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Lavender Lemon Cake for #BundtBakers

Lavender Lemon Cake | Magnolia Days

Some artificial flavorings and scents are not quite right. Take banana for instance. Anytime I’ve had something made with banana flavor it tastes off. Store-bought banana popsicles or candy taste nothing to me like the real thing. The same goes with heavy handed coconut flavoring. Too much and a cake tastes like the way suntan lotion smells. Lavender is in the group too. Real lavender smells incredible. Artificial lavender scent is not appealing to me at all. Imagine wind blowing through a lemon orchard and then across a lavender field. It is the heavenly scent coming from the oven when baking a Lavender Lemon Cake.

It was time again to bake a lemon bundt. Anne of From My Sweet Heart picked lemon for June’s Bundt Bakers theme. Trying to figure out what to bake was difficult after my incredible Triple Lemon Bundt Cake. It was the absolute best lemon cake I’ve baked. The challenge was on and so a recipe search began. Most of what I found was the additional ingredient of berries. While those sounded lovely I wanted something different. A continued search turned up lavender and it was intriguing. I had to give it a try out of curiosity.

Lavender Lemon Cake | Magnolia Days

Two flavor enhancing techniques are involved in this cake. First is rubbing lemon zest into sugar. Add lemon zest to a bowl of sugar then use your finger to rub it together. It releases lemon oil from the zest and really brings out natural lemon flavor. It’s so much better than using lemon extract. The other is making lavender powder by grinding dried culinary lavender with turbinado sugar. It also releases natural flavor in a most wonderful way. Using these two techniques makes the flavors real and true instead of an artificial off taste.

Lavender Lemon Cake | Magnolia Days

Lavender Lemon Cake is moist with medium crumb. Buttermilk is what I attribute to the moisture. It seems to be the case with almost any cake I’ve baked with it. Plus it gives an ever so slight and underlying tang. The flavor of the cake? Did I mention a wind blowing through a lemon orchard and across a lavender field? Yep, it smells like that when it is baking and tastes like it too. The cake received rave reviews from folks at my husband’s work. One said it was the best treat I’ve baked to date. And there I thought triple lemon bundt cake was the best. You never know.

Lavender Lemon Cake | Magnolia Days

Do you enjoy lemon cake? Scroll down to find a big list of recipes. I’m excited to check out each one. Bundts are so pretty thanks to the pans. Minimal if any topping is needed. A simple glaze or sugar dusting does nicely. Take a look at Lavender Poppy Seed Scones and Lavender Poppy Seed Shortbread for more recipes with lavender.

Lavender Lemon Cake | Magnolia Days
4.48 from 17 votes
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Lavender Lemon Cake

Lavender Lemon Cake is a moist cake baked in a bundt pan and flavored with real lemon and lavender plus topped with a honey lemon glaze.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 12 to 16 servings
Author Renee

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 3 cups cake flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender
  • 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 4 eggs at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cup buttermilk at room temperature

For the glaze:

  • 1/2 cup confectioners sugar sifted
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons honey

Instructions

For the cake:

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10- to 12-cup Bundt cake pan.
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
  3. Place sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl. Use your fingers to rub sugar and lemon zest together (releases lemon oil for more flavor).
  4. Place lavender and turbinado sugar in a spice grinder. Grind until it is a fine powder. Add powder to lemon-sugar mixture and stir or whisk to combine.
  5. Beat butter and sugar mixture in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
  6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  7. Add lemon juice and beat until combined.
  8. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
  9. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly in the pan.
  10. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  11. Cool cake in pan for 12 minutes. Prepare glaze.
  12. Remove cake from pan onto a wire rack over parchment or waxed paper. Use a pastry brush to brush glaze on warm cake.
  13. Cool cake completely.

For the glaze:

  1. Place confectioners sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. Warm honey until runny either in the microwave for about 10 seconds or in a small saucepan.
  2. Add honey to sugar and lemon. Stir to combine. Brush glaze onto cake.
  3. If glaze thickens and does not brush easily onto cake, microwave it for about 10 seconds and stir.

Recipe Notes

Lavender Lemon Cake is a moist cake baked in a bundt pan and flavored with real lemon and lavender plus topped with a honey lemon glaze.

Recipe adapted from Lavender-Lemon Bundt Cake on the Williams-Sonoma website.

Are you searching for lemon cake to bake? Take a look at these bundt cake recipes with lemon by talented bakers from around the world:

Bundt Bakers LogoWhat is Bundt Bakers? It’s a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Bundt Bakers Pinterest board for incredible bundt cake recipes and inspiration. Stacy of Food Lust People Love heads up our group and has a #BundtBakers page where you can find information and links to the recipes for each month.

How is the monthly theme determined? We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.

Recipe Rating




mom3kids

Monday 19th of March 2018

Real review: Made exactly as shown with one exception. Cake turned out looking nice and people seemed to like it but, in my opinion, it didn't have much flavor. The only change I made was I used the zest from 2 lemons and really didn't taste it. I even added Meyer Lemon flavoring. Never used lavender before so I didn't add more because I didn't want to end up with a soapy taste. I only cooked it 55 minutes and it seemed a little, dry. If I ever made it again, I'd make extra glaze and keep it warmed to serve on slices because in my opinion, once past that edge where the glaze is, it needed something.

Tammy

Friday 16th of March 2018

Sorry 33 reviews. Reviews to me mean people have tried it.

Tammy

Friday 16th of March 2018

I just found this and it said it was rated 5.0 with 67 reviews. Where's the reviews. All I see are comments from people talking about your presentation and wanting to try it. Has anyone tried it?

Constance Wilson

Thursday 24th of December 2015

LOVE that bundt pan shape! Where did you find that pan?

Renee

Friday 25th of December 2015

I found the pan at TJ Maxx. You can get it on Amazon. Search for Kaiser Bakeware Kaisercast 9-1/2-Inch Classic Bundtform Pan

Laura@Baking in Pyjamas

Wednesday 24th of June 2015

I've been wanting to bake with lavender for a very long time but never found the right recipe until now. I'll be giving this a go Renee :)