The Rustic Table proudly presents...

Join us this summer as we entrust ourselves to the guidance of Larousse Gastronomique and the French Masters and embark upon our journey to master the canonical French sauces.

... to be continued.

Lavender-Lemon Fairy Cakes

After watching about ten episodes of Masterchef in the last week, I got the urge to be"Experimental Chef Macaroni", the contestant/cook who never quite appeals to the pub-hungry judges but manages to make it to the quarterfinal anyway. While narrating my trip to the grocery store in a deep and serious British accent, I decided to make these:

Ingredients for the Cakes:
3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 T lemon zest
juice of 1/4 of a lemon
1/2 cup butter, softened
7 T sugar
2 eggs
2 T pine nuts, crushed
2 T lavender milk (see below)
2 t vanilla

Ingredients for the Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese (softened)
3 1/2 cu powdered sugar
1-2 T lavender milk
2 t vanilla
36 raspberries

Ingredients for the Lavender Milk:
1/2 cup whole milk
1 T lavender


Making the Cakes
First, you need to make the lavender milk, which you should do about half an hour before you start baking:

1. Put the milk and lavender in a small saucepan, and bring just to a boil, remove from heat, and cover with tin foil. Let sit for another ten minutes, then strain the milk to remove the lavender, and put aside.

The rest is quite easy once you've gotten everything prepared.
Preheat the oven to 400˚ and place cupcake linings inside 12 cupcake tins.

2. Put all of the ingredients except the milk in a bowl or food-processor and pulse until mixed.
3. Add the milk while stirring, bit by bit, until incorporated.
4. Divide the dough evenly between the cupcakes. There will not be much dough in each, but these are not American MonsterCakes!!! They are dainty. :)

While the cupcakes are baking (which should take between 15 and 20 minutes), make the frosting:

5. Soften the cream cheese in the microwave, and mix with the confectioner's sugar.
6. Add the vanilla and the milk, and incorporate.

When you take the cupcakes out of the oven, let them cool and remove the paper lining.

7. Cut the tops off of the cakes to make them flat.
8. Glaze them with the cream cheese frosting.
9. Top with raspberries, and if you'd like, dust lightly with confectioner's sugar to finish.

Tart and sweet and herb-y, these are delicious and taste like the beginning of Spring, and, in that spirit, I've left my bedroom window open...