All this week I’ve been dreaming about the flavor of lavender. It’s funny, though - while I love lavender in food, I can be extremely sensitive to other flowers, especially roses. I just can’t help but think about soap when I taste it, no matter how hard I try. I then either wrinkle my nose in distaste or start to sneeze. Maybe it just takes getting used to, or one needs to grow up eating rose-flavored foods. Violets I’m sort of in-between on - the mood has to be right.

Anyway, back to the lavender. Last night I was feeling a little bit “creative”. An unhealthy disposition, I know. I kept imagining how the flavor of lavender and bananas would go together. Something about the warm sweetness of banana coupled with the herby, floral notes of lavender just couldn’t stay out of my mind. Evidently not many other people have thought this would be a good combination, though, since Googling for inspiration resulted only in pages with reptiles crawling out of plastic skulls, ornamental plants, and bath bars. So, I was not going to have much company in my little experiment.

Fortunately, this was one of those ideas that actually worked out just as I imagined it - in a good way, like if lavender and banana decided to be roommates and gradually started sharing their stuff. Since the goal was to have both flavors present but with neither in an overwhelming way, I just made a standard yogurt cake (based on Clotilde’s recipe) with mashed banana and coated it with a lavender milk glaze. I think there could be a smidge more banana flavor - next time I might add a third banana - but otherwise the flavors really do match up quite well. Now I can’t stop eating it.

You can also just make this without the lavender glaze and have yourself a nice and simple breakfast cake. The glaze would work well on plain or lemon pound cake, if you’re interested in lavender but not the banana. I used a little bit (maybe 3-4 tbsp) less sugar than in the original cake recipe due to the sweetness of the glaze; the amount given here is the original.

Banana Yogurt Cake with Lavender Glaze

Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1 cup plain unsweetened yogurt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Glaze:
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

For Cake
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl.
Whisk eggs, vanilla, yogurt, mashed bananas, and butter in a second, medium-size bowl. Fold dry ingredients into wet, stirring just until fully moistened. Spread into a 9″ cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until tester comes out clean and edges are golden. Cool on rack.

For Glaze
Place milk and lavender flowers in a small saucepan. Heat mixture until milk is simmering on the edges, then take off heat and steep for 5-10 minutes, or until a strong lavender flavor is imparted to the milk. The longer it sits, the stronger the flavor, but be careful - too long and it will grow bitter. After steeping, strain carefully so no flowers remain in the milk. Whisk the milk mixture into the confectioner’s sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until the glaze is smooth. Pour glaze over cooled cake.

Posted by the cookworm on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 8:56 am.