Having made a rhubarb & elderflower gin; take 2 stalks of rhubarb, chop into 2cm chunks, put in a jar with 5 or 6 elderflower clusters, sprinkle on 1 oz of sugar and cover with gin. Gently shake the jar occasionally for the first 3days until the sugar is evenly dissolved, then leave to distill for 1 month.

Now what to do with the gin soaked flower and fruit? What better on a cold and rainy summer day than bake a cake. Using a basic Madera cake recipe with a lemon drizzle style in my mind here’s what I did.

Heat the oven to Gas Mark 3, 160ºC, 325ºF and prepare your cake tin, I line mine with greaseproof paper. The quantities in this recipe work for a 7″ round, 6″ square or 2lb loaf tin.

Ingredients:

• 6oz/185g softened butter
• 6oz/185g flower sugar (see below)
• 3 eggs lightly beaten
• 8oz/250g Self-raising flour
• Fruit from flavouring spirit, chopped
• Flower syrup for drizzle (see below)

Method:

Put all ingredients, except the fruit, in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk for 2 minutes. And the fruit to the mixture and combine with a wooden spoon. Ladle mix into the prepared tin and evenly spread, then place into the pre-heated oven for 75-90 minutes, check after 60 minutes as cooking times will vary. Slide a clean knife into the centre of the cake to test it is baked all the way through, if the knife comes out clean then the cake is cooked.

Flower sugars & Syrups

Flower flavoured sugars are really easy to make and add an extra flavour dimension to baking. The delicate scent and flavour of the primrose flower makes a delicious shortbread or light fluffy Victoria sponge or try the deep velvety musk of rose petals to bring something new to plain old scone. The general rule is that if the scent of the flower is delicious to you then its flavour is likely to be too. Take a look at Kathy Brown’s book “The Edible Flower Garden”, it’s full of tasty ideas.

Simply layer your chosen petals/flowers in a jar with your sugar, a white sugar is best as it has less flavour of its own to overpower the delicate scents, and leave for a minimum of 24 hours. The moisture in the plant material will dampen the sugar so don’t leave it for too long.

There are 3 ways you can use your scented/flavour sugar:

1. Simply remove the plant matter and use the sugar as normal.
2. Twizz the sugar and flowers together, chopping the plant matter into the sugar and use as normal. I have used this in cakes, biscuits and scones.
3. Or, turn the sugar and flowers into syrup.

Here’s how…..

For every cup of sugar and petals add 1/2 a cup of water, for a thicker syrup add less water, too little water however and the sugar will crystallise. Heat the mixture slowly over a low heat until all of the sugar has dissolved. Simmer gentle for 15 minutes or so then strain out the plant matter and bottle the syrup. You can use your syrup instead of honey, maple syrup or sugar, either in your baking and cooking or add hot/cold water to make a tasty drink.