The fluffy, citrusy cake tangos with its bold lemon icing, creating an elegant dance of flavours that leaves your taste buds craving another bite
Cottagecore, made popular on TikTok, has taken the internet by storm. With a focus on simple living in harmony with nature, cottagecore is a growing aesthetic that encourages the romanticization of rural life. Think pulling a fresh loaf of bread out of a vintage stove oven or roaming through a field of daisies in a floppy sun hat and long strawberry dress.
These are both examples that fall into the three major categories of cottagecore: food, fashion and home décor. And what better way to get in touch with your idealist, agricultural life than by baking from scratch.
For anyone who isn’t the best at following recipes (myself included), beginning to bake from scratch can seem like an impossible task—especially when baking mixes exist that often only require water, oil and an egg. But from one okay-baker to another, I’m here to tell you that beginning with the basics and working your way up to more complicated recipes is the best place to start.
So today I give you the simple mini lemon bundt cakes with a twist—infusing the cake with chamomile lavender. Sounds complicated already? I promise it really isn’t. In fact, I devised the recipe to be as uncomplicated as possible. All you’ll need for the cake batter is flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, chamomile lavender tea bags, eggs and lemons.
Okay, this may seem like quite a big list but these items are all ingredients you likely already have at home. The probable exception may be the chamomile lavender tea bags, which can easily be tracked down at a local grocery store.
Once you get your hands on everything you need, the instructions are fairly straightforward. First, you’ll want to begin with the chamomile lavender tea which will be giving the cake its distinct flavour. In a small saucepan, bring milk to a boil. Turn off the heat and place two or three tea bags into the pan and let them steep for 15 to 20 minutes. Keep in mind that the more bags you add and the longer you steep the stronger the flavour will be. So this is totally your call on how much chamomile lavender you’d like to taste in your cake!
Next, sift the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl. I like to add the flour, salt and baking powder directly into the sifter to sift them all together. Sifting your dry ingredients—especially flour—helps remove any lumps and evenly distribute the powders, making them easier to mix into wet mixtures. Once the flour, salt and baking powder are incorporated, set them aside.
In a large bowl, begin beating softened, room temperature butter with the sugar until the mixture is incorporated. The butter at this point should be much paler in colour, signalling that it’s ready to mix in the eggs. Here’s a tip about the softened butter: if you’re anything like me and forget to take the butter out ahead of time so that it’s room temperature and easier to work with, simply place the butter in the microwave and defrost using the defrost setting for eight to 10 seconds.
You’ll want to keep an eye on it to make sure the butter doesn’t melt. And of course, use your judgment to decide if the butter is softened enough. If not, pop it back in for a few more seconds until the consistency is right.
Continuing on with the recipe—to your butter and sugar mixture, whisk in two whole eggs. Once thoroughly incorporated, add vanilla and the juice of half a lemon. When you’ve stirred both liquids into the mixture, begin slowly incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet.
The cake batter will quickly start to take shape, but you’ll likely notice that it’s quite thick. This is when the chamomile lavender milk makes its appearance. Much like with the dry ingredients, slowly work in the milk until you’ve reached the desired consistency—liquidy enough that the mixture slides off the spatula in ribbons. This means that you may have to add more or less milk depending on what your batter looks like. Again, it is a judgment call but really there is no right or wrong—it’s your cake after all!
Lastly, fold in the zest of one whole lemon for another blast of citrusy tanginess and you’re just about done. All that’s left to do is pour your mixture into the pan of choice. This recipe fits four small bundt cakes (pictured below—aren’t they so adorable!), but it can also fit a small 7-inch by 3-inch rectangular loaf pan.
Whatever your choice, spray your pan(s) with cooking spray and lightly dust with flour to prevent the cakes from sticking. Using the mini bundt pans, you’ll want to evenly divide the batter into each of the pans and then pop it in the oven to bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 350°F or until they are golden. You’ll know that they’re ready when a toothpick poked into the cake comes out clean.
Let the cakes sit for five minutes before removing them from their pans and letting them cool on a cooling rack. In the meantime, you can begin making the lemon chamomile lavender glaze. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and the remaining chamomile lavender steeped milk until you’ve reached your desired consistency. If you prefer your glaze to be more liquidy, add more milk. If you’d like it to be thicker, add more powdered sugar.
Once your cakes are completely cool, drizzle the glaze over the cakes. You can let the glaze harden before digging in. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll be too impatient and sneak a bite way before it’s had a chance to set. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that!
The Recipe
Prep Time
15-20 Minutes
Total Time
25-35 Minutes
Serving
4
Ingredients
1 ½ cups of flour
1 ½ tsp of baking powder
½ cup of powder sugar
½ tsp of salt
½ cup of butter, room temperature
¾ cup of sugar
1 cup of milk
2-3 camomile lavender tea bags
1 tsp of vanilla extract
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
Instructions
Cakes:
- In a small saucepan, bring milk to a boil. Turn off heat and place two to three tea bags into the pan and let steep for 15 to 20 minutes (the more bags steeped in the milk for longer, the stronger the flavour will be). Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium-sized bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Once incorporated, set dry ingredients aside.
- In a larger bowl, beat softened, room temperature butter and sugar until incorporated, at which point the mixture will be paler in colour.
- Whisk two whole eggs into the large bowl followed by vanilla and the juice of half a lemon.
- Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Once the batter comes together, pour in about half a cup of chamomile lavender milk slowly. Add more milk depending on desired consistency.
- Fold in the zest of one whole lemon and then pour mixture into bundt cake pans sprayed with cooking spray and lightly dusted with flour. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the cake comes out clean. Let the cakes sit for five minutes before removing them from pans and letting them cool on a cooling rack.
Glaze:
- Combine powdered sugar, the remaining half of lemon juice and about a tablespoon of the chamomile lavender steeped milk until you’ve reached your desired consistency.
- Once your cakes are completely cool, drizzle the glaze over the cakes and enjoy!
Check out the recipe in action below
Love lemon bundt cakes as much as us? We really hope you give this sweet and citrusy dessert a try. Be sure to let us know what you think of it. Even snap a photo of your finished delicious product and tag us on Instagram @paper.and.lore for a chance to be featured in our Instagram stories.
Happy eating!
Paper & Lore 