I love tea cakes, especially ones made with fruit. They are light, not dense, super flavorful, and a small piece goes a long way, accompanied with a good cuppa tea or espresso! I make tea cakes quite often, and I love using different fruits and herbs/spices to flavor them up, giving it the extra oomph!
My latest obsession is with dark rye flour, and I have been using it a lot in baking off late and I am loving the texture it imparts to the baked good. I first used it when I made cookies from Rebecca’s blog, and if you want excellent cookie recipes, check out her blog! Her cookies DO NOT disappoint and you will be suprised how quickly they will be gone, within no time! Anyways, so I used dark rye flour in this recipe, along with hazelnut flour(that I made using ground hazelnuts).
Also, NOTE : I used a 6 inch cake pan to make this cake, but I would advise to use an 8 inch cake pan, so that the cake is a little thinner.
I used the Pluot and Lavender Jam, that I make with organic pluots from the farmer’s market, and culinary lavender in this cake, along with Meso Nutso Lavender Extract! Evangeline, the owner of Meso Nutso is a lovely person, and makes the most wonderful extracts! I have tried her lavender, raspberry and walnut extract and they just give a wonderful flavor to the baked product!
It is a very simple recipe, and if you do make it, please do not forget to tag #thejamlab on Instagram and/or leave a comment in the below post! Enjoy this recipe!
XO
Amisha
Pluot and Lavender Hazelnut Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts ground finely in a food processor
- 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup dark rye flour OR all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lavender extract(I used Meso Nutso brand - you can omit it if you do not have it)
- 3 large egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2-3 king pluots thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of Pluot and Lavender Jam
- Garnish:
- 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
- sprinkle of confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter and flour an 8 inch cake pan and remove the excess flour by patting the cake pan, and throwing out the excess flour.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter on low heat. Let it cool. Add in the vanilla and lavender extract.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the hazelnut flour, brown sugar, dark rye flour. In a stand mixer, beat whites with salt until they form stiff peaks for about 3-4 minutes. Fold the egg whites with the nut mixture, gently but thoroughly. Add in the butter and mix well.
- Pour half the batter in the cake pan and spread till smooth and even. Put about 6-8 tablespoons of the Pluot and Lavender Jam, in dollops evenly over the cake. Pour the remaining batter over the jam and spread evenly. With a bamboo stick or skewer, swirl the batter around such that the jam is mingled in well with the batter. Smoothen the top. Arrange the pluot slices evenly, overlapping each other in a pretty pattern, close to each other. Sprinkle the granulated sugar evenly over the pluot slices.
- Bake cake in the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes or until the cake tester comes clean. Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes. Gently remove the cake from the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack completely with the pluot side up.
- Once cooled, the cake is ready to serve. Garnish with the confectioner's sugar and a sprinkle of the lavender flowers.
Reader Interactions