lemon verbena – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Verbena & Lavender

Years ago I bought a tiny pot of Lemon Verbena, and since then it has been a wonderful presence in the patio garden. It’s hardy and easy to take care of, needing a bit of pruning, water, and occasionally fertilizer. I cut it back every year and sometimes when it’s dried up because of neglect. It always comes back. Lemon Verbena has a wonderful, light citrus scent, and the leaves are actually really good in cake!

Lemon Verbena flowers are nothing spectacular. They are teensy and have a rather frond like appearance and sit atop the branch of the verbena. They develop side branches and leaves, and if you there a lot of them, it’s really quite delicate and pretty.

On the other hand, the lavender plant nearby has rather showy purple blossoms on a stalk. I think this variety is Spanish Lavender – but I dunno! I have about 3 or 4 lavenders running around, each different, but each with a lovely lavender scent.

More in my fanfold sketchbook with ink and watercolor.

In the Garden

This is the view out my window these days – orange, smokey skies. Despite that, there is beauty to be found in my flower bed and fig tree and potted plants.

I ordered some herb seeds a couple of months ago and planted them in coconut fiber pony packs. I used three of them, and put them in alphabetical order to spell H O T! Hyssop, oregano (Greek), and tarragon (Mexican). They were all nicely lined up, but then I moved them when I wanted to use the table and now have no idea what is where! But, time to transplant into larger pots.

The Brown Turkey fig tree is in full swing! There are plenty to go around. The local varmints like them, too, but I have a great homemade repellent made of dried chilis, garlic, and mint. I spray the tree every night after sundown (to keep the leaves from burning) and have managed to keep most of my fruit.

Of course, the roses have been happy with the heat, and the fact that I actually water them. A flower mix strewn in May is producing all sorts of flowers (and some weeds). The lemon verbena is in full bloom as well.

I also had a couple of cucumber vines. Originally I thought I had planted lemon cukes, but it turns out they were pickling cukes. They have now gone to cucumber heaven (though I have another one blooming), and the leaves are all that remain.

Life begins the day you start a garden. – Chinese proverb

Lemon Verbena Cake

I have a beautiful lemon verbena bush in a pot on the patio, and each time it blooms I think I need to do something with it. For some reason, lemon verbena pound cake struck a cord, and over the past several days I have been looking for something that sounds good. Nothing really did, so with a few web recipes, and some cook books, I made up a recipe. I dragged out the big grey monster (a.k.a. the Kitchenaid Mixer), bowls, pans, and assembled myself a cake with fresh lemons from the neighbor’s tree, lemon verbena from my bush, and a bit of elbow grease.

Lemon Verbena Cake

2 sticks (l c.) sweet butter
2 c. white sugar
4 eggs
2-4 T. fresh lemon verbena leaves, rinsed and chopped fine
Lemon zest from 1 or 2 lemons
Juice of 1-2 lemons, placed in measuring cup
Half-and-half to make one cup, added to measuring cup with lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
3 c. King Arthur’s unbleached white flour

Method

Preheat oven to 325 F for convection oven, or 350 F for regular oven. Place rack in middle of oven.

With about a tablespoon of soft butter and some waxed paper, thoroughly grease a 10-inch bundt pan. Make sure to get every crevasse and nook filled up. Dust with a generous amount of flour, and tap out remainder. Set aside. (I took my butter and pan outdoors to hasten the process – hot sun, melty butter!)

In mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating in thoroughly. Add chopped lemon verbena leaves and lemon zest, beat some more.

In another mixing bowl, sift together flour, salt, powder, and soda. Alternately add the half-and-half with lemon juice (it will be curdled by now) and a third of the flour. Liquid-flour-liquid-flour-liquid-flour. Beat very thoroughly after each addition, scraping down the sides as necessary. Be sure to really beat the batter a lot – the more the beating, the finer the crumb.

Bake for 60 to 75 minutes (1 hour to 1 1/4 hours). Test by inserting toothpick into cake – if it comes out dry, cake is done. Also, check to make sure that the cake is pulling away from the pan edge a bit.

Pray to the cake-baking gods!

Cool cake on rack 5 – 10 minutes. With small knife, gently pry away cake edges from pan; tap on pan multiple times to loosen. I banged on the bundt pan with a wooden spoon after I took the cake out from the oven, and used a filet knife around the center tube and around the edges of the cake. After this, I placed a plate under the cake, tapped some more, and it came out very nicely.

My cake took about 1 1/4 hrs. to bake; I let it cool 15 minutes before inverting it onto a plate. While the cake was still warm, and I wanted to flatten the bottom a bit, I pushed on the cake with a towel until I was happy. Also, I think my generous buttering of the pan, along with a proper cake-god dance, did the trick. I finally just dusted the cake with a bit of powdered sugar, through a sieve, because I do not care much for glazes.

Altogether, I am rather pleased with myself!