Lavender Chocolate Cupcakes

I'll be honest with you, when I first saw this recipe I was skeptical.  Lavender?  When I think of lavender I think of a bar of perfumed soap sitting in a flowery ceramic dish next to Grandma's pearls by the wash bowl. Yeah, I most certainly do not jump to "chocolate cake."  Yet when Sam (a lovely friend of ours, also a fellow cooking/baking newbie) and I got to work on these we found that we had made ourselves a delightful surprise!  These cupcakes are hard to describe... they are simple, yet intriguingly good.  Hard to put the taste into words.  Perfect for a tea time treat to satisfy your sweet tooth without overwhelming you with a rich chocolate taste.

What I liked the most about this baking experience was the strong scent of lavender that lingered in the warm kitchen air.  This recipe reminded me how specific scents can take you back so vividly to a certain memory.  Lavender is used in potpourri and as a soothing fragrance in many soaps and lotions.  In fact, Ancient Romans placed a steep price on lavender and used it in their baths to scent the water probably for its fresh soothing effect (thank you, Wikipedia).  And so when I first whiffed the steeping lavender tea (from the some of the same tea leaves used in the recipe) my mom made as we were baking these cupcakes I was abruptly brought back to my chemotherapy days because of a set of lavender lotions used to help ease you to sleep I had been given (by Kate and Emma, in fact!).  It shocked me how quickly the memories of those days, so much forgotten in my life today, flooded back to me; it was bittersweet.  But it felt overwhelmingly comforting; many memories of being taken care of, even if it had been a tough time.


And so for me, that's how I would describe these delicious little desserts - they tasted of memories and nostalgia mixed into a airy, fresh chocolate batter.  A perfect treat for a warm evening in a cozy kitchen on a January night with a lovely friend and a cup of tea.

Lavender Chocolate Cupcakes

(adapted recipe from www.thepastryaffair.com)

Makes about 14 cupcakes

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
2/3 cup hot water 
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature 
1 cup granulated sugar 
2 large eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 tablespoon lavender (we couldn't find dried lavender, so we used lavender-tulsi tea leaves in teabags)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line the cupcake tins with cupcake liners.

2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and hot water.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Cut open tea bags and add the tea leaves to the mixture.  Add vanilla extract.

4. Slowly add flour, baking powder, and salt. Finally stir in the cocoa mixture. Mix until smooth.

5. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full of batter, and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

6. After cupcakes have baked, dust powdered sugar over the top.

And finally sit back and enjoy!

~Juliette