Jamie Erikson’s cool NYC catering company believes in real food: while not strictly clean per se, every dish is designed to showcase top-quality, locally-sourced seasonal ingredients in a simple, thoughtful and always-beautiful way. With a heavenly shop filled with local food ingredients, Poppy’s Brooklyn location is something of a fashion crowd hotspot. We asked Jamie to share their popular recipe for egg-free, dairy-free chocolate lavender cake and can’t wait to whip it up over here on the Left Coast…
Our executive baker, Caren, uses herbs in so many of our baked goods. Her recipes are inspired and governed by the seasons and utilizing produce at its peak. Caren enjoys borrowing ingredients and flavor combinations typically considered savory, and reworking them into sweet, comforting classics.
This chocolate lavender cake that we make is vegan and an absolute favorite. We often serve this as a breakfast cake or loaf and customers are blown away that it’s vegan. In New York, winters are long and leave us without seasonal fruits and berries for many months, so herbs play a big part in what we make at this time of year – this recipe included.
VEGAN CHOCOLATE LAVENDER CAKE
Serves 8
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or cup-for-cup gluten free flour)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 tsp aluminum-free baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups coconut sugar
1 Tbsp lavender buds
3/4 cup grapeseed oil
2 1/4 cups coffee (cooled)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp vinegar (white distilled)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 10″ cake pan and line bottom with parchment round.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, coffee, vanilla, and vinegar.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the lavender buds, and whisk together until a smooth batter forms.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for approximately 35-45 minutes, or until cake springs back to touch and skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool to touch before turning cake out.
Recipe by Caren Rothman.
