- 3
- 15 mins
- 55 mins
Ingredients
- For the lavender sugar:
- 2 tbsp. culinary lavender buds
- 2 cups caster sugar
- For the cakes:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup hazelnut meal
- 1 tbsp. culinary lavender buds
- 3/4 tsp. sea salt
- 1 cup + 6 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups lavender sugar
- 2 tbsp. honey
- 6 large eggs
- 1/3 cup crème fraiche
- 1 tbsp. vanilla essence
- 1/2 cup champagne
- For the frosting:
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 3 cups icing sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla essence
- 2 tbsp. champagne
- Red and blue food colouring
Preparation
Step 1
Instructions For the lavender sugar:
In a food processor, blitz together the lavender buds and sugar until well combined. Set aside until needed.
For the lavender, champagne and hazelnut cake:
Preheat an oven to 180 C / 350 F. Grease and line a 35 x 30 cm / 14 x 12 inch roasting tray (or large baking sheet pan/cake tin). Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, hazelnut meal, lavender and sea salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with electric beaters, beat together the butter, sugar and honey on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 5 minutes. While the mixture is beating, in a separate bowl, lightly whisk together the eggs, crème fraiche and vanilla. After the butter and sugar has finished beating and become light and fluffy, lower the speed and add the liquid egg mixture and beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and combine until the batter is uniform and smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, using a spatula to spread and level it. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake slab is firm in the centre and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before inverting onto a wire rack and levelling the top, bottom and sides to remove any browned crust. Once the cake is levelled, gently soak it with the remaining champagne, cover closely with cling wrap and refrigerate to cool for a couple of hours or overnight.
To assemble the mini cakes, use 5 to 7 cm / 2 to 3 inch cookie cutters to stamp out the cake circles. Then stack up the cakes, 3 layers high and sandwich with a bit of buttercream and top with a piped rose or desired garnishes.
For the champagne and vanilla buttercream:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the icing sugar and beat well to combine. Mix in the vanilla essence and champagne. At a time, add a drop of both blue and red food colouring to dye the icing until it reaches a lavender purple shade. If you want to pipe a rose on top the cakes, the buttercream will need to be quite thick and stiff, so if it is too soft, add a table of icing sugar at a time.