Lavender: Pretty and Tasty

Every year there’s a huge patch of lavender in my garden and I never do anything with it. Mom takes bunches of it and puts in vases around the house, but that’s about it. I’ve been hesitant to use it in cooking or baking before because I’m never quite sure if I like lavender. Sometimes I find the smell to be overwhelming and I feel like I’m being suffocated by its perfume. But it looks pretty and I decided I should at least give it a try before dismissing it entirely. I’m glad I did. Searching online for recipes revealed that a few bloggers have been playing with lavender but the site that had the most recipes was the Happy Valley Lavender and Herb Farm. With a name like that, I had to make one of their recipes. And so my first attempt at using lavender in the kitchen produced Lavender Lemonade. To my surprise I liked it, a lot. As good as it was on its own though, I couldn’t help but tinker with the recipe. I thought my addition of mint, 7up and rum was worthy of winning an award, but I’ll let you give it a try and get back to me.

For my second lavender recipe I turned to my favourite Baking book which didn’t actually have a lavender recipe but that didn’t stop me from using it to create one. I’ve learned that I can play around with any of Dorie’s recipes with excellent results and this was no exception. I simply made her Perfection Pound Cake and added in ¼ cup of fresh lavender flowers to the sugar right at the start. The result was a lavender pound cake that I think could have been made better only by serving it with some crème fresh or vanilla ice cream. For my next lavender adventure I’m thinking of making sables or possibly ice cream, you know how I love my ice cream. Whichever I decide, I’ve got no shortage of lavender with which to do it.

Lavender Lemonade (from Happy Valley Lavender and Herb Farm)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup (a generous handful) fresh or 1 tablespoon dried lavender blooms stripped from stems

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained

5 cups water

Ice cubes

Lavender sprigs for garnish

Combine sugar with 2 1/2 cups water in a medium pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Add the lavender blooms to the sugar water, cover, and remove from heat. Let stand at least 20 minutes (and up to several hours).

Strain mixture and discard lavender. Pour infusion into a glass pitcher. Add lemon juice and another 2 1/2 cups water. Stir well and watch lemonade change color.

Pour into tall glasses half-filled with ice or refrigerate until ready to use.

Makes: 6 cups

**I also discovered that muddling some mint into this drink and adding 7up instead of the second 5 ½ cups water makes a lovely drink as well… rum optional.

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Lemonade + Lavender + Cake