I had the opportunity to bake a cake this week here at Struan Farm for a birthday celebration: mine. And a fifteenth wedding anniversary: mine and John's. Once again I made the Barefoot Contessa's carrot cake recipe, with Ottolenghi's maple icing. Iced naked, of course. I'm not sure I could handle a fully iced cake these days!
I topped it with finely chopped walnuts, some drizzles of salted caramel, and crystallised pansies/violas (edible flowers). I hadn't tried making crystallised flowers before. It was fiddly but fun. The flowers are brushed front and back with beaten egg white, then dusted with caster sugar before being left to dry on baking paper in the hot water cupboard for at least 24 hours. I'd read one recipe that hadn't explained that you need to brush both front AND back, so my first batch wilted. The second was successful. They're pretty and a nice idea for something a wee bit different. Read how to crystallise flowers like the Victorians here. After deciding to make these I learned that the 15th wedding anniversary is the "crystal" anniversary, rather a nice coincidence.
Interesting also to read that in Victorian flower language the pansy/viola says "think of me." The French name for the flower, "pensee," means 'thought' and reflects this flower's modest request. Perhaps also mine.
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