This Blackberry Lavender Almond Cake is made with almond extract and topped with blackberry lavender mascarpone whipped cream icing.
IT’S MY BIRTHDAY and I’ll eat cake all damn day if I want to.
This blackberry lavender almond cake is essentially the cake of my dreams—it’s all my favorite flavors combined into ONE delicious cake recipe. Likewise, it has the BEST texture ever, especially the icing.
Twenty seven brought about a lot of exciting things, the most exciting being that we bought a house! Owning a home was something I thought would happen eventually, but never at 27, and I still feel so grateful to be able to live in a house. I’ve learned that it’s a lot more work than an apartment, but also just better—more space inside, a little yard outside, and room to make it feel like my own.
I don’t know what 28 has in store for me, but I’m excited to find out. Hopefully this year brings about more dessert and more cake! << dreaming big. Likewise, I hope it brings about plenty of new and delicious recipes for YOU.
This almond cake is perfectly almond-y (the way almond desserts should be) thanks to almond extract.
I was being very indecisive about what kind of icing I wanted to make (buttercream? Meringue?) but ultimately decided that a mascarpone-based icing was the most “me”. To clarify, mascarpone IS my favorite kind of icing (at least at the current moment) and you may have noticed I’ve used it several times before. Originally, I created just a lavender icing, but found that the color wasn’t purple, and I really wanted pink-purple icing, so I decided to add blackberries in addition to the lavender. Talk about a good decision!
To make this cake, you’ll start by whisking the wet ingredients together in one bowl, and the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then combining them until the batter is smooth. These cakes bake in about 30-35 minutes, which isn’t too bad if you ask me! However, you’ll want to let them cool completely before adding the icing. My cakes didn’t have too big of “domes” on top, so I kept them as-is, but feel free to trim the domes off if they’re too big and/or killing your cake vibe.
Before making the icing, you’ll have to make the blackberry lavender “juice” by essentially making a blackberry lavender simple syrup, then straining the blackberries and lavender. It’s super simple and only takes about 10 minutes. You may notice I’ve used this method before. For example, in my almond dutch baby recipe, the blueberry glaze is made similarly. It’s an easy way to get beautifully-colored icing.
Like I said, the icing is mascarpone-based, but I really wanted it to be light and fluffy, which is why I originally thought of doing meringue. But, ultimately I decided that I wanted to combine whipped cream and mascarpone and oh my gosh the texture is my fave.
And that’s it! Above all, this lavender almond cake may or may not be the cake of my dreams—hopefully you love it as much as I did.
PrintBlackberry Lavender Almond Cake
This blackberry lavender almond cake is made with almond extract and topped with blackberry lavender mascarpone whipped cream icing.
- Prep Time: 35 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins
- Yield: 1 cake 1x
- Category: dessert
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: cake
Ingredients
for the cake:
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups+2 tbsp sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 1/2 cups almond milk or milk of choice
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Optional: toasted almonds and/or blackberries for topping
for the blackberry lavender syrup:
- 1 container (6 oz.) blackberries
- 2 tbsp culinary lavender
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
for the icing:
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 8 oz. mascarpone
- 1/2 cup blackberry lavender syrup
- Optional: purple food coloring**
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Grease three 8″ cake pans and set aside*
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar together; then, add eggs, oil, milk, water, almond extract, and vanilla extract and stir to combine.
- Last, combine wet and dry ingredients then pour batter evenly into cake pans.
- Bake cakes for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Wait 10 minutes or so, then carefully invert cakes onto a cooling rack and wait for them to cool completely before icing.
- While cakes are cooling, make the syrup. Add all ingredients to a saucepan and bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes, using a wooden spoon or spatula to break down the blackberries. After 10 minutes, pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer, saving the juice or syrup (whatever you want to call it) and discarding the blackberries and lavender. Set syrup aside.
- For the icing: whisk whipping cream for approximately 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Then, add the sugar and mascarpone and whisk again for another minute before adding in the blackberry lavender syrup. The icing should be soft and fluffy like whipped cream.
- To assemble: set one of the cakes on your cake stand, then place a dollop of icing on top and use a rubber spatula to smooth icing out, then place a second cake on top and repeat this process. Feel free to add toasted almonds and/or blackberries on top of the top cake for added flavor and texture.
- Cut and enjoy!
Notes
*I like to use circular parchment paper on the bottom of my pans to make sure the cake doesn’t stick. You can buy circle parchment paper or simply trace your pie pans and cut circles out. It makes the cake-making process a little longer but I can always rest easy knowing my cakes are going to easily come out of the pans.
**Feel free to add a little purple food coloring if you want the icing to be more purple.
Keywords: almond cake, lavender cake, lavender almond cake, dessert
Aaaah! I made this last night. When I went to pull it out of the fridge to let it thaw, I took a peek and I have GREEN spots on my lavender frosting! It looks like bread mold! Is that normal????
Oh no!! So I don’t think it’s normal necessarily and it hasn’t happened to me, but I did some Googling and found this article which might be helpful: https://www.cakecentral.com/forum/t/2392/icing-discoloration — I’m sorry this happened!
Great recipe! Are you using fresh or dried lavender?
dried!
Your cake is beautiful! Happy Birthday!!!
Danijela recently posted…Best Keurig Coffee Maker in 2018
Thank you!!
Happy birthday Erin! Your cake looks and sounds *delicious*. Hope you have a fab celebration!
Gabrielle recently posted…Oscypek and Food Fest Bahamas, 2018
Thank you so much!!
Happy birthday Erin!! Can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with this gorgeous cake. the marscapone based icing with lavender…drool. Take it from someone whose 28, this year will have amazing things in store for you! 🙂 xo
Ahhh thank you SO much–let’s hope so! 🙂