We’ve had one sunny day all week, so we decided to take full advantage of the good weather on Monday. As well as getting some washing done and hung out on the line, we went for a longish walk. It was one of our usual routes that takes us past some huge elder shrubs – and they’re currently in bloom!
The flowers are usually prolific and big as saucers, but this year they were small and scant. I thought someone had beaten me to it but it seems that they’ve just not had a very good year. I’ve picked and used them in the past to make elderflower crunch cake. This week, I’ve teamed them with a citrus fruit (that I actually like) and made an elderflower and pink grapefruit cake. Infusing sugar with the elderflowers was a great way to impart the delicate flavour into the cooked sponge.
I remember, as a child, having breakfast of half a grapefruit sprinkled with Demerara sugar and a few dashes of Angostura bitters. Produced in Trinidad and more usually associated with making cocktails, bitters and grapefruit juice make a delicious combination.
I added half a teaspoon of bitters to the batter and also a scant dash to the icing. It’s very potent stuff, you don’t want it to overpower the delicate flavour and fragrance of the elderflowers.
An afternoon tea loaf cake that I made using flavours that I like – and it didn’t disappoint. Making the icing with a little of the pink grapefruit juice instead of water proved a master stroke – it was very morish!
- 1 large or 3 smaller elderflower heads
- 200g/7oz caster sugar
- 240g/8½oz unsalted butter, softened
- 3 large eggs
- 1 un-waxed pink grapefruit, zest and juice
- ½tsp Angostura bitters
- 210g/7½oz self-raising flour
- 90g/3oz plain flour
- 250g/9oz icing (powdered) sugar
- 15ml/1tbsp pink grapefruit juice
- scant dash of Angostura bitters
- In a bowl with a lid, toss together the caster sugar and elderflowers. Cover, set aside and allow the flavour and fragrance of the flowers to infuse into the sugar for a few hours
- Line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with parchment paper or pre-made loaf tin liner
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC/150ºC fan/325ºF/Gas mark 3
- Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar (elderflowers removed) until light and fluffy
- In a small measuring jug, lightly beat the eggs
- In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the plain and self-raising flour
- With the mixer on a low speed, slowly pour in the beaten eggs in three stages alternating with the addition of a tablespoon of the flour (to prevent the mixture from curdling)
- Add the remaining flour, grapefruit zest and all but 2 tablespoons of the grapefruit juice
- Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin and level using a spatula or back of a spoon
- Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
- Allow to cool in its tin for ½ hour before turning out on to a wire rack
- Sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl
- Stir in the reserved 1tbsp grapefruit juice and dash of bitters. If the consistency feels too wet or dry, add an extra teaspoonful of icing sugar or juice as required
- Remove the parchment from the cooled cake and spoon the icing evenly over the top, allowing it to drip down the sides
- If you can't get your hands on a pink grapefruit, a white or red one will be fine
Cakes & Bakes: Elderflower shortbread
It’s elderflower season again – one of the classic smells and tastes of summer!
We see those frothy white flowers growing wild all around and can’t bear to see them going to waste.
We’ve already made a large batch of elderflower cordial which will last us a good few months. In the past, there’s also been elderflower champagne and elderflower cakes too. This week, we decided to try some biscuits – elderflower shortbread to be precise.
There are various methods for incorporating the flowers’ flavour into the biscuit. We experimented with three – using cordial as one of the ingredients, infusing the sugar with elderflower bunches and finally incorporating the tiny petals into the biscuit mix itself.
We found that cordial made the biscuits a bit hard, crystalline and possibly too sweet. The infused sugar runs the risk of lots of creepy crawlies escaping into the sugar (even if you shake carefully) – and the resulting elderflower flavour wasn’t intense enough for us. The last technique worked best for us – by quite a long way actually, so that would be our recommendation. The resulting shortbread was moist and crumbly with a wonderful distinctive flavour – give them a go before those flowers disappear!
- 3 elderflower heads
- 75g/3oz caster sugar
- 175g/6oz plain flour
- 75g/3oz fine semolina
- 175g/6oz butter
- Make sure the elderflower heads are free of insects and brown bits
- Using scissors, carefully snip off the little flower heads add to the sugar and stir in. Allow to infuse for about an hour
- Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2
- If using a mould, sprinkle it with semolina to prevent the dough from sticking
- Put the elderflower-infused sugar, flour, semolina and butter into a food processor and combine for about 30 seconds or until lumps begin to form
- Turn the mixture out on to a lightly floured work surface and bring together into a ball
- Press the dough evenly into your mould (or baking tin). If using a mould, turn the dough out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment
- Prick the top with a fork to prevent it from rising
- Bake for about an hour or until the shortbread just begins to brown
- Remove from the oven on to a wire cooling rack
- While still a bit warm score the top with a knife into petticoat tails/portions
- Once cooled completely, remove from the tin and cut into pieces
- Store in an airtight container for up to a week
Elderflower ice cream
We picked a carrier bagful of elderflowers last week and made a batch of cordial. We’ve had a few hot, summery days since then and have enjoyed drinking it mixed with sparkling water and lots of ice – very refreshing.
I’ve been meaning to try my hand at making some no-churn elderflower ice cream, and I’m really happy with the result.
The taste reminded me of soursop ice cream that I used to have as a child growing up in Trinidad. Very distinctive – fragrant, floral and heavenly on a hot day.
Elderflower ice cream
Ingredients
- 600 ml double cream
- ½ tin condensed milk about 200g
- 3 tbs elderflower cordial
- 1 tbs gin
Instructions
- Combine the cream and condensed milk with an electric mixer
- Add the cordial and gin and whip on high until the mixture thickens
- Pour into a 1L lidded container and freeze for at least 4 hours before serving
Cakes & Bakes: Elderflower crunch cake
I was out foraging for elderflowers this week – something I do every summer. We’ve blogged in the past about making elderflower cordial (and how good it is in gin & tonic!). A little of this year’s batch has been used in a cake.
I found this elderflower crunch cake recipe on the BBC Good Food website and, like many of the other comments posted there, I found it needed a cooking time of an hour before the skewer came out cleanly – so I’ve made this change in my recipe instructions.
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!
Elderflower crunch cake
Ingredients
- For the cake batter
- 175 g softened butter plus extra for greasing
- 175 g golden caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 140 g self-raising flour
- 85 g ground almonds
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 100 ml milk
- For the elderflower drizzle
- 4 tbsp elderflower cordial
- 4 tbsp white or golden granulated sugar
Instructions
- Heat oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease & line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with a long strip of baking parchment. To make the loaf cake batter, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until light & fluffy
- Beat in the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder and milk until smooth
- Pour into the tin and bake for 55-60 minutes until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean
- As soon as the cake has come out of the oven, prick it all over with a skewer
- Mix together the cordial and extra sugar, then pour all over the cake
- Cool in the tin, then carefully lift out to slice
