Today’s post is all about these super easy, 5-ingredient Lavender Shortbread Hearts. They’re quick to make, perfect for this time of year and super delicious- what’s not to love?

Table of Contents

• Inspiration
• Ingredients
• How to Make Lavender Shortbread Hearts
• Tips & Tricks for Perfect Shortbread
• Lavender Shortbread Hearts Recipe

Inspiration

I knew that I wanted to include some sort of biscuit on my dessert table and shortbread felt like the perfect choice! Not only is it delicious, it’s also a great, neutral base for incorporating other flavours. As well as this, from the promotional content I’ve seen so far, it looks like the newly recast Francesca Bridgerton will be playing a significant role in this season, after taking a bit of a backseat over the first two seasons. While I haven’t actually read the Bridgerton books by Julia Quinn yet (I’m all confused because I usually read books before watching the tv/film adaptations, but I didn’t know these books existed at first and now I don’t want to ruin the series for myself by reading the books- especially because I’ve heard the show changes a lot? So I’m very much all in a pickle), from what I gather, Francesca ends up living in Scotland, so my Bridgerton-inspired spin on this classic, Scottish biscuit is my little ode to her character (and her new actress: Hannah Dodd!).

One of the things I love about Bridgerton is all the flowers. I know there’s a lot of artificial blooms and rather scandalous out-of-season situations (it drives my botanist parents INSANE), but I just love the whole flower-y, OTT vibe. I wanted to include some sort of floral flavour in this series, so I opted to flavour my shortbread biscuits with lavender. I associate lavender with the eldest Bridgerton sister, Daphne, mainly because of her gorgeous lilac dresses in Seasons 1 and 2 (I loved her purple outfits so much so that I actually knitted myself a lilac Daphne Top!). Francesca’s new look in the Season 3 promotional material feels very similar to Daphne’s style, so this shortbread recipe is kind of like my ode to those two debutante sisters (…sorry Eloise).

Also, I decided to cut my shortbread into heart shapes, because, you know, Bridgerton is a romantic series. Obviously, though, you can choose any shape you want for your shortbread!

Ingredients

To make these Lavender Shortbread Hearts, you only need 5 ingredients:

• Dried lavender

Make sure you buy culinary-grade dried lavender. I use this brand.

• Butter

You can use either salted or unsalted- whichever you have on hand. I tend to use unsalted, but, to be honest, it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

• Caster sugar

This gets creamed into the butter for the dough, then more is sprinkled on top of the baked biscuits to give them their characteristic, sparkly look and crunchy texture.

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour- you don’t want the cookies to rise, you want them to be crisp and snappy.

• Rice flour

Rice flour helps to give the shortbread its characteristic crumbly (or ‘short’, hence the name) texture. You can find rice flour in most supermarkets- try looking in the Free From aisle if you’re having trouble.

How to Make Lavender Shortbread Hearts

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C (conventional oven). Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.

Next, prepare your lavender by grinding it into a powder. This will ensure that the lavender flavour is evenly distributed throughout the shortbread (and that the texture of the biscuits stays consistent). I do this in a mortar and pestle, but you could use a spice grinder, if you prefer.

Once your lavender is prepared, you can start the shortbread dough. Place the softened butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. You can do this by hand, with a wooden spoon, but I prefer to use a handheld electric mixer (you could also use a freestanding mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, if you have one).

When the butter and sugar are well-combined and the mixture is pale and fluffy, sift in both flours, then add the ground lavender.

Mix until the dough starts to come together.

Use your hands to finish bringing the dough together into a smooth ball, being careful not to overwork it (otherwise your shortbread might end up being a bit tough, which isn’t what you’re going for!).

Place the ball of dough onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and roll it out, until it’s about 1cm thick.

Using a heart-shaped cutter (or any cutter of your choosing), stamp out the shortbread and transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking tray. Re-roll as necessary (but as little as possible, to prevent over-working the dough).

Use a fork to prick each biscuit all over before baking. The holes will remain after baking, so try to keep them neat.

Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until just golden around the edges.

Dredge the biscuits with caster sugar as soon as you take them out of the oven (doing this straight away helps the sugar to stick), then allow them to cool completely on the tray before shaking off any excess sugar and serving. The shortbread can be made in advance- stored in an airtight container, at room temperature, it will keep for about 3-4 days.

Tips & Tricks for Perfect Shortbread

• Don’t overwork the dough

Overworking the dough can make your shortbread tough and oily, instead of soft and crumbly. Bring it together until it just forms a smooth ball, then re-roll the dough as little as possible by cutting out the individual biscuits as close together as you can. It’s not quite as important here as it is with, say, scones, but it is something to keep in mind.

• Always prick the biscuits before baking

Also known as ‘docking’, pricking shortbread before it bakes is a really important step. If you don’t, your shortbread will bubble up and bake unevenly- not only will it look a bit strange, but the structure of your biscuit will be all over the place! Make sure to prick the whole surface evenly- for these heart-shaped shortbread biscuits, I made 5 vertical lines of fork pricks on each biscuit, spacing them out so that no part of the biscuit would bubble. Just remember that these holes will stay after baking, so try and keep things looking pretty and even!

Lavender Shortbread Hearts Recipe

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Lavender Shortbread Hearts

Classic, crumbly shortbread with a fun twist- the lavender flavour and cute heart shape make these biscuits perfect for a Bridgerton-themed watch party.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Scottish

Keyword Lavender, Shortbread

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 10 – 12 biscuits

Equipment

• Heart-shaped cookie cutter

Ingredients

• 1/4 tsp dried lavender, (see Note 1).
• 60 g butter, softened (see Note 2).
• 30 g caster sugar, plus extra for dredging.
• 60 g plain flour
• 30 g rice flour

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional oven) Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.
• Grind the dried lavender into a powder. I use a mortar and pestle for this, but you could also use a spice grinder. Set aside.
• Place the softened butter into a medium-sized bowl, along with the caster sugar. Cream together until light and fluffy. I use an handheld electric whisk for this, but you could use a freestanding mixer (fitted with a paddle attachment) or a wooden spoon, if you prefer.
• Sift both flours into the butter mixture, then add the ground lavender. Mix briefly until a dough starts to form, then switch to your hands to bring the dough together into a smooth ball.
• Roll the dough out on a clean, lightly floured work surface, until it is about 1cm thick. Using the heart-shaped cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as possible and transfer them to the prepared baking tray. Re-roll and cut more shapes as needed, trying you best not to overwork the dough.
• Use a fork to prick the surface of each biscuit, to prevent the shortbread from bubbling up, then bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until just golden around the edges.
• As soon as the shortbread comes out of the oven, dredge each biscuit with extra caster sugar before allowing to cool completely on the tray. Once cool, shake off any excess sugar and serve. The shortbread will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 3-4 days.

Notes

1. Make sure the dried lavender that you use is culinary-grade. I use this brand.
2. You can use either salted or unsalted butter for this recipe (the difference is barely noticeable), though I tend to use unsalted by preference. 

When I was younger, we went on a family holiday to the USA. During that holiday, we visited Bi-Rite Creamery, an ice cream shop in San Francisco, which is famous for a variety of unusual flavours, including Balsamic Strawberry and Honey Lavender. The ice cream, needless to say, was great- in fact, my mum still talks about the Honey Lavender flavour. Last year, I decided to try making my own honey lavender ice cream and the result was DELICIOUS. Today, I’m sharing my recipe with you, so you can make your own honey lavender ice cream and pretend you are living it up in San Francisco this summer. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Tips & Tricks for Perfect Homemade Ice Cream
• Recipe

Ingredients

• Double cream

This ice cream recipe uses half cream, half milk. This ratio makes for a perfectly smooth and creamy texture. In the UK, you’ll want to use double cream. In the US, you can substitute heavy cream.

• Milk

Ideally, you should use whole milk for this recipe, because it will make your ice cream super creamy and tasty. However, I practically always use skimmed milk and every time I do, my ice cream still tastes great. Basically, go ahead and use whatever variety of cow’s milk you have on hand- your ice cream will turn out great! I’ve never tried using a plant-based milk in this recipe though, so I can’t be sure it would turn out right.

• Caster sugar

You need to separate your caster sugar into two equal portions (50g each). One portion will be heated with the milk/cream, the other will be beaten together with the egg yolks and honey.

• Dried lavender

I use dried lavender so that I can cook with it all year long, but you can use fresh lavender, if you prefer. Make sure you wash it thoroughly before using it, then substitute 2 tbsp of fresh lavender for every 1 tbsp of dried flowers. If you’re using dried lavender, make sure you buy culinary grade lavender. You can find the brand I use here.

• Egg yolks

Egg yolks are a vital part of any ice cream recipe- after all, ice cream is basically just frozen custard! You don’t need the whites for this recipe, so you can either use them straight away for another bake (such as my macaron recipe!) or freeze them for later.

• Honey

You can use your favourite honey for this recipe- the honey is purely for flavour, so make sure you use one you love the taste of.

• Purple food colouring

This is completely optional, but I like to give this ice cream a purple tint (that way I’ll never forget what flavour it is!). I recommend using a food colouring that is specifically formulated to work with high-fat mixtures, to ensure that you get a super even colour. I used Colour Mill food colouring, in the shade Lavender. One thing to note here: if your egg yolks are a particularly vibrant orange/red, they will affect the colour of your custard. This can make it hard to achieve the intended colour with food colouring- this happened to me with the batch pictured! To remedy this, I had to add quite a bit more colouring than I typically would, along with a little bit of pink colouring to readjust the tone.

Equipment

• Ice cream maker

To make the best ice cream, you need a good ice cream maker. I use this KitchenAid attachment and I love it. It can be a little fiddly to set up, but once you get it working it runs perfectly (as long as you don’t, like I have done, pour in the custard down the side of the bowl and work slowly enough that it freezes on and nearly breaks the paddle. Bad times, bad times indeed). You have to freeze the attachment in advance (overnight!), as is the case for most ice cream makers, so don’t forget to plan ahead! When it comes to churning your ice cream, most machines will come with their own set of specific instructions. Using the KitchenAid attachment, I usually churn mine for 20-30 minutes and it comes out perfectly.

• Fine mesh sieve

This recipe requires you to strain your ice cream base on 2 different occasions: firstly, to remove the lavender flowers from the cream mixture and, secondly, to ensure that your ice cream is super smooth (you don’t want any pesky little eggy bits!) before you thicken the custard. For both of these steps, you’ll need a heatproof fine mesh sieve. I know straining can be a bit tedious, but it’ll make for a much more enjoyable ice cream-eating experience.

• Electric mixer

I like to use a hand mixer for this recipe, but you can use a stand mixer if you prefer. You will definitely want some sort of electric mixer though, because it would take ages and a lot of elbow grease to get the eggs and sugar to the ‘ribbon stage’ by hand.

Tips & Tricks for Perfect Homemade Ice Cream

Plan ahead.

Ice cream isn’t too difficult to make, but it does require a little bit of planning. Most ice cream makers require the canister to be frozen ahead of time (usually 12 hours/overnight), to work properly. You also want the ice cream base to be super cold before you start churning it, so you need to give it enough time in the fridge to cool down (about 3-4 hours, or overnight). You’ll also need to freeze your churned ice cream for at least 3 hours to get it to the perfect texture for scooping (& enjoying!). Make sure you leave yourself enough time to make the best of your ice cream!

Don’t skip the infusing time!

After you’ve brought the cream mixture up to just below a boil, you need to leave it for 30 minutes to allow the lavender flavour to fully infuse before you strain out the flowers. If you strain it immediately, the lavender flavour will be barely noticeable! That being said, if you want a softer, more subtle flavour, you can decrease the infusing time a little. Similarly, if you want a super strong lavender flavour, increase it a little! The great thing about making ice cream at home is you can customise it to suit your tastes.

Get your eggs and sugar to the ‘ribbon stage’.

It’s important in this recipe to beat the eggs, sugar & honey together really well, until the mixture is thick, pale and creamy: the so-called ‘ribbon stage’. You can check whether you’ve reached the ‘ribbon stage’ by lifting up the whisk and drawing a figure of 8 with the ‘ribbon’ of mixture that falls from it. If you can do that before the shape settles completely into the rest of the mixture, you’re good to go!

Make sure to temper your egg mixture.

The only slightly tricky part of this recipe is making sure you don’t accidentally cook your eggs when adding the hot cream mixture. Luckily, you can prevent this by tempering your eggs. Before you heat the cream mixture back up, reserve about 125ml of it. You can then beat this barely-warm cream into the egg mixture to slacken it, which will help to prevent any unwanted egg-cooking when you add the hot cream. Then, you can add the hot cream to the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream, while whisking continuously, which will also help to prevent any cooking. Finally, before you return the custard to the heat to thicken, strain it back through a fine mesh sieve, just to remove any little bits of egg that may have cooked slightly, despite your best efforts! Don’t worry if the custard is a bit frothy after all that whisking- after a few minutes of stirring over the heat it will smooth right out.

Don’t let the custard boil.

When you are waiting for the custard to boil, stir continuously and keep and eye out for any bubbles rising to the surface in the centre of the pan. If you see any bubbles, your custard is thick enough! Take it off the heat at this stage, or the custard may curdle. The custard only thickens slightly, so don’t worry too much about getting it super thick, 8-10 minutes over a low heat should be fine- it will thicken more as it chills anyway.

Add the food colouring after the custard has thickened.

Some food colourings can be affected by exposure to heat. You’ll have much more control over the colour of your finished ice cream if you add the colouring after you have taken the thickened custard off the heat.

Put clingfilm directly onto the custard’s surface before chilling it.

Custard can form a skin as it cools down, but you can prevent that from happening by covering it with clingfilm and making sure the clingfilm is touching the surface.

Make sure the custard is super cold before you churn it.

The colder your ice cream base is, the less time it will take to freeze and the creamier your finished ice cream will be (you’ll also get to eat it sooner, so it’s really a win-win)!

Make sure the ice cream maker is running before you pour in the custard!

I mentioned earlier that I nearly broke my ice cream maker by allowing the custard to freeze onto the side of the bowl- the way to avoid this is to start the machine, so that it is already mixing as you pour in the custard. That way, the custard will start churning as soon as it enters the machine and won’t have a chance to freeze onto the sides/bottom of the bowl. Learn from my mistakes and save your ice cream maker!

Recipe

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Honey Lavender Ice Cream

Homemade ice cream, flavoured with sweet honey and floral lavender: a perfect summer treat!

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Honey, Honey Lavender, Ice cream, Lavender

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Freeze + Chill Time 6 hours hours

Total Time 8 hours hours

Servings 8 big scoops

Ingredients

• 300 ml double cream
• 300 ml milk
• 100 g caster sugar (split into 2x50g portions)
• 1 tbsp dried lavender (see note 1)
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp honey
• purple food colouring (optional)

Instructions

• The day before you make the ice cream, put the bowl of the ice cream maker into the freezer (see note 2).
• Put the cream, milk, 1 of the 50g portions of sugar and the dried lavender into a medium-sized saucepan. Place over a low heat and, stirring every now and then, bring to just below a boil (when it's ready, you'll be able to see bubbles forming around the edge of the pan and some steam rising from the mixture). Remove from the heat and set aside, covered, to infuse for 30 minutes.
• When the cream mixture has infused for 30 minutes, strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove the lavender (the lavender can now be discarded). Set about 125ml of the strained mixture aside, then put the rest of the cream back into the saucepan. Slowly, bring the cream mixture in the pan to just below the boil again.
• While the cream mixture is heating up, put the egg yolks, the remaining 50g of sugar and the honey into a large bowl. Using an electric hand whisk, beat until the mixture becomes pale and thick (when you lift the whisk, it should form thick ribbons that stay on the surface for a few seconds before settling back into the mixture: the 'ribbon stage'). Once the 'ribbon stage' has been reached, beat in the 125ml of the reserved cream mixture to slacken the egg mixture.
• When the cream mixture has been heated to just below a boil, take it off the heat and, whisking continuously, pour into the slackened egg mixture in a slow, steady stream.
• Once all of the cream mixture has been incorporated, pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan through a fine mesh sieve to ensure the custard is completely smooth. Place the saucepan over a low heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the custard has thickened slightly (it should coat the back of the spoon- about 8-10 minutes). Do not let the custard boil, or it will curdle- if you start to see bubbles rise to the surface in the centre of the pan, remove from the heat immediately (your custard will definitely be thick enough at this point).
• Once the custard has thickened, remove from heat and stir in the purple food colouring until evenly distributed (see note 3). Transfer to a jug, cover with clingfilm (place the clingfilm directly onto the surface of the custard, to prevent it from forming a skin) and allow the custard to cool slightly at room temperature before putting it into the fridge to chill for at least 3-4 hours, or overnight.
• Once the mixture is completely cold, set up the ice cream machine. With the mixer running, pour in the cold custard and churn for 10-30 minutes, as per your machine's instructions. Once it has churned, transfer the ice cream to a container, cover with a lid and freeze for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight) before serving. The ice cream will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Notes

1. Make sure you use culinary grade lavender. You can purchase the brand I used here. 
2. If you plan to chill your custard overnight, before churning, you wait to freeze the canister of your ice cream maker until the day you make the custard. If you are chilling and churning your custard in the same day, you’ll need to remember to freeze the canister the day before. 
3. Because of the high fat content of the custard, the food colouring might take a little while to incorporate fully. Just keep stirring! Additionally, after the custard has sat for a while in the fridge, some food colouring can collect at the bottom of the jug. Give the custard a good stir, right before you churn it, to avoid any unwanted streaks.

If you try this ice cream recipe out, I’d love to hear about it! Leave me a comment down below.

Gemma

xxx

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• The Lavender Haze Cupcake: Explained
• Cold Infusion vs Hot Infusion
• How to Make Chocolate Koi
• The Reverse-Creaming Method
• Food Colouring 101
• Whipped Cream Icing
• Decorating the Cupcakes
• Recipe

The Lavender Haze Cupcake: Explained

The Lavender Haze Cupcake has 3 main elements:

• Smoky lavender cake
• Smoky lavender whipped cream icing
• Chocolate koi decoration

Obviously, these cupcakes absolutely had to be flavoured with lavender. I mean- the song is literally called Lavender Haze. In the music video, the titular ‘haze’ is portrayed as a smoky purple mist- so, to get that ‘hazey’ vibe, I wanted to introduce a smoky element. To do that, I used lapsang souchong, which is a smoked tea. The combination of lavender and lapsang souchong makes for quite a mature flavour- think floral and a little musky. These cupcakes won’t be for everyone, much like how both lavender and lapsang souchong aren’t for everyone. However, I think the (admittedly, slightly unusual) combination of flavours embodies the song perfectly, so you should definitely give it a try!

To get the flavours into these cupcakes, I infused the milk (for the cakes) and the cream (for the icing). To get the best results, I did this in two ways: hot infusion (the more standard method) and cold infusion. More on that later.

Instead of a typical buttercream, these cupcakes are decorated with infused whipped cream. I think this is the perfect topping for 2 reasons: firstly, whipped cream is inherently so much lighter and airier (dare I say… hazier?) than buttercream. As a result, it just fits with the vibe I was going for with these cupcakes. Secondly, the cold-infused whipped cream really helps to lift the flavours in the cake, making it the perfect topping for these cupcakes. I find the whipped cream icing gives these cupcakes a fresher, lighter taste, making them even tastier!

The decoration of these cakes is hugely influenced by the song’s music video- particularly the scene in which Swift sits among clouds, surrounded by floating koi (strange, yes, but we roll with it).

Even though the koi themselves appear to be an Easter Egg for the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), I still wanted to include them on these Lavender Haze cupcakes, so I made little chocolate koi- there’s a full tutorial for this below. The cupcakes themselves are lavender-coloured (lavender/purple food colouring is a key ingredient in this recipe! You can read more on that below) and half of the whipped cream is purple too! In fact, the piping on top reflects two aspects of the song/its music video: the white ‘clouds’ (see koi scene, above) and the purple ‘love spiral’ in the middle (I even have a few different decorating variations for you!).

So, that’s the cupcakes explained. Essentially, they are smoky lavender cupcakes, topped with two colours of smoky lavender cream, decorated with chocolate koi. Obviously, you can make these cupcakes without the extra decoration (i.e. just the cupcakes and cream on top, with no food colouring), if that’s more your vibe. Now though, let’s get into some specifics…

Cold Infusion vs Hot Infusion

As I said before, this recipes uses both hot and cold infusion to get the smoky lavender flavour into the cupcakes. This is not to make life more complicated, but to ensure you get the best out of all of your ingredients! Let’s discuss the difference between the two methods first:

For this recipe, you’ll use the hot infusion method to infuse the milk for the cupcake batter, while you’ll use the cold infusion method to infuse the cream for the whipped cream icing. Because flavours can change and become less intense during baking, it’s better to use a hot infusion for the cupcake batter. However, because the whipped cream is not baked, you don’t require as intense a flavour, so the cold infusion method can be used successfully. The benefit of using a cold infusion for whipped cream is two-fold: not only does cream whip up best when it is completely cold (meaning you’d have to chill it after hot-infusing anyway!) but, when you heat cream, you run the risk of splitting/curdling it, which would render it useless for whipping! Therefore, using both infusion methods for this recipe means you get the best flavour and the most successful results. It may seem like a bit of a faff, but, I promise, it will pay off!

One final note on the infusing process before we move on: both lavender and lapsang souchong are strong flavours. Don’t make your infusions too strong, because the delicate balance between the two ingredients is essential for these cakes. For the hot infusion of milk for the cake batter, I only leave the teabag in for 10 minutes and the lavender for 15 minutes– truly, that’s all you need! The cold infusion cream is a little more forgiving- I find 3 hours gives the perfect amount of flavour, but you can adapt this to your tastes by leaving it in the fridge for more/less time for a stronger/weaker flavour, respectively.

How to Make Chocolate Koi

My Lavender Haze Cupcakes are topped with little chocolate koi, in a nod to the song’s music video. These are actually pretty simple to make- they don’t even require any specialist tools (only some specialist ingredients)! Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

• Modelling chocolate

I used white modelling chocolate for the bodies of my koi because I love the taste (I used this brand). However, you could use any other pale, edible modelling paste, such as marzipan or fondant. You need 3g of your chosen modelling paste for each koi, and you’ll need 1 or 2 koi per cupcake, depending on how you decorate it. This recipe makes 12-16 cupcakes, so you’ll need 36-96g of paste in total (though it might be a good idea to have some extra to practise with!).

• Flaked almonds

I used flaked almonds for the fins of my koi. Admittedly, koi have a lot of fins in real life, but I settled for 2, just to give the general impression. If you need to make a nut-free version of the koi, make sure you use a nut-free modelling paste (definitely not marzipan!) and use scissors to ‘snip’ two little fins on the side of the body, which you can then flatten & shape using your fingers, instead of using flaked almonds.

For each koi, you’ll need 2x flaked almonds, but you’ll want a selection of almonds to pick from, so that you can get matching pairs. Because the koi are so small, you’ll need to pick out the smaller almonds to get fins that are in proportion to the body!

• Edible ink markers in orange and black

The koi in the Lavender Haze music video are white with black and red/orange splotches. To achieve that look, I used these edible ink markers by Sugarflair, in the shades Liquorice and Tangerine. Using edible ink markers gives you more control and means that your koi are less likely to stain your mouth when you eat them, but you can substitute them with regular or powdered food colouring, if you prefer.

• Icing sugar

Because you’ll be working with modelling paste, you’ll need a little bit of icing sugar for dusting your work surface and hands throughout the process.

Equipment:

• Small, sharp knife
• Baking tray lined with greaseproof paper

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Weigh out 3g of modelling chocolate for the body. Knead on a clean surface, dusted with icing sugar, until smooth, then roll into a ball between the palms of your hands.

2. Roll the ball into a sausage shape, tapering one end slightly. Curve the tapered sausage slightly.

3. Use your finger to press down on the very end of the tapered part of the body, to flatten out the tail. Carefully peel the koi off of your work surface and dip the underside of the tail into some more icing sugar, to prevent further sticking.

4. Use a small, sharp knife to make an incision in the flattened tail, separating the tail into two fins.

5. Select two similarly-sized and shaped flaked almonds for the fins. Gently press one into each side of the thicker part of the body. Set aside on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper to dry out a little while you make more koi.

6. Once you have made all your koi bodies, you can add colour. Starting with the orange edible ink marker, scribble little patches of colour randomly over the body and fins of each koi. Set aside to dry for 10-15 minutes.

7. After the orange colour has dried for 10-15 minutes, repeat the process with the black edible ink marker. Set aside to dry for at least 30-40 minutes before using to decorate cupcakes.

And there you have it! Handmade chocolate koi- ready to decorate your cupcakes with. These may seem a little fiddly at first, but with a bit of practise, you’ll be making them super quickly!

The Reverse-Creaming Method

These cupcakes are made using the Reverse-Creaming Method. Typically, when you make a cake, you cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, beat in the eggs, then fold in the remaining dry ingredients. With reverse-creaming, the process is flipped on its head. You start by mixing the butter into the dry ingredients (plain flour, caster sugar and baking powder), until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, like this:

In a separate jug, you whisk together milk, eggs and vanilla, which you then pour into the butter/dry ingredient mixture in a slow, steady stream, with the mixer on low, before turning up the speed and giving the batter a final beat to smooth out all the lumps. The end result is a super easy, moist cake that is slightly denser than a typical sponge. I learned about the reverse-creaming method from The Scran Line, but it was popularised by Rose Levy Beranbaum in 1988.

While I usually use the standard creaming method for my cakes, I opted to use the reverse-creaming method for this recipe for a couple of reasons. Firstly, recipes made using the reverse-creaming method naturally have a larger quantity of milk in them. Because the infused milk is vital to this recipe and because it’s much easier to infuse a bigger quantity of milk (as opposed to a couple of tablespoons) without wastage, having more milk suits this recipe perfectly. The second reason is that I wanted the cakes themselves to be purple. Because cakes have a high sugar content, they tend to brown around the edges/top when baked, which obscures any colour used in the batter. You can get around this by baking your cakes at a very low temperature for longer- this recipe calls for 35-40 minutes at 140°C- a very low oven for cakes (this is another tip I learned from The Scran Line). The moister cupcake given by the reverse-creaming method can handle that low, slow bake much better than a typical sponge, which might dry out!

Although I learned about reverse-creaming from The Scran Line, I wasn’t crazy about the cake recipe from that website- it was a little too dense and tough for my taste (it did, however, look INCREDIBLE- no browning whatsoever AND a super smooth top and bake). Instead, I adapted the cooking time of this recipe, by Benjamina Ebuehi. These ratios, plus the low, slow cooking time, gave me the moistest, easiest cupcake that retained its purple colour during baking. It caramelised slightly more than The Scran Line’s recipe, but not so much that I was willing to sacrifice the delicious texture.

Food Colouring 101

I learned the hard way that not all food colourings are made equal. When you’re colouring a batter, you need a food colouring that a) will not be affected by the heat of the baking process and b) is specially formulated to combine evenly into high-fat mixtures. I have always used food colourings from Wilton, which are great, but they are no good at all for baking with. I tried to get a pretty, lavender cake and I ended up with cakes that either had an off-putting grey tinge or a bizarre ombre of pink to blue (???). Anyway, infuriated, I tried out a new brand, Colour Mill, which even happens to have a specific lavender shade, which is apparently specifically formulated to work well with high-fat mixtures/baking.

It was perfect! I used it for both the cake batter and the whipped cream, and I was so pleased with the results. Not only did it give a super even colour, but it was also incredibly easy to use because it comes in a squeeze-y bottle, so I didn’t have to faff around with cocktail sticks/spoons.

Whipped Cream Icing

Ah, whipped cream, the bane of my life. No, but in all seriousness- why is it so temperamental? You underwhip it and it slides off your cakes. You overwhip it by a second and you have butter. You pipe it and it loses its shape. You cannot win! There are whole YouTube videos out there comparing different ways of stabilising whipped cream, ranging from the pretty gross (cornflour (?!)) to the straight-up different food item altogether (surely adding cream cheese just makes it… cream cheese icing?). Anyway, after years of strife, I think I’ve cracked it- and it’s a lot easier than you might think!

I ‘stabilise’ my whipped cream with icing sugar. You only need a couple of tablespoons, but it really does help it keep its structure. I mean, this is not strictly stabilised whipped cream- you will need to refrigerate the cakes after decorating them, because, if your cream gets too warm, it will melt. Long story short, add the sugar, don’t leave your cakes out in the sun for hours (i.e., don’t be a silly sausage) and keep them refrigerated as much as you can. You’ll get great tasting whipped cream that stays firm. Win.

The other thing to consider is how much you whip your cream. Cream has this incredibly annoying habit of going from pourable to butter in the space of a few seconds. Once your cream is whipped, it will keep getting thicker the more you mess with it, whether you are just lightly stirring it or, yes, even piping it. Whip your cream so that it just hold stiff peaks. When you lift the whisk, it should just hold its shape, but the cream should still look soft and glossy. By the time you get it in the piping bag and onto your cupcakes, the cream will be perfect.

This recipe calls for half of the cream to be coloured lavender. In the recipe, I tell you to split your infused cream in half and add colouring to one bowl before whipping it and I strongly suggest you do this! I know it seems so much easier to whip all the cream and then colour it, but, by the time you have incorporated all of the colour evenly, your cream will be overwhipped and you’ll have to start again 🙁 . By adding the colouring at the start, you’ll have more control over the finished colour (you can still add more as you whip, before you get to stiff peaks!) and perfectly whipped cream.

Decorating the Cupcakes

You can decorate these cupcakes however you want! I tried out a few different styles, all of which use the same whipped cream and 1-2 piping tips, so you can easily mix-and-match, if that’s your vibe. Once you know the basics, they’re all super easy to achieve.

The ‘Love Spiral’

Named after one of the lyrics in the song, the ‘Love Spiral’ only uses purple cream in a piping bag fitted with a large, open star tip. If you want to use this technique, don’t divide your cream into two bowls and just colour the whole lot lavender. After that, it’s a very straightforward swirl of icing on top of each cake: hold the piping bag vertically above the centre of the cake and apply a gentle pressure. Keep applying that pressure as you move out from the centre of the cake and ‘draw’ a circle around the perimeter, then continue around in a spiral, building up the icing and coming back towards the centre as you go, until you reach the middle. At this point, release the pressure to finish off the spiral. Done!

The Cloud

As further tribute to the cloud/koi scene in the Lavender Haze music video, this icing style makes the top of the cupcake into one fluffy cloud. Super dreamy! You only need uncoloured cream for this style, so skip the food colouring and whip up all the cream in one. Place the cream into a piping bag fitted with a large, round tip, and pipe little dollops of cream around the perimeter of the cupcake.

Use an angled palette knife (or teaspoon, if you don’t have one!), to gently drag from the centre of each dollop, into the middle of the cake, like in the photo below:

Once the bottom layer is done, repeat the process, piping dollops then dragging them into the centre, on top of the first layer, making sure to offset the dollops.

Finish off the cupcakes with a final dollop on top, in the centre, and you have a cloud cupcake!

The Combo

The cupcakes in the thumbnail were decorated with a combination of the two styles. For this style, you’ll need to colour half of your cream lavender, while leaving the other half white. Pipe the first layer of the ‘Cloud’ icing style as above, using the white cream in a piping bag fitted with a large, round tip, then make a smaller ‘Love Spiral’ in the centre, using the purple cream in a piping bag fitted with a large, open star tip.

Once you have iced all of your cupcakes, all that’s left to do is decorate each one with 1 or 2 chocolate koi and you have your Lavender Haze Cupcakes!

Recipe

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Lavender Haze Cupcakes

Inspired by Taylor Swift's song 'Lavender Haze', these smoky lavender cupcakes are topped with whipped cream clouds + a love spiral, as well as some handmade chocolate koi, in a nod to the song's music video.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Cupcake, Lapsang souchong, Lavender, Lavender Haze, Reverse creaming method, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift Cupcakes, Whipped cream

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Infusing time 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 hours hours 55 minutes minutes

Servings 12 – 16 cupcakes

Equipment

• 12-16 lavender cupcake cases
• 1 large round piping nozzle
• 1 large open star nozzle
• 2 piping bags
• 1 offset spatula

Ingredients

For the smoky lavender whipped cream:

• 500 ml double cream
• 1.5 tsp dried lavender (see note 1)
• 1 lapsang souchong tea bags
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• Lavender food colouring

For the chocolate koi decorations:

• icing sugar , for dusting
• 36-96 g white modelling chocolate (see note 2)
• flaked almonds (see note 3)
• edible ink markers, black and orange (see note 4)

For the smoky lavender cupcakes:

• 240 ml milk
• 1 1/2 tsp dried lavender (see note 1)
• 1 lapsang souchong tea bag
• 250 g plain flour
• 250 g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 100 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (see note 5)
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Make the smoky lavender cream:

• Begin by cold-infusing the smoky lavender cream, as it will need to infuse for about 3 hours. Add the cream, dried lavender and lapsang souchong teabag to a bowl, cover and place into the fridge. Leave for 3 hours, while you make the rest of the cake components.

Make the chocolate koi:

• Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar. Knead your modelling chocolate on the surface, until you have a smooth ball.
• Take 3g of the modelling chocolate and roll into a ball between the palms of your hands (dip it into the icing sugar if it gets too soft/sticky). Flatten your palms slightly and continue rolling to elongate the ball- you're aiming for a rough sausage shape. Gently taper off one end of the sausage for the tail. Bend the sausage slightly, so your koi has a curved body.
• Use your finger to press down on the very end of the tapered part of the sausage to flatten it and begin the tail. Carefully peel the 'tail' off the work surface, then dip the underside of it into icing sugar to prevent further sticking. Use a small, sharp knife to make a cut down the centre of the flattened tail.
• Select 2 small flaked almonds (try to find 2 that are a similar size/shape to each other). Gently insert one almond into the chocolate on each side of the thicker part of the body. Set this first koi aside to dry out a little while you make the others- you will need 1 or 2 per cupcake, depending on how you plan to decorate.
• Once you have shaped all of the koi, it is time to decorate them. Using the orange edible marker first, gently sketch rough patches of colour all over the body and almond fins of the koi. Set these aside to dry for 10-15 mins, before repeating with the black marker. Set the decorated koi aside to dry, at room temperature, while you make the cupcakes (at least 30-40 minutes).

Make the smoky lavender cupcakes:

• Preheat the oven to 140°C (120°C fan) and line a 12-hole cupcake pan with lavender cupcake cases (this recipe will make 12-16 cupcakes, so you may find you need an additional 4 cases to line another cupcake pan).
• Begin by infusing the milk. Place the milk, lavender and lapsang souchong tea bag into a small saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to just below a simmer. When you see little bubbles forming around the edge of the pan and steam starting to come from the milk, turn off the heat, cover and set aside.
• After 10 minutes, remove the teabag from the milk (you can discard the teabag at this point). After a further 5 minutes, strain the milk into a jug through a fine mesh sieve and discard the lavender. Allow the infused milk to cool to room temperature before proceeding.
• Sieve the flour, sugar and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture resembles fine sand and no large lumps of butter remain.
• Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the cooled infused milk. Whisk to combine and then, with the mixer on low, add the wet ingredients to the butter/dry ingredient mixture in a slow, steady stream. Once you have added all of the wet ingredients, stop the mixer (the mixture will still look a little lumpy and undermixed at this stage) and add the lavender food colouring. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until you have a smooth, evenly coloured batter- about 1 minute.
• Fill the cupcake cases about 3/4 of the way full (I use a regular-sized ice cream scoop). Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cupcakes spring back when touched lightly. Carefully remove from the pans as soon as the cupcakes come out of the oven (this will help to prevent greasy cupcake cases) and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the whipped cream topping:

• Once the cream has been infusing in the fridge for 3 hours, strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove the lavender and the teabag. Divide the cream into two equal parts (about 250ml each- though you will inevitably have lost a little cream in the straining process) and place each half in a separate, medium bowl (see note 6).
• Sift 1 tbsp icing sugar into each bowl of cream, then whisk (I prefer to use an electric hand whisk) the cream in one bowl until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overwhisk, or you will end up with butter).
• Colour the second bowl of cream lavender with food colouring, before whipping to stiff peaks, like the first bowl. Once both creams are whipped, you can proceed to decorating the cupcakes.

Decorate the cupcakes:

• Fit one piping bag with a large round nozzle, and another with a large open star nozzle. Place the uncoloured cream into the bag with the round nozzle, and the lavender cream into the bag with the star nozzle.
• Begin with the uncoloured cream. Pipe dollops of cream around the edge of each cupcake, then use the offset spatula to drag each dollop into the centre, to make the 'clouds'.
• Switch to the lavender icing. Pipe a spiral of cream into the centre of each cupcake, in between the clouds.
• Once the cupcakes are iced, place a chocolate koi on top of each cake to decorate. Once iced, the cupcakes must be refrigerated and are best eaten within 2-3 hours, though they will keep for up to a day. If you want to make the cakes in advance, you can bake the cupcakes and keep them, undecorated, in an airtight container for 2-3 days, then decorate just before serving.

Notes

1. Make sure the lavender you purchase is culinary grade. You can buy the packet I got here. 
2. I used white modelling chocolate, but you can use any pale modelling paste, e.g. fondant or marzipan. You will need 3g of modelling paste per koi, so decide how many koi you want to put on each cake to work out how much paste you need.
3. You will only need 2x flaked almonds per koi, but it is best to have more than you need. This will ensure that you are able to find matching pairs of flaked almonds that are on the smaller side, so that the fins are proportional to the bodies of the fish. 
4. I used edible ink markers for easier application (you can find the markers I used here– I used the shades Liquorice and Tangerine), but you can use regular or powdered food colouring if you prefer. Regular food colouring will, however, take longer to dry and be more likely to stain your mouth when you eat it. 
5. I prefer to use Stork in place of butter in my cakes, because I think it produces a lighter, softer crumb. If you’re using Stork, substitute the butter for an equal amount of Stork. If you’re using unsalted butter, make sure it is softened and at room temperature before you begin baking. 
6. Once cream reaches soft peaks, it will stiffen up incredibly quickly, even when mixing with a spatula by hand. It’s best to split the cream into two separate bowls and add the lavender food colouring to one bowl of cream before whipping it, so you can get an even colour distribution without worrying about overmixing the cream and ending up with butter!

I really hope you have enjoyed this post- I had so much fun coming up with the concept for these cupcakes and working out the recipe for them. Let me know what you think in the comments! I’d love to hear which Taylor Swift song you’re most excited to see in cupcake form!

Gemma

xxx