I’ve come to realize the simpler things in life, are often the most awe-inspiring. Lately, I’ve been experimenting a lot with “painted” cakes — using coloured buttercream, and smearing it on to the cake as if it’s a canvas. I keep finding inspiration in flowers, and this time I stumbled upon a tin of culinary grade lavender buds in my baking cupboard and thought about recreating a field of lavender flowers. This lead me to think about the colour of lavender, and how it reminded me of berries — blueberries to be specific.

So I created a cake with a very subtle lavender taste, paired with something that was familiar to most palettes — blueberry jam. The cake has layers of vanilla cake soaked in lavender syrup, filled with blueberry jam, and covered in vanilla Italian meringue buttercream. If you would like a stronger lavender taste I would highly suggest infusing the lavender buds into the water needed for the hot sugar syrup in the Italian meringue buttercream, but straining the buds from the water before making the sugar syrup.

The problem with lavender is that if you add too much, it’ll become too floral and almost taste like soap. It’s best when it’s subtle or light, and pairs perfectly with the blueberries.

This cake is a great cake to make for spring time, and it’s super easy to recreate. Here is the recipe for vanilla cake, Italian meringue buttercream, and lavender syrup, and blueberry jam below.