Lemon and Elderflower Cake Recipe
This elderflower and lemon tea cake recipe is infused with wild elderflower blossoms, elderflower lemon drizzle syrup and glaze.
Servings: 8 servings
Calories: 294kcal
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 large elderflower heads
- 160 g unsweetened non-dairy milk 2/3 cup, such as soy, almond or oat milk
- 210 g all purpose flour 1-1/2 cups, or white whole wheat flour
- 67 g granulated sugar 1/3 cup, or unrefined sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 113 g honey 1/3 cup
- 67 g olive oil 1/3 cup or cooking oil
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest from 1 whole lemon
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste
Syrup
- 1 large elderflower head
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Glaze
- 65 g confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup
Garnish
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest from 1 whole lemon
- elderflowers or other edible flowers
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease a standard 8x4 loaf pan well with butter or oil.
- Pick the flowers off of the stems of the elderflower heads. NOTE: The stems of the elderberry plant contain toxins so remove as much of the green stems as possible.
- Add the milk and flowers to a saucepan and bring milk to scalding temperature (just before it boils). Remove from heat, cover the pan, and let the flowers steep in milk for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Strain the infused milk through a fine mesh strainer. Measure out 120g or 1/2 cup of the elderflower milk for the cake batter. If you have less than needed, just add more milk.
- Whisk together the elderflower infused milk, honey, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a separate mixing bowl.
- Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir together with a rubber spatula until just combined.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 35-40 minutes until cake is golden brown and comes away from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow cake to cool in pan for 10 minutes then run a butter knife along the sides to loosen the cake from the pan. Invert cake onto a cooling rack and tap bottom of loaf pan to release the cake if necessary. Remove the loaf pan then invert cake again so it is right side up.
Syrup
- While the cake bakes, make elderflower tea. Pick elderflower blossoms off of the flower head and add them to a heat-safe vessel. Pour about 1/4 cup of boiling water over the flowers, cover it, and let the tea steep for 5 minutes. Strain tea through a fine sieve.
- Stir together honey, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of elderflower tea to make the "drizzle" mixture. Reserve half of this mixture for the glaze.
- While the cake is still warm brush the "drizzle" mixture over the cake and allow it to seep into the cake.
Glaze
- Whisk together the reserved syrup with confectioner's sugar to make the glaze.
- Once cake has cooled to room temperature drizzle glaze over the top of the cake.
Garnish
- Sprinkle top with lemon zest.
- Optionally decorate cake with fresh elderflower clusters and other edible flowers such as chamomile as shown in the photos.
Notes
- Cover or wrap leftover cake and store at room temperature for a 1-2 days or refrigerate for 3-4 days.
- The homemade elderflower tea can be replaced with elderflower liqueur.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 294kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Sodium: 249mg | Potassium: 72mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 30g | Vitamin A: 82IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 47mg | Iron: 1mg