At this time of year, the earth is bursting with flowers. My oldest daughter, Sage and I have been excitedly waiting for the wild violets in our backyard to bloom. Picking them has become one of our special activities we do together. We’ve made wild violet tea, added them to her bath and had a failed attempt at syrup (forgotten overnight). The physical act of harvesting these tiny purple flowers takes time, but I’ve come to see it as a mindfulness practice, drawing me closer to the land we live on. When I’m out foraging in the backyard, my hands are busy, my mind is still and I always come away feeling calmer and more grounded.

This spring, I wanted to incorporate wild violets into a new recipe celebrating the gifts of spring and what I landed on is this honey cake served with a tasty, wild violet custard. I’ve added the wild violets in two ways - by infusing milk and making wild violet sugar for a nice floral flavor and a boost of vitamin C!

You can omit the wild violets and you’ll still have a delicious custard. But if you have them available to you, I invite you to give it a try! Or, you can make this recipe your own by substituting with another edible flower, either foraged or from your own garden. The goal here is to try something new to celebrate the season

Honey Cake with Wild Violet Custard

Ingredients

3.5 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup neutral oil

1 cup of honey (or infused honey)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup of strong brewed black tea

Zest from one lemon

For custard:

1 1/4 cup of fresh wild violets

1/2 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of flour

1/8 teaspoon of salt

2 1/2 cups of milk

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

More lemon zest & edible flowers for serving

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F
Brew one cup of strong tea, I used Irish Breakfast and put 2 teabags in one cup of boiling water but you can use any black tea you have on hand.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and stir until well blended.
Make a well in your dry mixture and add oil, honey, sugars, vanilla, eggs, milk and tea. Mix until the batter well incorporated. It should be the consistency of a thinner pancake batter.
Pour batter into a bundt or angel food cake pan and bake for 50-55 minutes. Remove from oven when a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. Allow cake to cool completely before removing from pan.

To make custard

To make the custard, first pour the milk into a small saucepan and bring to a near boil on the stovetop. Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup of wild violets, cover and let steep for 20 minutes before straining with a sieve or cheesecloth.
Place sugar into a food processor with the remaining 1/4 cup of wild violets (petals only this time, green stems and sepals removed) and pulse until the petals are broken down evenly. The sugar should be a pretty lavender color. *
In a medium sauce pan, combine the wild violet sugar, flour and salt. Whisk in infused milk and heat on medium until just hot, stirring constantly.
In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks together until smooth. Add about 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture to the beaten egg yolks and stir vigorously.
Pour the milk and egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook stirring constantly until the custard begins to thicken.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. If desired, strain the custard to remove any lumps. Serve warm or cool, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

*Since we are using the sugar right away, no further steps are necessary. But if you want to make more wild violet sugar to store, you will first want to spread it onto a sheet of parchment paper and allow to dry at room temperate for 1-2 days. After it’s fully dry, you can run it through the food processor once more to break up any clumps then store in a glass jar to use or gift later!

And with that, I’ll leave you with some cute behind the scenes shots of the girls and I enjoying some cake on the porch with my photographer, Brady after we finished shooting this season’s journal. I love these so much!