LAVENDER MASCARPONE CAKE… & a Thank You Cards Giveaway

“Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake.”
Author Unknown

I changed my blog header 2 days ago with pictures of my birthday cake. How ambitious of me when I thought I’d post the recipe alongside. 2 days have zipped by & I am still struggling with my thoughts. Time, or the lack of it, is to blame, but I got a couple of emails this morning conveying how ‘torturous’ it was not to find the recipe posted and just pictures! Then my dear tweetbuddy Yogalili tweeted…
@vindee waiting as patient as a spider for the lavender cake post……
& again…
@vindee Get thee to thy master’s lair…your grace!!! I be a hungry lavender lovin minyon!!
…so here I am!

(You have to see the picture of the cake Yogalili made soon after.
It’s at the bottom of this post. She is brilliant!!)
Was my birthday a couple of days ago, and an opportunity to bake another cake. The boy tried very hard to convince me that they would ‘buy’ me a cake, “Mama it’s you birthday, watch TV all day!”…Ultimate comfort in his eyes??? LOL, he’s never seen me plonked in front of the TV, so he figured that might be some sort of ultimate luxury for his darling mother. He’s been at home for the past 2 weeks as his class in school is shut with 8 cases of H1N1, and it never seems to end. All he sees me do is racing from here to there like a headless chicken, with the odd whinge thrown in!
So much to do & so little time! But I always find time to do what I want to, so what if it kills me, so cake I had to bake. Was thinking coffee but alongside was toying with the idea of lavender in a cake. How would it be? Actually Shaheen @ Purple Foodie had very large heartedly mailed me half her stash of lavender some time back, with some more goodies. The bag included a cherry pitter (yes, Jamie, a leap out of stone-age for moi), some interesting spice mixes, a muffin book & a box of sprinkles! Sweet isn’t she, this Purple foodie? That bag of lavender was calling my name, and it finally helped me chart a path to my birthday cake.

Finally settled for a light fatless sponge, sandwiched and frosted with lavender mascarpone. Made some marzipan flowers from left over home made marzipan from my Cinnamon Buttercream Autumn Cake here, which won me a beautiful cake decorating book from the Ivonne & Lis from the Daring Kitchen! This was my first time making roses, following a step by step tutorial from beautiful cake book by Peggy Porschen’s Pretty Party Cakes.

My flowers weren’t as smooth for 2 reasons. One I think is that store bought marzipan is smoother so gives a better end product, and secondly as Peggy says in her book, with practice the roses get better & better. I was quite happy with my first attempt. I even hand cut the leaves, and maked the veins on them from a great tutorial that Alice from Savoury Sweet Life posted here. Do stop by & see her absolutely gorgeous cake … it’s a piece of art!!
This lavender mascarpone cake was a delicious departure from chocolate. Soothing as lavender is said to be, it was elegant & subtly flavoured. Lavender married the mascarpone sensuosuly, like they were meant to be together. My only regret was that I should have increased the amount of cream on the frosting. My recipe reflects the increased amount…
Lavender Mascarpone Cake
Ingredients:
5 eggs (250gms)
100gms flour (half the weight of the eggs, including the cornflour)
2 tbsps cornflour
1tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
100gms sugar(less than half the weight of the eggs)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Purple food colour, optional
Filling/Topping
600gm mascarpone (homemade recipe here)
200ml cream (25% fat, that’s all we get here)
1/2 tsp lavender
3-4 Tbsp icing sugar for filling
2 tbsp sugar ground with 1/4 tsp lavender seeds for topping
Food colour

Method:
For the sponge
Preheat oven to 190C , reduced to 180C after 10 mins of putting the cake in. Grease and line a 8″ springform cake tin.
Sift the flour + baking powder + salt 3 times.
Beat the eggs and sugar well with hand beater till very thick ribbon falls and holds in place for at least 5 seconds (beat for approx 10mins). Add vanilla extract & beat for 1 min.
Gently fold in the sifted flour; mix lightly so that air doesn’t escape.
Turn gently into tin and bake for 30-35 mins till done. Don’t overbake or sponge will be dry.
Once done, remove from tin after 5 mins and leave on rack to cool completely. Cut horizontally into 3 layers.Filling:
To flavour mascarpone, stir the lavender into 1/4 cup mascarpone & leave to infuse overnight.
Whip 400ml mascarpone with 4tbs powdered sugar until thick and holds peaks.
Place the bottom most layer of the sponge on your serving platter, spread half the lavender cream on it. Repeat with next 2 layers. Topping:
Whip remaining 200gm mascarpone with 200ml chilled cream and lavender sugar till holds peaks.
Reserve 1-2 tbsps for piping on top. Frost cake top & sides with rest. Put sponge fingers as a border if you like. Top with marzipan flowers. Chill well before serving.

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

~

My birthday was made even better by this sweet Delhi blogger, Nachiketa, who came along to wish me with a Coffee Tiramisu that she made especially for me. Drop-dead gorgeous cake, delicious & full of my beloved coffee, and beautiful flowers too. Thank you Nach… the cake was perfect in every way & so me…!

On another note, I have a ‘Custom Thank You Cards’ giveaway promotion on my blog today from one of my blog sponsors, UPrinting ! Holidays are just around the corner, ‘tis the season to be merry and giving custom thank you cards is the perfect gift to express your warm thoughts to your loved ones. One lucky reader will be jingling all the way with a pack of 50 Custom Thank You Cards with envelopes, all for free! UPrinting cards are made from high-quality paper and cardstock and will surely bring holiday cheer to your friends and family.
Prize Offered: (50 ct.) 7 x 5″ (folded to 3.5 x 5″) Custom Thank You Cards with plain envelopes.
If you wish to part of the giveaway, please leave a comment on how you would use the cards. I’d love to hear about your creative ideas!

The giveaway is on until November 28th. The prize will be announced thereafter.
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents due to shipping costs.

Disclosure : I will be receiving fifty (50) thank you cards from UPrinting.com for hosting this giveaway.

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Am adding a picture of the cake Yogalili made soon after I blogged my recipe. My son’s immediate reaction… “Wow, will she give it to us? I want it now!!”…

…Thank you YL; you are a ‘dream’ student, sponge fingers & all !!

Posted by Deeba

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 1:43 am. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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