Our Garden is Ready for Summer!

The month of May saw our weekends much taken up by Project Gardening, with father and son bonding over the digging up of the flower beds, planting bushes, herbs and trees and filling up the pots with summer beddings while I went out shopping, finding as many 'vintage' items I could find that would make our tiny patch of green Instagram-worthy. And with the final touches being the laborious patio-laying (thanks to the genius that is Tito David with the help from Isaac) completed, we are now ready to embrace the warm weather, when it finally decides to come and stay. 



And in case anyone wonders our vintage line are all purchased from discount stores B&M and Home Bargains, not that you can tell the difference from high street brands. Outfits are of course bought from Hillsborough charity shops (Top Shop, £1) and Isaac's are hand-me-downs (free). 

From our Own Garden: Lavender Cake

Lavender season may be over but I didn't need to find an excuse to make this delicately flavoured cake, subtly scented with lavender and tangy lemon. I just had to get hold of the perfect recipe and find the time to make it, which happened to fall today, on August Bank Holiday when the weather begged us to stay at home.

I used the flowers from our lavender pot in the garden that John planted for my 30th birthday, they have already dried and I've collected them in a tin which I occasionally take out to inhale the sweet aromatic fragrance that's supposed to evoke a feeling of calm and tranquility.

This recipe is from a baking magazine I borrowed from my friend Louise and I followed it to the tee, except that instead of using glaze icing, I topped it with sugar paste, the alternative way to decorate.

Ingredients:
75ml milk
1 tsp dried lavender
175g unsalted butter, softened
finely grated zest of 1 small lemon
3 eggs, beaten
175g self-raising flour
200g white sugar paste icing to decorate
violet tint

Instructions: 

I decorated one of the cakes for John's dad's birthday present and we took it to his place where we had it with a cup of tea this afternoon. It certainly had the smell of lavender and tastes delicious too!