Sweet Yet Sour

Lavender Contender

Friday, September 30th, 2011 | Cooking, Wedding Cake Try-outs

It’s been a while since I blogged about the wedding cake try-outs, mostly because I (and the family) got a little “caked out”.  There was a time when I was making a cake a week and I think it was wearing on us – except for Henry – who loves to point at whatever is on my cooling racks and say, “Cake! Cake!” So I took a little break for a while, but now I’m back on the cake making wagon…

So far in the wedding cake try-outs we’ve had a Sour Cream Filled Bundt Cake, a Caramel Peanut Cake, a Sourdough Chocolate Cake, a Lemon-Raspberry Cake, a Chocolate Ganache Whipping Cream Cake, and a Sourdough Almond Raspberry Cake.  The bride and groom have tried every one and have tried several of the cakes more than once.  We seem to be narrowing down what they like and perfecting each of those that they really like.  The hits so far have been the Sourdough Chocolate Cake, with a combination whipping cream/cream cheese frosting and coconut on the outside and the Sourdough Almond Raspberry Cake.

Here’s the problem, both of these cakes involve chocolate.  We’ve decided after several tries that the Sourdough Raspberry Almond Cake tastes best with a smattering of both chocolate Ganache and whipping cream in between the layers.  So that still leaves me without a “chocolate-free” option.

I decided that perhaps I should return to lemon cake, but find a different version of than the one I made previously.  I also thought I would try making up a sourdough lemon cake, just like I had with the Sourdough Almond Raspberry Cake.  In my searches I found just the cake recipe to get me excited about experimenting with another cake – a recipe for a Meyer Lemon Cake with Lavender Cream.

I decided that I would just follow the “idea” of the recipe (it’s impossible to get Meyer lemons here) and make a Sourdough Lemon Cake, use the recipe’s lemon curd filling and make a lavender whipping cream frosting.  The original recipe calls for a dusting of powdered sugar and the lavender cream for “dipping” instead of frosting and you know me – I like to go whole hog on the whipping cream!

This week I began attempt number one at this new cake.  It was fun to try, didn’t come out perfect, and I definitely have some things that I can work on next time.

First I made my usual sourdough cake batter and allowed it to ferment.  Then I creamed sugar, lemon zest and butter in a bowl.  I then added just a touch of lemon juice to the butter and baking soda and salt to the sourdough batter.  Then I alternately added the sourdough batter and 2 eggs until the mixture was well blended.  After that I put the batter into two 9-inch cake pans that had been buttered and lined with parchment paper and baked them.  The cake baked up fine, if a bit low, and so I went ahead and made the lemon curd for the filling.

After the lemon curd was finished I began work on the lavender whipping cream.  I crushed a tablespoon of dried lavender flowers with my mortar and pestle:

And then brought them to a low boil in a pan with heavy cream:

After that I removed the pan from the heat and strained out the lavender.  I learned that this needs to be done not just with a normal strainer, but with either cheesecloth or in my case, a flour sack cloth. Otherwise, the cream takes on the look of cream with dirt flecks in it and that does not look tasty.  The lavender steeped cream then went into the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Later that day I spread all of the lemon curd in between the two cake layers and then began beating the whipping cream in my stand mixer.  When I thought that the cream had reached the “stiff peak” consistency I stopped the mixer, threw the whisk into the sink and began frosting the cake.  I quickly learned that I had not beaten the cream enough, as it was sliding off of the cake!  So I put the bowl back on the mixer, washed the blade and began beating the cream… again.  Here’s where I made my big mistake, I set the mixer on high and walked away to do some more dishes.  When I came back to the mixer my cream had become chunky and had begun to curdle.  Trust me, there were some words said that I was glad that the children weren’t around to hear…

At that point, I had to give up on the cake and let it sit overnight until I had a chance to make it to the grocery store the next day for some more cream.  I made a second batch, watching the mixer more carefully this time, and finally got the job done and the cake entirely frosted.  I’m thinking that this cream might curdle a little more quickly than normal cream because of the boiling process, so I’ll have to be careful every time I make this cake.

The cake itself tastes great, with the bright, even slightly sour, taste of the cake and the curd contrasting so wonderfully with the lavender whipping cream.  The cake was a little “spongy” as Mike described it, and so I’ve decided just to make a normal lemon cake, perhaps even the one from Dorie Greenspan’s book next time I make the cake.  I feel like I’m putting my sourdough to enough good use for the wedding with the chocolate cake and the raspberry almond cake.  I might cut more layers in the cake, spread the lemon curd out a little more thinly (it’s pretty zingy the first day) and might add some of the lavender whipping cream in between the layers as well.  And I’m going to try some different things with the lavender whipping cream to try and make it a little less likely to turn into butter.

All-in-all I really like this cake and am excited to make it again next weekend, when I will be bringing it to a dinner party at the bride and groom’s house.  Here’s hoping that the second attempt turns out even better!

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