Un petit tour en provence...

For Christmas, my best friend gave me a box of comestible lavender. That was a great present because 1) I really like to the flavour of flowers in food, be it rosewater lokum, violet squash or orange blossom macaroons, and 2) it is something impossible to find in Sweden. But I had been working so much that I had completely forgotten about it. Yesterday, finally, I remembered the box laying on my shelf. We were going to receive some friends over and although this was nothing fancy, I wanted to treat them with something nice.

Lavender cupcakes
Serves 6. Takes about 30 minutes

1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinager
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 + 1/8 cup flour
1 tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp lavender buds

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350F).

2.Whisk the soy milk and the vinegar together and let sit a few minutes until curdled.

3. Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until no large lumps remain. Add the lavender.

4. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20 to 22 minutes till done. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

1 tbs honey
2 tsp orange blossom water
lavender buds

Heat the honey and the orange blossom water and simmer for 3 minutes. Set aside until cool. Brush the cupcakes with the honey syrup and sprinkle with lavender.

Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes, which came as a surprise as most people were Swedes. Someone even ate two of them (the other guests were already full from the hummus and babaganoush). The flavour was rich but not overwhelming and the texture of the cupcakes was perfect: light, fluffy and moist.