Sweet Corn Cake with Blueberry-Lavender Compote

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The lavender will infuse into the syrup creating a wonderful flavor. Double the recipe and use it to sweeten tea, lemonade or for making mojitos.
The blue berries and yellow corn create colors that look amazing when plated with the corn cake.

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

For the cake

  • 6 ounces unsalted butter, softened and a little more for cake pan
  • 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon table salt
  • 1/3 cup sifted stone ground yellow cornmeal
  • 1 cup cooked fresh corn kernels
  • ½ cup sour cream, room temperature
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs, lightly beaten

    For the compote

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons dried lavender
  • 1 ¼ cups fresh corn kernels
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries

    Instructions:

    For the cake, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter and lightly flour the sides and bottom of a 9x2 inch round cake pan.

    Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk in the cornmeal. Set aside.

    Puree the corn kernels in a food processor until smooth. Strain the puree through a fine sieve, pressing to extract the liquid. Scrape any puree off the bottom of the sieve into the liquid and then discard the solids. Measure ¼ cup of the strained corn liquid and transfer to a small bowl. Stir in the sour cream.

    Beat the butter and sugar with electric mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and continue mixing until incorporated.

    Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix until just blended. Add ½ of the sour cream mixture and mix until blended. Add remaining flour alternating with sour cream mixture. Do not over mix.

    Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake until cake is golden brown and test clean with cake tester in center of cake, about 30-35 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool about 10-15 minutes, and then remove from pan onto cake rack. Allow to cool completely.

    For the compote, combine the sugar and 2/3 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat, stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved completely. Remove from the heat. Add the lavender and stir.

    To serve the cake, stir the corn and blueberries into the syrup. Cut the cake into wedges and top each serving with some of the compote.

    Cooking Wiser:
    Manage your time: puree the corn and mix with the sour cream and make the compote the night before.

    If you can't find stoneground yellow cornmeal use plain yellow cornmeal, you won't be able to tell a big difference.