ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Witch's Garden Cake (Lemon, Rose, and Thyme Poundcake) (Patreon)
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You know how cakes in cafes just taste different? More moist, more dense, more perfect than you really ever get at home?
Well, this summer my niece is working in a cafe/bakery where she makes them, so she's been coming home and whipping up the same cakes she makes there, and I have the recipe for the $5 a slice lemon (and nothing else) cake I love at her spot.
Now, I would never just hand out a workplace's recipe, so I've made some changes and I won't say which are mine. But this will result in an amazing moist cake with the addition of herbal and floral notes that really make it something special.
Of course, I did happen to have dried edible rosebuds in the house, which is NOT A NORMAL THING TO HAVE, but a Cozy Cult acolyte sent them to me and I'd been waiting for a use, so this was pretty much perfect. There are other edible flowers out there, such as lavender; if you don't have dried rosebuds and can't get any of the other kinds, rosewater or orange-blossom water would bring the light floral flavor it needs.
Fresh thyme from my summer garden is a bit more normal, and I would not recommend using dried as the flavor is totally different. Herbs de provence might cover all the bases on its own, though--substitute all fresh herbs for 1 teaspoon of HdP for that move. That was the plan before I remembered the rosebuds.
This is a fresh, lovely, light,and moist summer cake for evenings on the grass--it really feels to me like something a hobbit might have on hand hoping for wizard-shaped guests to stop by...
Ingredients
1 cup plain full-fat yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoons lemon zest
2 eggs
1/2 cup neutral oil
1.5 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 mini dried rosebuds VERY finely chopped
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme, de-stemmed
Icing, optional: 1.5 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons heavy cream OR 2 tablespoons lemon juice, depending on whether you want the rose or the lemon to be the stand-out flavor. If you go for the rose, add half a teaspoon of lemon zest to round it out.
1 mini rosebud, utterly pulverized into dust
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Let's Get Our Witch On
Preheat oven to 325..
Sift flour and baking powder together in a separate large bow. Loosely mix sugar, yogurt, and zest together in a stand mixer, then add eggs and oil by turns in three rounds. Gradually sift in dry ingredients until there are no more lumps but do not overmix.
Grease the ABSOLUTE HELL out of two loaf pans. The more butter, the more buttery, slightly crispy edge you get. 833g of batter into each loaf pan and bake for 50 min, until a toothpick or other stabby implement comes out clean.
(These freeze very well if you tightly wrap them in plastic wrap once they're cooled but before icing!)
If you want the icing drizzle, sift powdered sugar into a wide bowl and add 2 tablespoons of your preferred liquid. Whisk well and see where the consistency is--it should drizzle easily off the spoon. Add liquid until it does its thing, then drizzle onto the cake at a height of 8-10 inches to get a pretty pattern.
Enjoy!