Lavender cake with lemon cream cheese icing

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3 eggs

3/4 cups white sugar

1 cup milk

1-2 tsp lavender extract

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp lavender buds finely chopped plus 1 more tbsp. to sprinkle on top

Syrup

1 cup water

1/2cup (brown) sugar

Lemon juice from ½ lemon

Icing

8oz cream cheese

8oz crème fraiche

½-3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tbsp lemon zest

Lemon juice from ½ lemon

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).Grease and flour a round pan for cake or a 9/13 inch pan for bars. Sift together flour and baking powder.
• Beat egg whites to soft peaks, and then continue beating while slowly adding the sugar, until stiff peaks have formed. Add egg yolks, one at the time, when evenly mixed fold in the flour mixture alternating with milk. Add Lavender extract (I used only 1 tbsp and the cake had just a hint of Lavender flavor, next time I will try 2 tsp for a little more intense flavor), 1tbsp finely chopped Lavender buds and 1 tbsp Vanilla extract. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake cake in preheated oven about 30-40 min, or until top has turned golden brown, and toothpick comes out clean.
• In a pot combine 1 cup water ½ cup brown sugar and lemon juice from 1/2 lemon ,whisk on a medium heat until sugar melted ,set aside.
• When the cake is done remove from pan, let it cool, and then cut it in two layers (if you baked the layers separate, skip this step). Use a skewer to poke holes all over the cake. Pour warm syrup evenly over the layers. Spread about 1/2 of the cream (see recipe below) on one of the layers, and then place the other layer on top. It is best if you assemble your cake in the pan that you used to baked it. Chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, then take it out, remove from the pan and use the remaining cream to frost it. Sprinkle with lavender buds.

For icing

Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy; add lemon zest and lemon juice. Gently incorporate crème fraiche, do not over mix or it might separate. 

Enjoy!

Lemon Sugar cookies

Ingredients

1.    3 cups all-purpose flour

2.    1 cup sugar

3.    1cup (2 sticks ) unsalted butter softened

4.    1 egg

5.    1 tbsp. milk

6.    Pinch of salt

7.    ¾  tsp. baking powder

8.    1 tsp. vinegar or lemon juice

9.    1 tbsp. lemon zest

10. Powdered (confectioners )sugar

Sift flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk and lemon zest and beat well.  Add 1/2 of flour, then the vinegar or lemon juice mix well. Add the rest of the flour .Once dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, divide it in 2, wrap each half (about 1 inch thick) in wax paper or plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F Sprinkle work surface and your rolling pin (glass bottle works well ) with powdered sugar. Roll out dough ¼ inch thick Add some more powdered sugar underneath, to make sure it won’t stick. Use a cookie cutter (or a wine glass or an aluminum can for round cookies) to cut desired shape, and place in baking sheet (lined with parchment paper) about 1 in apart, bake for 8-10 min or until slightly golden brown on the edges. Remove from oven ,and if you haven’t lined your sheet with parchment paper ,use a spatula to transfer  cookies to the wire rack to cool .To Serve ,dust with powdered sugar while still warm, or decorate with icing when completely cool .

First batch came out as brownies