0
0
Evy loves purple. Keep that in mind.
Evy’s a beautiful, intelligent, and sparkling young lady who just turned eleven last week. When I have occasion to pick her up from her middle school, all I need look for is the color purple. And there she is, as if summoned by the color itself.
Her mother and I are good friends, so she asked if I would – if I could – make her birthday cake. Her mother isn’t gluten-free, but she does refrain from with wheat. So she was more-than-cool about having a GF cake for Evy’s birthday. But it had to be purple.
So what tastes like purple? I know I could have done a chocolate or a vanilla or even a lemon cake and made it purple. But where’s the creativity in that? And they don’t taste purple.
Purple Kool-Aid is intended to be grape flavored. I’m not certain what grapes they are using, because no grape I know tastes like that. Neither do purple lollypops, purple Skittles, purple Now-and-Laters, or purple Pixie Stix. I’m not sure I want to give cake to anyone that tastes like purple “grape” flavor. Imagine all the purple mouths. Yeesh.
However, lavender is purple and it has long been used as a means to scent our everyday lives as well as delicately flavor cakes, cookies, creams, and custards. Plus, lavender has a reputation as bringing luck. What better way celebrate a birthday! And it’s in season! Bonus!
Lavender cake it is!
This is an adapted recipe for a vanilla cake, turned lavender and gluten-free for Evy and her mom. If you are a full gluten-on, give-me-the-wheat kind of baker, then you can change this recipe in this way to meet your glutenous needs: use cake flour for the GF flour, eliminate the xanthan gum, reduce the milk to one cup, and reduce the baking flour to 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon. Everything else remains the same.
Evy loved her lavender purple cake! It tasted like the beginning of summer….
Cake:
1 ¼ cup whole milk
3 Tbsp fresh or dried culinary lavender, divided
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. xanthan gum
¾ tsp. table salt
1 ¾ cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 large egg whites at room temperature
Frosting:
1 pound of mascarpone cheese (I make my own – go here for how)
2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 tsp. lavender extract (optional)
purple food coloring (or mix red & blue together)
Candied Lavender sprigs (optional)
Silver Dragees (optional)
Make the cake: Heat milk with 1 Tbsp. of lavender. Let it steep for a half hour while the milk cools to room temperature. Strain the milk into a small bowl and discard the lavender.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9-inch cake pans. Sift the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt into a medium bowl. If using dried lavender, grind the remaining 2 Tbsp. lavender in a mortar and pestle (otherwise they look like tiny fruit flies in your batter – ewww!) If using fresh, no need to grind it. Gently mix lavender into the flour mixture. Beat the butter with a mixer until smooth, then slowly add 1 ½ cups of the sugar. Cream the butter & sugar until the sugar is incorporated into the butter and the mixture is light and fluffy. On low speed, mix in one-third of the flour mixture until well incorporated, then half of the milk, repeat with the flour and milk, then end with the flour mixture.
In a separate bowl, with clean mixing attachments, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Then gently and slowly add the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and beat on high until they form firm peaks. With a rubber spatula, scoop about ¼ of the whipped whites into the cake batter to lighten it. Then gently fold the remaining whites into the batter until just blended. The batter will appear lumpy – that’s OK. The texture will bake out.
Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans. Bake until the tops are light brown and springy, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean – about 30 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let cool in their pans for about 15 minutes, and then invert them onto a rack and let cool completely.
Make the frosting: Combine the mascarpone, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl. If you want the extra lavender flavor, add the lavender extract. (I did not add lavender extract to Evy’s frosting because my homemade mascarpone cheese has lemon in it that complimented the cake and would have competed with the lavender extract in the frosting.) Using a mixer, beat on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium-high until the mixture is thick and holds firm peaks. Do not overbeat or it will be lumpy and grainy.
Frost the cake as you wish. I used the purple food coloring to make a light purple for the entire cake, a dark purple for the accents, and I left some white for the border and writing. I also candied some lavender flowers for the top of the cake and used silver dragees to accent. Directions for candying flowers are here and you can order silver dragees here.
I hope you enjoy making this cake as much as I did! I love a challenge – especially when it turns out a lovely as the people for whom I’m baking!
Happy birthday Evy! May your eleventh year be filled with purple dreams and lavender wishes!
Terry – On you GF recipes have you tried substituting Splenda in any of them? I have a friend I bake for who is gluten and sugar free. Thanks for the input! Annie
I’ve not tried that, but it seems to me that it should work just like granulated sugar. And I’m not using confectioner’s sugar in the icing so it should work there too.