A fragrant garden in a baked format: I’m saying yes to lemon balm cake 🙂
With fall in full swing, I have been looking for ways to use & to preserve our harvest, and recently I decided to focus on lemon balm.
I have been drying it and storing it in jars, and also using it fresh in tea and in combo with fruit syrups. But, what about baking with it?
I found a few cake recipes (such as this one) that featured various amounts of lemon balm. In the end, I decided to focus on Preppy Kitchen’s amazing vanilla Bundt cake recipe, and to just add some lemon balm into the batter.
I used 1/3 cup freshly chopped lemon balm, and I’m planning to use more next time to make its flavor pop.
This is my first attempt, and the cake is far from perfect: I may have sliced the cake too soon after taking it out of the oven, and I may have inadvertently used too much baking powder (oops!)
I will continue to experiment with lemon balm, and I am hoping to gather a series of recipes using this amazing herb.
In this instance, the subtle lemony notes created a beautiful contrast with the sumptuous sweetness of the caramel sauce and the freshness of the berries. This herbaceous baked delight was just too tempting to resist, mmm…
For other uses of common garden herbs, including lemon balm, I invite you to check out my posts here, here, here, here and here.
Do you have a favorite herb you like to use in baking? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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