floral baby cakes

Author Notes

as a participant in the biweekly tuesdays with dorie group, i am baking my way through the wonderful book, baking with julia. we have baked tried and true classics like savarins and learned an easy methods for making brioche and danish. the talented contributing bakers have offered a recipe for every skill level and as a professional baker, i have enjoyed the opportunity to learn new recipes and methods for baked goods i have made before.

one of my favorite recipes was a simple upside down butter cake. the recipe calls for using rhubarb rather than the traditional pineapple. a quick trip out to my garden was a bust, the rhubarb was not yet ready to pick. sadly, the grocery store did not offer much help since the fresh offering was so overpriced and of poor quality.

a second look at the photo featured in the recipe showed the cake baked with fresh sage leaves and the headnote also suggested the use of scented geraniums. bells went off; my herb garden was in full bloom and i had plenty of choices for replacing the rhubarb. after a quick look around the garden, i settled on borage blossoms. to finish it all off, i added a little kewda water, a popular ingredient in indian desserts, it has floral notes that are a lot like rosewater but a bit more potent and perfect for little two bite cakes.

this recipe is adapted from johanne killeen's rose geranium upside-down cake in baking with julia by dorie greenspan. —janeofmanytrade