English Elderflower Cake

"You can make a man eat shredded cardboard, if you play the right tricks"

Jeannie's Sister 


 I have an addiction I must admit to ( yes.. I am a pure accro:)  I love bottles, glass bottles.  The swirly shaped ones, to dainty cut ones, to thick hard edged ones.

I think my fascination stems from  the TV show, "I Dream of Jeannie"

 Jeannie's sister ( love her) and Jeannie

 

I LOVED her bottle, inside and out. 

Inside the crushed velvet pinkish couch , crystals,  pillows and gold "wallpaper""... and ohh those round windows for peeping inside and out.

Outside, the intricate stopper and design. I wanted to live there. I could live there. Turning myself into pink smoke did not seem out the realm of possibility.

I was in the liqueur store last week, and stumbled upon this bottle....

 The thick glass beveled  edges

the cool stopper 
artichokesandlemonade

St Germain Elderflower

 I did not care the cost, or what the fluid was inside.  I wanted THAT bottle. I needed THAT bottle...to live in ..hehehehe

Thankfully I new exactly the fluid inside this bottle. Elderflower.  St Germain ( french )  Elderflower . I  delicious mix of a sweet  pear/ Meyer lemon flavor.  Nectar of the Gods.

English Elderflower Cake

http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes

Ingredients

80 g self raiding flour

pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

225 g semolina flour

150g superfine sugar

150 ml sunflower oil

250g Greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp orange blossom water

2 eggs

60 g Hazelnuts-chopped

SYRUP 

140 G Demerara sugar

4 Tablespoons Elderflower cordial

2  lemons zested and juiced 

Method

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease well a 8 inch cake pan

Sift Flour, semolina flour,  salt and baking powder into bowl . In a separate bowl whisk  together  sugar, oil, yogurt, vanilla extract and orange blossom water, eggs. Add flour mixture beat until smooth. 

Pour in pan. Sprinkle with Hazelnuts.  Bake until tester in center is clean. 

While cake is baking- mix ingredients for syrup in sauce pan. Bring to gentle boil, and boil until sugar dissolved and slightly thickened. @ 3 minutes. 

Once cake is done, remove from oven and pierce cake all over with a  skewer. Pour sugar syrup over cake. Completely cool in pan . Remove . Enjoy!

Things to think about--

* I do not keep self raising flour in my pantry, so I convert my own self raising flour.

* I would also use a pastry flour or cake instead of all- purpose. The cake seemed a little dense?..less semolina ( or soak) , and more white four.

* I made my cake in a 6 inch pan, ( recipe calls for 8) . I think the eight would have decreased the denseness and the syrup would have soaked the cake more. I had to cook it longer in 6. :( I think these would be even lovelier in small little individual bundt cakes.

* A little less hazelnut topping

* Less lemon, more Elderflower!

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