Lavender Lemon Cake

Before I give the recipe of this super delicious cake, funny story about it....

From the title, you know this recipe calls for Lavender. Well, I have never bought that ingredient before for a recipe and nor had my sister. We go to a health grocery store that my sister has near her house, look through all the herbs and find lavender. Well, you scoop out how much you need and weigh it and depending on how much it weighs, is how much it will cost you. We only needed 5  buds, which doesn't weigh anything and looks like we didn't even put anything in the bag. We wondered how much they would charge us and laughed at the idea of it being free because it didn't weigh anything. My sister Jamie feels like this is a waste, so adds more to the bag just so it will be worth buying. This is all we were getting at this store. We go to check out and the lady checking us out just looked at us like we were wasting her time. She tells us it might cost a nickel or something so to just take it and leave. So Jamie was right, it was free because it didn't weigh anything. :o)

Sadly, a couple of days go by and I get ready to make the cake and that little bag of Lavender is nowhere to be found. So I made it without the Lavender. But it was so good.... I am excited to make it again WITH the lavender.

Lavender Lemon Pudding Cake

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 lemon (zest & juice)

3 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 package instant lemon pudding

1/2 cup whole milk

3 cups confectioners sugar

5-6 organic lavender buds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring butter to room temperature. In separate bowl, mix butter and sugar with hand mixer, beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and lemon zest to form batter.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to batter and blend with mixer. Meanwhile, prepare instant pudding and allow to set for five minutes. Add pudding and milk to cake batter, beat on medium for 2-3 minutes.

Pour prepared batter into greased Bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Allow cake to cool for 30 more minutes, it will shrink down a little bit inside the pan. Remove cake from Bundt pan, and place on plate to cool another 20 minutes.

For lemon lavender icing: Bring 3/4 cup of water to a boil, then place 3-4 lavender buds in boiling water and boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and remove and discard lavender buds, then allow lavender infused water to cool. In separate bowl, combine the juice of one lemon with 3 cups of sifted confectioners sugar. Add 3 tablespoons of lavender infused water. Blend together to make icing- add more confectioners sugar if necessary to thicken. Once cake is cool, pour icing on top and garnish with a few fresh lavender buds, then dust with confectioner's sugar.

All done. If you love lemon cake, you will LOVE this. It is so moist and full of flavor. Enjoy!