Lavender Blackberry Cake with Lemon Frosting
I think I’ve died and gone to heaven. Seriously, this cake is what dreams are made of. If the light and refreshing lemon butter and cream cheese frosting wasn’t enough, just wait until you pair it with the lavender cake and the blackberry filling to make this heavenly lavender blackberry cake with lemon frosting. I swear, even if you don’t believe in heaven, you will still feel like you are floating in the clouds.
Yes! This lavender blackberry cake is that good!
In fact, I think this cake has just entered my realm of 'favorites' for cakes. The first being a chocolate mocha cake, followed quickly by an Italian rainbow cake.
But this....
This is a whole new realm of flavors that I just can’t get enough of! I’ve wanted to use lavender in my cooking for about 10 years now, ever since I had a lavender martini out at Boa in Santa Monica. So yes, I fell in love with lavender through a martini. Of course, I have no idea if they still serve those.
But that one drink was enough to start a love affair.
Now, about 8 years ago I bought lavender to use, so I’ve known for a long time that it pairs well with lemon. At the time, however, I was a bit too timid to use it. Damn my fear! I’ve been missing out on so much.
Let’s deconstruct, shall we?
Starting with the lemon frosting, because it was the first thing I made. I wanted to be super careful not to make it overly sweet. I definitely didn't want to make it taste like lemonade. I needed it to be light, zesty, and refreshing. It turns out, that while it is all those things, it is still the sweetest layer of this lavender cake. But not overly sweet.
Next up, the cake.
Lavender Blackberry Cake with Lemon Frosting
First, let me just say that this cake took so many tries to make. And when I finally got it right, I made each layer separately.
The reason?
Egg whites. Or rather, finicky egg whites. BIG tip when beating egg whites so that they form peaks: use COLD eggs. I know most recipes call for room temperature ingredients, but to beat the egg whites properly I found that they needed to cold. In addition, they fall very quickly. So, that is one of the reasons I created the batter three times. I had hoped to create only two cakes and cut them in half, but due to the nature of the ingredients and chemistry in which they come together, the cake was actually very thin. This means cutting it in half to get two layers wasn’t going to happen.
As for the lavender, it is a very strong spice.
This means I only used one tsp per cake layer. However, this one tsp goes very far. And when paired with the lemon frosting the lavender mellows a bit. Plus, when you add the blackberry filling, you really lose the lavender. Thus, the solution I came up with, was to also add lavender to the blackberry filling to create a blackberry lavender jam.
The blackberry filling.
Lavender Blackberry Cake with Lemon Frosting
This is super easy to make, and adds a tanginess and tartness to the cake.
The end result?
Yes, this cake takes quite a bit of effort to make. But in the end, it is totally worth it. This really is pure heaven!
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 22 mins
Additional Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 hr 37 mins
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE (Makes ONE Layer, Multiply Cake Ingredients by Number of Layers Desired)
4 Egg Whites
1 tsp Cream of Tarter
1/2 Cup Almond Flour
2 TBSP Coconut Flour
1/8 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 TBSP Coconut Oil, Melted
1 tsp Lavender, ground
3 TBSP MonkFruit/Erythritol Blend
3 TBSP Sour Cream
1/2 tsp Plus a Few Drops Vanilla Extract
BLACKBERRY FILLING
LEMON FROSTING
Instructions
Baking the Cake
Combine almond flour, coconut flour, salt, lavender, monkfruit, sour cream, and vanilla extract in a bowl, and mix well.
Place coconut oil until a separate, microwave safe bowl and set aside.
Measure our baking soda, and set aside.
In a separate bowl, add egg whites and cream of tarter. Be careful to not let any yolk get into the bowl or you will struggle to beat eggs into stiff peaks.
Beat egg whites into stiff peaks.
Microwave the coconut oil for 30 seconds, or until fully melted.
Add the melted coconut oil and the baking soda to the first bowl, and mix well.
Immediately take the ingredients from the first bowl and pour into the stiff egg whites.
FOLD the batter and the egg whites together slowly until combined. If you find that the melted coconut oil did not add enough moistness to the batter to be able to easily mix into the egg whites, then you can add a touch of almond milk.
Pour into a a greased, 8 inch round pan, and place in oven at 350 degrees for 22 minutes, or until done.
Remove from oven and let sit for five minutes.
Carefully remove from pan, and place on a cooling rack.
Repeat 2 more times.
Frosting the Cake
Place first layer of the cake on a plate.
Place frosting on the top of the layer.
Place half of the blackberry jam on top of the frosting in the center of the layer, and spread to about an inch and a half from the edge.
Place the second cake layer over the frosted bottom layer. Press down carefully, so that the jam spreads, and the cake sticks together.
Repeat step 2 and 3.
Place the final cake layer over the second layer. Press down.
Frost the rest of the cake with your remaining frosting.
Notes
I cooked each cake layer separately because timing for egg whites and coconut oil is very important.
If you are cooking the cake layers together, multiply the cake ingredients by three, and be careful to evenly separate the cake layers. Also, add an additional 5 or so minutes to the baking time and check that it is done with a toothpick before removing from oven.
Nutritional information is based on a three layer cake.
Egg whites will stiffen more easily if you use cold eggs. However, they will expand more with room temperature eggs. If you are struggling to get them to stiffen, then use ones right out of the fridge.
The cake is very fragile. So, be very careful not to break it when you remove from pan and put on a rack to cool.
Add more jam and frosting as desired.
Additional time has been added because you have to accommodate for making the cake multiple times, if cooking separately, and for frosting.
The sugar alcohols for this are 12.4g. If you do not consider sugar alcohols to be counted as carbs, then this would lower the carb count to 5.8 total net carbs.
