search of organic lavender and was finding it very difficult to source in this great city of ours. I had no luck locating it and ended up extremely frustrated by the blank stares and silly questions I got in response to my queries for this product.
I happened to tell Jasmine about it and she immediately offered to send me as much lavender as I wanted from a local supplier (in her neck of the woods).
It’s taken me awhile, but Jasmine I’m finally thanking you in the most public way I can imagine.
To express my gratitude, I’ve made you this very special Lavender Cake from Tracy Stern’s Tea Party.
Thank you for being such a sweetheart!
Ciao!
Lavender Cake
Adapted from Tea Party by Tracy Stern.Note: Stern adds lemon to this cake in her book but I’ve changed it to orange. This recipe yields two 8-inch loaves.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds (blanched)
1-1/2 cups sugar
grated zest of 1 orange
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 large eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. dried lavender budsPreheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch loaf pans.
In a bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt). Set aside.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the almonds and 2 tbsp. of the sugar. Process until the almonds are ground. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, remaining sugar and orange zest. Mix on medium high speed until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Add the orange juice and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk alternately. Begin and end with the dry ingredients in three additions. Be sure to add the dry ingredients on low speed. Mix well after each addition of dry ingredients and buttermilk.
After adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk, add the almond mixture and the lavender buds and mix until just combined.
Spread the batter in the prepared pans and be sure to even it off.
Bake the cakes for 50 minutes to an hour, or until they are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool in the pans for 10 to 15 minutes. Then unmold the cakes and let them continue cooling on a wire rack.
Serve as is or dusted with icing sugar.
Enjoy!
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July 2009
Advanced Bread and Pastry by Michael Suas.

I have been given the incredible opportunity to review this masterpiece of a book. I’m in awe. June will be good.
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06/19/07 at 9:38 pm
**blush**
Thank you very much, my Dear. I don’t know quite what to say.
I think I’ll go and hide now.
**blush**
j
06/19/07 at 11:24 pm
The texture of that lavender loaf cake looks amazing - so dense, yet so light! Great-looking dish, and a lovely praise of Jasmine
06/19/07 at 11:25 pm
what a nice way to say “thank you”!
06/20/07 at 12:39 am
so sweet. Your lavender cake looks so delicious.
06/20/07 at 2:23 am
What a lovely lady Jasmine is
Great cake too!
KJxx
06/20/07 at 3:24 am
The food here is always purrrtty.
06/20/07 at 4:32 am
hi there. try pharmacies - the usually stock organic lavender and dried rosepedals. good luck! PS: your cake looks luuuuuuvely!
06/20/07 at 5:34 am
I love the idea of bloggers sending each other local products that the other one doesn’t have. We should all do some sort of swap one time.
06/20/07 at 5:44 am
I agree that Jasmine is special!
Beautiful photographs with such a lovely spray of lavender…
06/20/07 at 5:47 am
Looks yummy, Ivonne!
Just a tip - you can get organic lavender from the spice area of any Noah’s Natural Foods (there are several in the city):
http://www.noahsnaturalfoods.ca/
I use Noah’s all the time to source items for baking, particularly organics. Hope that helps!
06/20/07 at 6:06 am
A nice cake and great pictures! That was kind of her…
06/20/07 at 6:20 am
Very fun. I am so looking forward to meeting Jasmine at the Blogher conference. She seems like such a great person.
06/20/07 at 6:21 am
Thank you for this recipe! I bought a tube of dried lavender on a whim and haven’t used it yet! Looks like I will be baking these up to take to my parent’s house!
Thanks!
06/20/07 at 6:51 am
And I’d like to thank Jasmine, too! I’m on a bit of a lavender kick at the moment, so a cake recipe is great!
India
06/20/07 at 7:34 am
I totally agree with you… I met so many nice people through my blog.
Very nice recipe… I never tried lavander with cakes…
Ciao.
06/20/07 at 8:24 am
This sounds and looks wonderful!
06/20/07 at 8:38 am
Oh! My mother just sent me a BOX of lavender from her garden. I’ll have to try this.
06/20/07 at 10:04 am
I often complain about not being able to find ingredients, but they are usually things that are easy to find everywhere else - like arugula and shallots!
Your cake is gorgeous!
06/20/07 at 12:38 pm
Ivonne, I have just written something similar on Peabody’s blog and I’ll say it again because I truly believe in it: foodbloggers are the best!
I’ve met so many wonderful, giving and caring people through blogging that it amazes me. I can see you have, too!
The cakes are lovely and look delicious!
06/20/07 at 3:53 pm
I love the sharing that goes on in the blogging world! Your cake looks wonderful. What a great way to use the lavendar!
06/20/07 at 5:42 pm
Those cakes look delicious, I love the use of lavender!
06/20/07 at 8:26 pm
You may want to add an organic lavender plant to your garden. They are very hardy and will come back annually.
One good prospect are the Grassroots organic shops, in the Annex or on the Danforth. It may be the end of their live plant season soon though … Thanks for your hard work on your blog!
06/20/07 at 9:45 pm
How nice of her and sweet of you…I know what you mean by blogging generosity. I have experienced it myself thanks to you and a few other DBs and I am still trying to send the appropriate “thank you”.
Beautiful cake!
06/21/07 at 3:57 am
Lovely cake, my friend.. it looks so moist!
Question - just what does lavendar taste like? I’m growing it again for the 3rd time - and as they say, 3rd time is the charm for it’s finally loving the new spot I planted it in this summer and it’s flourishing. I’d like to use the flowers in my baking, but I’ve always wondered - do they lend flavor or is it just the aroma that’s in the final product?
As for Jasmine - I couldn’t agree more. I’ve finally bought cardamom, without having any idea what to do with it - just knowing I wanted to try it, so I asked her advice and she came through with flying colors for me. I am looking forward to the day I can put aside to bake one of her suggestions. Yay!
And how sweet are you for baking these for her? What a lovely “Thank You!” =)
xoxo
06/21/07 at 5:44 am
The lavender cake looks gorgeous and I have to agree about the food blogging community - they are wonderful people.
06/21/07 at 8:11 am
A nice treat for Jasmine, Ivonne. What a beautiful scent lavender is indeed! I just made lavender ice cream this morning, as a matter of fact
06/21/07 at 8:33 am
A heavenly cake makes for a lovely thank you! Lavender is a joy to bake with.
06/21/07 at 9:47 am
What a love gift for Jasmine for her generousity! Food bloggers sure are a wonderful bunch…
06/21/07 at 5:22 pm
I’m so jealous of Jasmine…
06/21/07 at 10:51 pm
Thanks for the inspirational recipe. I have some lovely lavendar blooming at the moment and a brand new stove and decided I wanted to try my hand at baking a Lemon and Lavendar pound cake. It has turned out really lovely!! Thanks for the inspiration!!
06/22/07 at 8:23 am
Lucky you, you have got to love the wonderful people of the food blogging community.
06/22/07 at 3:23 pm
What a wonderful recipe~I adore any lavender. I cook with it often, but will want to try this recipe out! Yuor photos are superb!
06/29/07 at 6:11 pm
[…] I made the beautiful lavender loaves using the lavender buds that Jasmine so graciously sent to me, I found myself in the strange […]
06/29/07 at 9:51 pm
Ivonne, I’m not positive it’s organic, but I know there’s a florist in the St. Lawrence Market that sells lavender. I’ve bought from them a few times. I’ll try to remember to check it out next time I’m there. Love your lavender loaf. If you love lavender, you should make your way to Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream. They make a blueberry lavender ice cream that’s fantastic. Of course, the alternative is just to add some blueberries to this loaf now that blueberry season will soon be upon us.
07/2/07 at 2:20 pm
What a lovely tribute! I’m sure no one deserves it more than Jasmine. I, too, would love to meet her some day.
The texture of this cake is really amazing. It looks well-packed but not heavy and dry (not that you could make a bad cake even if you tried). The lavender is an inspired touch.
07/28/07 at 7:45 am
[…] sooner had I posted a story about baking for Jasmine wherein I had complained that it is often very difficult to find specialized baking ingredients in […]