The idea that we’re already half-way through this year is kind of scary. Time seems to be rushing by at a tremendous speed right now and I’m watching my boys grow up in the blink of an eye. It makes me want to hold on to them and squeeze them just that little bit longer each night. But as summer is here, the days are longer, brighter and it's only a matter of weeks until I get to spend a whole summer with them :) Our year is mapped out by the school holidays and this week we’ve welcomed in June with half term. We’ve been up in countryside and I’m really appreciative after London living of spending time in a big garden with lots of gorgeous flowers, fruit and vegetables and the freedom to be just young at heart.
When we spend our working and school lives in London, escaping just for the holidays, I find it a real luxury to be able to gather fruit, flowers and vegetables from the garden and bake with them. I’d been holding out for harvesting the lilac flowers here although I made it just a little too late when the blooms were just past their best. The beautiful purple lilac had come and gone, but there was one tree left with some white blooms. There were speckles of brown on some of the flowers but I was able to gather enough to make a lilac syrup for a cake I wanted to make.
I was lucky enough to do a food photography course with Aimee Twigger a while ago and she is so talented at placing really unusual flavours with each other. The lilac syrup is an idea of hers from a recent blog post, although she was savvy enough to gather the purple flowers in season! Making a syrup is very simple and I usually make sugar syrups for my celebration cakes but I don't often make floral flavoured ones. I decided to pair this lilac syrup with a vanilla cake and mascarpone cream and I found the cutest little 4 inch cake tins so decided to make a mini cake that was just perfect for the family.
This is a really summery cake and is beautiful and light with the mascarpone cream and strawberries inside. The lilac syrup adds some floral notes and it's really fun experimenting with different flavours. Sadly I'll have to wait until next year to make my lilac sugar!!
If you've also been on half term, I hope you've had a wonderful week and are enjoying the sunshine :)
lilac + strawberry vanilla cake with mascarpone cream
makes a four-inch mini cake
ingredients
lilac syrup (recipe from Aimee Twigger)
- 1 cup lilac flowers
- 1 cup of water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup of sugar
vanilla cake
- 150g softened butter
- 150g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 150g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
- 4 strawberries
frosting
- 250g mascarpone
- 180ml whipping cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar (or to taste)
method
- heat the lilac flowers, water and lemon juice until it comes to the boil
- add the sugar and stir it until it dissolves
- turn the heat down and simmer for around 5-10 minutes until the syrup starts to thicken a little
- remove it from the heat, leave it to infuse for 5-10 minutes and then strain it into a jar and put to one side
- to make the cake, first pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees (fan)
- then prepare the baking tins by first greasing them and then lining the bottom and sides
- beat the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl for 5 minutes
- add the eggs one by one, mixing for 1 minute after each egg addition
- then add the vanilla and stir to combine
- sieve over the self-raising flour and mix until just combined
- divide the cake batter evenly between the 3 baking tins
- bake for around 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
- remove them from their tins and place them on a cooling rack
- when the cakes are fully cooled, prepare the frosting
- beat together the mascarpone and icing sugar until combined
- add the cream little by little, mixing the frosting together until it’s smooth
- add around 3-5 tablespoons of the lilac syrup (to taste)
- slice the strawberries into little pieces
- to assemble the cake, first level the cakes - you don’t need to be too neat about this but it makes it easier to assemble the cake if each layer is roughly even
- place the first layer on a plate and brush the cut side sparingly with the lilac syrup
- put one third of the mascarpone cream onto this layer, spread it out and then sprinkle half of the strawberries over it
- top this with the second layer and repeat the above steps with the cream and strawberries
- finally top it with the final layer and after brushing it with sugar syrup, top it with the remaining cream
- you can now decorate your cake as you like - it’s beautiful topped with fresh fruit or as I have done with my mine, fresh flowers from the garden
- enjoy for afternoon tea with a few close friends and family :)