Sourdough Lavender Lemon Bundt Cake
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This Sourdough Lavender Lemon Bundt Cake is an easy sourdough discard cake uses edible lavender, fresh lemons, and is topped with a sweet glaze! Pair this cake with afternoon tea for a delicious sweet treat.
If you love bundt cakes as much as I do, check out my Strawberry Donut Pound Cake, Toasted Coconut Bundt Cake, or my Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake.
Table of Contents
This easy sourdough discard cake is another collab with my baking bestie Hannah from Make It Dough, who has inspired me to bake more with sourdough! Our monthly collabs have been so incredibly fun, plus it gives these recipes extra love as you have that much more testing and thought put into each one! Some of my other faves that I’ve created with Hannah are my Sourdough Carrot Snack Cake and Lemon Rosemary Sourdough, check them out!
You will love this bundt cake because it’s a very simple lavender and lemon cake, but it makes a big splash because it just looks so beautiful! That is why I love a bundt cake, I feel they are very impressive for little effort, and this Sourdough Lavender Lemon Bundt Cake is exactly that!
I infuse the milk with lavender by allowing it to steep, like you would tea. If you don’t have fresh lavender, but you have organic lavender tea, you could also use that here too! I think when baking or cooking with lavender, it has to be very subtle in order to be good, and this cake strikes the perfect balance of floral lavender and zesty lemon.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Bundt Cake: I love a bundt cake because they look so stunning, but they are very simple to make.
Uses Sourdough Discard: Use up what would have been waste in this organic cake! You can use your sourdough discard straight from the fridge. It gives this cake nice depth of flavor, and reduces waste.
Organic Cake: This bundt cake is made with organic ingredients, making it a healthier option than any store bought cake!
Ingredients
- Milk: Use whole milk.
- Lavender: I use organic lavender, but if you don't have this you can also use lavender tea.
- Butter: I use Organic Valley Salted Butter, as it's my favorite. You can use your favorite butter.
- Cane Sugar: I use organic cane sugar.
- Lemons: You'll need fresh lemons for the cake and glaze.
- Eggs: Use large eggs.
- Sourdough Discard: You can use your sourdough discard straight from the fridge.
- All Purpose Flour: I use organic all purpose flour.
- Cake Flour: I also use a mix of cake flour for the perfect crumb.
- Baking Powder: Use baking powder, not soda. Be sure to check out my post the Difference Between Baking Soda and Baking Powder for more info on leavening agents.
- Salt: Use fine sea salt.
- Powdered Sugar: I use organic powdered sugar for the glaze.
- Lemon Flavor: I use organic lemon flavor in the glaze because I prefer a sweet lemon glaze with this organic cake. But, if you don't have this then you can use lemon juice (there's a note in the recipe). Lemon juice will just give you a little more tart lemon flavor, so totally up to you.
Tools Needed
- Scale: Always use a digital food scale for the best results.
- Stand Mixer: I use my stand mixer for ease, but you can also use a hand mixer if you prefer.
- Bundt Pan: You'll need a 10-inch bundt pan for this bundt cake.
- Mixing Bowl: You'll need a mixing bowl to mix up the glaze.
- Whisk: I just use a whisk to mix up the glaze.
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Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F. To make the batter: Add the milk and lavender to a small saucepan. Heat until the temperature is 140°F on a drink thermometer. Allow to steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain the lavender out of the milk and discard. Set the milk aside.
Step 2
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add cane sugar and lemon zest. Mix for 3 to 4 rotations until the zest is combined into the sugar. Add the butter and mix on low until combined and there are no butter chunks. Add the eggs and sourdough discard to the butter mixture and mix on low until combined.
Next, add the cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, and sea salt in that order. Mix on low while slowly adding the milk until all the milk is completely combined and you have a smooth batter.
Step 3
Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Allow to cool completely in the pan. Check out my article How to Remove Cakes Perfectly for tips on removing your bundt cake without problems!
Step 4
To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar and lemon juice and whisk until combined into a smooth glaze. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake. Sprinkle lavender on top (or just on one side) if you want extra lavender flavor!
Baker's Tips
- Make sure your butter is soft. I like to leave butter out on the counter overnight or hours before baking to allow it to soften naturally. If you must microwave it, do not do more than 10 seconds per ½ cup, even if you have to do multiple intervals this way. But, doing it this way ensures you do not melt pockets of your butter.
- Make sure your eggs are room temperature. Whenever making butter cakes, or cakes with coconut oil – think any cake that has a fat that can solidify. Canola oil, for example, won’t solidify, so it doesn’t matter if other ingredients are cold. But, in the case of this cake, butter can solidify, so whenever adding cold eggs (or milk) to soft butter that has been creamed, you can seize the butter. This is why room temperature eggs are very important here.
- Make sure you grease your bundt cake pan very well! Bundt cakes can be tricky to remove, but if you grease your pan well and give removal the time and patience it deserves, you will have a perfect bundt cake every time.
- Bundt cakes are tricky to remove from their pans sometimes. I always advise baking bundt cakes the night before, allowing them to cool completely in the pan overnight, no need to cover it. Then the following day, remove it from the pan and glaze them. You can read about How to Remove Cakes Perfectly in my post.
- The glaze may seem thick at first, but if you don’t want it to run off the cake completely, then this is what you want! I prefer a thicker glaze, so you see that drip down the cake, and I like the way it tastes. But, if you want a thinner glaze you can add more lemon juice or milk, but just beware it may run off your cake.
- If you like a more sweet lemon flavor then use milk in your glaze (as opposed to lemon juice) and add the lemon flavor. I prefer my lemon more sweet than tart, so this is what I do! But, if you like more tart, then use lemon juice and skip the lemon flavor, as lemon juice is naturally more tart. This gives this cake two ways to be made!
- If you want more lavender flavor, you can sprinkle the top of the glaze with lavender too. I did this on half of the cake, that way if some people wanted more lavender, they could eat those pieces, and the others are a bit more subtle.
- If you want to add candied lemons to the top, like Hannah decided to do, use my recipe for Candied Lemons!
- Make sure to store your cake in an airtight container once it’s finished. My favorite option for this is a cake dome! But, you can also use a Tupperware if need be.
FAQ's
Yes! If you don’t have sourdough discard and you still want to make this cake, you can use a mix of 28 grams organic all purpose flour and 28 grams water. This creates the same texture and weight as the sourdough discard that is being used, it just won’t have that sourdough flavor. But, it will still be delicious!
Yes, you can use a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer. Hannah provides more detailed instructions for hand mixing on her post.
If you don’t have fresh lavender, you can use a lavender tea in its place. You can use 1 to 2 tea bags, as the tea may not be as strong as the fresh lavender.
If you want even more lemon flavor I would advise adding the lemon flavor into the glaze. This will give a more true and sweet lemon flavor, versus a tart lemon flavor of the lemon juice. You can also use the lemon juice and lemon flavor if you want even more sweet and tart lemon flavor!
This Sourdough Lavender Lemon Bundt Cake should be stored in an airtight container. I prefer storing it in a cake dome, a that is best! But if you must use Tupperware, you can also do that!
Craving More?
Sourdough Lavender Lemon Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Batter
- 1 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons lavender
- 340 grams cane sugar
- 1 lemon (zested)
- 226 grams salted butter (softened)
- 3 large eggs (room temperature)
- 57 grams sourdough discard
- 189 grams cake flour
- 160 grams all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- canola oil cooking spray
Glaze
- 294 grams powdered sugar (sifted)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice (or milk)
- 1 teaspoon lemon flavor (if using milk)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- To make the batter: Add the milk and lavender to a small saucepan. Heat until the temperature is 140°F on a drink thermometer. Allow to steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain the lavender out of the milk and discard. Set the milk aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add cane sugar and lemon zest. Mix for 3 to 4 rotations until the zest is combined into the sugar. Add the butter and mix on low until combined and there are no butter chunks.
- Add the eggs and sourdough discard to the butter mixture and mix on low until combined.
- Add the cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, and sea salt in that order. Mix on low while slowly adding the milk until all the milk is completely combined and you have a smooth batter.
- Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Allow to cool completely in the pan. Check out my article How to Remove Cakes Perfectly for tips on removing your bundt cake without problems!
- To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar and lemon juice and whisk until combined into a smooth glaze. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake. Sprinkle lavender on top (or just on one side) if you want extra lavender flavor!
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
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How much milk do you use in the glaze above
hi Tara! Sorry about that, it’s updated now! it’s tablespoons 🙂 Happy baking!
Thanks so much. Look forward to baking this
I hope you enjoy!