Happy Friday! The Royal Wedding is tomorrow and I wanted to bake something British. I was going to make a Battenberg cake which I baked about 4 years ago (it was not that pretty but tasted good), but then I read an article about the baker who is going to make the cake for Meghan and Harry and she mentioned the 2 flavors that are going to shine that day : Elderflower and Lemon. I was ok with lemon (plus I have a lemon tree at home), but… elderflower… what is that? where do I buy it? I have never tasted it. I searched online and I found out that my local World Market had a couple of bottles left. I went over to buy  a bottle and guess what…. they couldn’t find the product, it was super nice that a couple of employees spent like 15 minutes or more trying to locate the box (the manager told me someone already called asking if they had it too… maybe a baker? ).

I came home super happy with my elderflower bottle (Belvoir Fruit Farms Elderflower Cordial), opened and smelled it… Spring was inside that bottle! Citrus, flowers… perfect match!

Anyway, this recipe is about an elderflower lemon cake with a elderflower mascarpone frosting. Why mascarpone? I’m not a big fan of buttercream (I know.. crazy, right?). Plus, I wanted something lighter, mascarpone and heavy whipping cream it is!

Hope you like this recipe! Cheers!

Ingredients

For the cake

1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup and 2 tablespoons of white granulated sugar

zest of 2 lemons (I like a lot of lemon zest), you can use just one lemon if you want to.

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 and 2/3 cup self raising flour, sifted

Pinch of salt

4 tablespoons elderflower cordial

For the Lemon & Elderflower Syrup

juice of 1/2 lemon (watch out for the seeds)

3.5 oz of elderflower cordial

4 tablespoons of white granulated sugar

Frosting

16 oz of mascarpone cheese

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted

To decorate

Fresh flowers (research first which ones are ok to use)

Directions

For the cake

1.- Heat oven to 320 F. Butter  two 6 inches x 3 inches round pan.

2.- In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar, lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

3.-Add the eggs little by little, beating well in between each addition.

4.- Gently add the flour and salt.

5.- Add elderflower cordial and mix until all is well blended but do not overmix.

6.- Divide the batter between the two pans and cook for 50-55 minutes.

7.- Remove the pans from the oven. Leave the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes and then put them on cooling racks.

For the Syrup

1.- In a small saucepan put lemon juice, elderflower cordial and sugar. Mix all the ingredients in low heat until sugar dissolves. Pour the syrup in a small bowl. Let it cool

2.- When cakes are completely cool, cut each cake in half (I used a serrated knife). Now you have 4 layers of cake. Be sure that each layer has the same height, you can use the serrated knife to make them even (no uneven layers).

3.- Brush the syrup on the cut side of each layer and then proceed to spread some frosting between layers. Decorate the cake with fresh flowers like roses.

4.- Refrigerate until ready to serve. Don’t forget to remove the flowers before cutting the cake.

Enjoy! Cheers to Meghan and Harry! Champagne time!