Lemon Lavender Cake with Lemon Icing

This is an easy recipe that uses plain, non-fat yogurt and safflower oil, with just a little butter to fill out the flavor notes. I used culinary lavender from Lost Mountain Lavender Farm in Sequim, Washington. If you are a fan of lavender, you can experience the best-smelling festival around: the Sequim Lavender Festival, which happens each year in July.

Though our lavender is spectacular here in Washington, our citrus is less  wonderful. For this reason, I had something called "volcano lemon burst" on hand instead of actual lemon. Volcano Lemon Burst comes in a plastic lemon-shaped container; it's a blend of water, lemon juice, and lemon oil. Since I didn't have any lemon zest or lemon oil for this recipe, it was a good choice for this cake. You could use fresh lemon and its zest, if you have them.

The other ingredients are available year-round, allowing a taste of summer any time the winter blues get to you.

Cake Ingredients:

1 TBL unsalted butter

1/4 C oil

1 C white sugar

2 medium eggs

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½  tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 C plain yogurt

1 ½ TBL dried lavender flowers

¼ C lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 12 Cup bundt pan.

Cream butter, oil, and sugar. Add in eggs and beat until mixed, about 1 minute.

Mix dry ingredients except for the lavender. Add the dry mixture into the oil-sugar mixture, alternately with yogurt. Do not overmix. Fold in lemon juice and the lavender.

Bake for 1hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before removing it from the pan. When cool, drizzle on the glaze. (See recipe below.)

If you cover the cake (such as putting it in a cake carrier or covered container) before the icing sets completely, the icing will wrinkle slightly.

     

Lemon sugar glaze

For the sugar glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A pinch of dried lavender flowers

Prepare the glaze:

Combine the powdered sugar, milk and lemon juice in a small bowl. Stir with a rubber spatula until the glaze is smooth and of drizzling consistency. Spoon the glaze over the top of each slightly cooled cake, letting some run down unevenly on the sides. Sprinkle the lavender decoratively over the tops of the glaze and serve.

Bob's Red Mill Vegetable Soup

The time I followed the recipe on the package, I got mush. Maybe I didn't follow the recipe to the letter, in that it may have boiled, but -- mush? The mush became meatloaf.

There was still an almost full package of Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix in my kitchen, however. The first thing I decided to try was making soup again, this time soup that would not be mush soup.

This is a soup mix of barley, lentils, split peas, and vege pasta. The cooked down vege pasta was responsible for the mush factor. While there is a recipe on the back for creamed soup, where after the hour of cooking, the soup is blended mush, I didn't completely believe that the shorter cook time for the pasta elements had been factored in when creating the mix.

I looked to Alton Brown's advice on rice, and took elements from a great white bean minestrone recipe that I have.

1 Cup Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix
1 TBL Earth Balance non-hydrogenated buttery topping (coconut oil would be a good substitution)
3 Cups water (not stock!)

1 tsp tomato paste
2 large cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1 carrot, cut into circles
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (a seasoning blend similar to Mrs. Dash, list below*)

 Melt the buttery topping in a saucepan on low heat. Add the soup mix. Stir until coated with the melted fat.

 Add the water. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes on very low heat. Do not allow to boil.

Test a split pea; tender "al dente" but not at all chalky or hard is perfectly cooked for this soup. When ready, add remaining ingredients and cover. Turn off heat, and allow 5 - 10 minutes for the flavors to incorporate. Taste; increase seasoning if desired.

This makes a hearty, thick soup with a lot of chew factor. I didn't have any other vegetables to add in besides the carrot, and I'm glad. I think more would have upset the texture. The basic soup mix has what it needs for the foundations of a satisfying soup. It made a good main dish for dinner. I was happy that it reheated well in the microwave, for take-to-work lunch.








TJ's 21 Seasoning Salute (below) has muchin common with  Mrs. Dash - Original Blend .

Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute ingredients label

*Onion
Spices (black pepper, celery seed, cayenne pepper, parsley, basil, majoram, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, savory, rosemary, cumin,  mustard, coriander)
Garlic
Carrot
Orange peel
Tomato granules
Lemon juice powder
Oil of lemon
Citric acid