Lavender-Lemon Pound Cake

I walked past a store selling flora tea at Takashimaya few days ago and chanced upon lavender tea. I immediately thought of those recipes that I have but never have the right ingredients to try it out. Without hesitation, I grabbed a small bottle and queued up at the cashier. When it's my turn to pay up, only then I realised that bottle cost me S$15, that's quite pricey, I'd say.

The lavender tea actually looks like dry flowers, I'm not sure if it's the same as the dry lavender that's available overseas. Anyway, I used it to bake a lavender-lemon pound cake. The cake had a strong lavender fragrance on the day of baking, but strangely enough, the nice smell was gone on the next day. I will use it to try out other recipes and hopefully, the smell can stay on much longer.

Lavender-Lemon Pound Cake Recipe
(Adapted from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course)

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
4 tbs dried lavender
5 large eggs
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbs cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
2) Butter and flour a 9X5-inch loaf pan.
3) Melt the butter with lavender in a saucepan. Let the mixture steep for 10 minutes, then discard the lavender. Set aside to cool.
4) Using an electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat the eggs with 1 cup of sugar until thick and pale, about 5 minutes.
5) Sift the flour and salt in a bowl. Add lemon zest and 1/3 of the flour mixture into the eggs, then using a whisk, fold until thoroughly combined. Fold remaining flour in two batches.
6) In a separate bowl, whisk 1 cup of the batter with the melted batter and the vanilla. Add this to the remaining batter and fold to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
7) Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
8) Transfer the cake to a wire rack and let cool completely. Serve.