this weeks tuesdays with dorie challenge was upside-down baby cakes with rhubarb. sounds tasty doesn't it? knowing that i would need fresh rhubarb for the recipe, i went to the grocery store and what they were asking $5.99 per pound for wasn't worth a dime. generally, "my neighborhood kroger" (as they so like to call themselves) carries frozen, sliced rhubarb but they no longer do so. the recipe lists a selection of fruits to substitute but nothing sounded interesting. while looking at the photo for the recipe, i noticed that the cake pictured was topped with sage leaves, that caught my attention. further reading revealed a paragraph at the end of the recipe on making the cakes with scented geraniums-bingo! well, kinda sorta. i do not have any scented geraniums. but i do have an herb garden that has many plants in bloom: sage, thyme, borage and rosemary are all covered in blooms. borage won.
to see the recipe, visit the blogpage of our host this week, erin, of
when in doubt-leave it at 350. to see what all of the other participants made, visit the
tuesdays with dorie website.
my husband likes to surprise me with food gifts. for christmas, he tucked a bottle of kewda water, also called kewra water, into my stocking and i have been waiting for a recipe to use it in. it is very floral, like rosewater on steroids and it was the perfect addition to my little cakes. if you want to try some, head to an indian market since it is a popular addition to indian pastries and desserts.
the recipe is pretty versatile, the kewda water was an easy 1 to 1 substitution for the suggested rose water. the recipe also called for creme fraiche or sour cream-i had neither and used buttermilk with perfect results.
once the simple butter cake recipe was mixed, i gently dropped a scoop of batter over each flower in the cups of the mini muffin pan. if you use edible flowers, be sure they have not been treated with pesticides. since the borage flowers came from my garden, that wasn't an issue. my mini cakes baked up quickly, about 12 minutes at 350 using a heaped #70 scoop per cup.
pretty little cakes, perfect for a trip to
the garden-i always bring a cake to share!
Your baby cakes are so beautiful! I have never seen a flowering borage plant before.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cakes.
ReplyDeleteBorage & kewda water are both new to me. Intrigued
Love your take on this yummy cake. Love the cute flower. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful little cakes. What a great idea to use flowers. So lovely.
ReplyDeleteO.M.G. L O V E the flowers! This was the perfect vessel to experiment with. Never heard of Kweda - interesting. This is what I love about these groups - learning new things. Thanks1
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing us to Kewda water. Another item to put on the list of things to try. Love the idea of using edible flowers. Your substitutions delivered beautiful results. Great post.
ReplyDeleteLovely! I hadn't heard of Kewda water before. Your variation is so intriguing.
ReplyDelete