Make a weekend breakfast special with this lovely berry breakfast cake. It’s full of fresh blueberries and black raspberries, and it’s sweetened with the subtle flavor of homemade lavender sugar–a taste of summer in every bite!
The lavender in our garden is thriving. I’m kind of surprised, considering how hot and dry this past month has been, but I am happy to see it. It is gorgeous and it smells so good! I’ve been wanting to use it in some way, and then recently I came across a post by Laurie, of the blog ten.times.tea, for lilac sugar. The lilac sugar sounded so good and looked so pretty, it made me want to try lavender sugar. I found that there is lots of information out there about making your own lavender sugar. What a fun and simple way to use lavender, and what a subtle flavor the lavender gives the sugar. You can use lavender sugar to sweeten tea or flavor lemonade, and you can use it in baking.
At the same time that I have been wanting to use my lavender, I have been wanting to bake with fresh berries–the blueberries that are in season now, and the black raspberries growing wild all over my yard. So I made this lovely berry breakfast cake, sweetened with my own homemade lavender sugar. It is so delicious and festive for a summer breakfast! The breakfast cake recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, Hollyhocks & Radishes by Bonnie Stewart Mickelson. The only thing I changed was that I used a combination of blueberries and black raspberries, and I used lavender sugar instead of traditional white sugar, and butter from grass-fed cows instead of vegetable shortening. I am very happy with the result! The lavender sugar is not essential in this recipe–if you don’t have extra time, conventional sugar can be used just fine, and any kind of fresh berries would work.
The Hollyhocks & Radishes cookbook is such a gentle reminder of the beauty in using the food growing around us, and also the simple elegance of hospitality. Such a simple gesture as making a cake or a salad or a plate of sandwiches for others can be so satisfying to both the giver and the receivers. We have had the opportunity to extend some old-fashioned hospitality to a variety of people this past week, and it has been so much fun to get together with old friends who now live far away, and to have friends of our kids in our house and around our table.
Life can get very fast-paced and over-scheduled these days, and it’s so nice to slow down sometimes to cook and bake, to pick lavender and make lavender sugar, or spend the whole afternoon at a nearby lake. To eat breakfast on the porch or a picnic dinner at a park, and let the dinner and conversation last till dark. Sometimes it takes guests and hospitality to make us slow down, and what would we do without it. We need to do more of it.
I hope you all have a great weekend! It is mid-summer, and feels every bit of it to me. I look forward to checking out some new recipes at Angie’s Fiesta Friday this week! If you are ever in a food rut, that is a great place to go to check out some really interesting blogs.
Berry Breakfast Cake with Lavender Sugar
for the lavender sugar:
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons of lavender buds
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
Directions:
Pick a handful of lavender. Remove the blossoms and buds from the stems and measure out 2 tablespoons. **If you wash the lavender, or if it is damp when you pick it, make sure it is completely dry before you combine it with the sugar. (If you don’t have access to lavender in your garden, you can buy culinary lavender buds at health food stores or specialty food places.)
Place the lavender buds and the cup of sugar in a food processor (I used a blender). Pulse or blend for a couple of minutes, stirring in between pulses, till the sugar and lavender are well mixed and the lavender is broken down a bit.
Spoon the lavender/sugar mixture into a clean, dry glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Let the mixture sit, covered, for a day or at least overnight. Double or triple the recipe if you want to make more lavender sugar. Use this delightful sugar to sweeten tea or lemonade, or use it in baking. Enjoy!
For the berry breakfast cake:
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup lavender sugar (you can use regular white granulated sugar if you prefer)
- 2 eggs, separated
- 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, soft and at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/3 cup of milk
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 2 cups of fresh berries (I used a combination of blueberries and black raspberries)
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a 9 x 9 inch baking pan.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the lavender sugar, egg yolks, and butter until creamy. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add the unbeaten egg whites and stir until well mixed. Add the milk and vanilla and stir to mix again. Fold in the berries. If you are using blueberries, gently stir in a bit of flour to the blueberries before folding them into the batter, so they won’t sink to the bottom. Gently stir until the berries are combined with the batter. Spoon the batter into the baking pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the cake is golden and the center springs back to the light touch. Serve warm. Enjoy!
The sweetness of the blueberries and black raspberries (and some sugar) balance the tartness of the cherries to make a mouth-watering fruit filling full of flavor and those much-sought-after antioxidants. The biscuit topping is golden and moist, pairing beautifully with the fruit. I really notice a difference in taste when I bake with high quality butter, and butter from grass-fed cows is gaining popularity as a relatively healthy fat. With just a few basic ingredients, this cobbler is easy to make and tastes impressive.
My favorite thing about this dessert, aside from the luscious flavor, is that much of the fruit came from my very own yard! Our wonderful cherry trees gave us even more fruit than we expected, allowing me to make two cobblers, a few batches of breakfast jars, and a smoothie with them, and our black raspberries are coming along nicely! I wish I could say I picked the blueberries in this cobbler, but those I did buy from the grocery store, yet they were still sweet and juicy. In any case, seasonal fruit tastes better than candy in my book, and it reminds me to savor the moment, because each season is fleeting.
I hope you are all having a great summer so far. It has been very sunny, but much drier than usual here lately. We finally got some rain last night, and the air smells so fresh, especially since the storms cooled things off. We had an interesting Fourth of July–we got to go for a sail with my brother’s family in his boat, out to a sandbar near a small island. He put down the anchor and we all went swimming off of the boat in gorgeous, cold, clear water. That evening, we hiked a mile at dusk to the top of a hill in a nature preserve, overlooking a lake. Someone from the preserve had a campfire going, and we roasted marshmallows and ate s’mores while the fireworks showered dazzling colors over the lake. Then we hiked down in the dark woods by flashlight. It was amazing to be surrounded by so much natural beauty, up in northern Michigan for a few days.
Summer fruit really is a special treat. There is just nothing like being able to walk out the door and pick fruit right in your own yard, or pick it up from a nearby farm stand. You can taste the bright sunshine in every bite, and something with that much fresh flavor and naturally bright color has to be loaded with beneficial nutrients!
Our two cherry trees, though still not large, are just loaded with bright red tart cherries! So far, we have been eating them too quickly to make a pie filling, but these easy breakfast jars are perfect. The sweetness of the blueberries helps balance the tart flavor of the cherries, and really, you could substitute any seasonal fruit if you don’t have cherries or blueberries.
This recipe is so simple, yet it is so delicious and so pretty that it is worth remembering and sharing. My kids, who were definitely in a breakfast rut, have been loving these jars the past couple of mornings. I think it has to do with the freshness of the fruit and the novelty of the layers instead of everything just mixed up in a bowl. You can use your favorite yogurt and favorite granola, and sweeten it all with honey if you are using unsweetened yogurt.
I hope you are all enjoying some summer air and summer fruit! We went camping last weekend, and it was just what we needed. To be away from routines and to be surrounded by nature, getting back to the basics. It felt like time kind of stood still for us for a couple of days, and we had some good family exploring new territory and sitting around the campfire, roasting marshmallows and listening to the fire crackle and pop. The trees, the lakes, the fresh air and stars at night all soothed my soul. And the juicy, tart cherries give vitality and hope. I hope you are all having a good week! I am going to share this tasty recipe at Angie’s 
