These cupcakes were made using the recipe in the the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I found the idea of using lavender in a cake a little strange but then I'm not keen on many flavoured sponges. I don't like orange, lemon, earl grey or anything weird like that. Chocolate, caramel, peanut butter though?? Yum, yum, yum - give me more!
My boyfriend's mum however, said they looked delicious! So, I thought I'd give them a go for her birthday and as a thank you present for helping Andy to move in with me.
It was a little bit of a task to find the lavender in the first place. My local health food shop technically does carry it but they didn't have any on the shelves for two weeks and I almost had to give up on the idea.
Finally I found a stockist: my local potpourri shop. The owner assured me that the lavender had not gone through any fragrance enhancing oils or processes - it was just plain lavender.
I was still quite concerned that it would be too strong a flavour but once I got back to the recipe book I realised you don't actually put the lavender in the batter mix but you infuse the milk in the recipe with lavender by putting it in the fridge for a few hours then straining the milk before it goes into the mix and the same for frosting.
Well, the certainly look beautiful. To me they didn't taste great, a little like Grandma's cupboard but hopefully, Andy's mum liked them! She hasn't called to say so though, and I heard her asking Andy on the phone what flavour they were supposed to be. I suppose it's the thought that counts!
