Recipe: Lavender Syrup Buns with Cream Cheese Frosting

These little lavender-hued buns taste as sweet as they look! Made with a quick and simple lavender syrup, the taste is delicate and smooth. Topped off perfectly with pastel icing and cute accessories, they're perfect for a party, hen-do or simply an indulgent tea and cake treat. Enjoy! 

Ingredients

Syrup

150g golden caster sugar

75ml water

A pinch of lavender flowers

Buns

150g golden caster sugar

150g butter/butter substitute

150g self-raising flour

2 eggs

Frosting

220g cream cheese

180g butter

180g icing sugar

Red & blue food colouring

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Syrup 

Begin by making the lavender syrup – bring 75ml of water to the boil, and then add in the 150g of sugar – stirring until the sugar has dissolved fully.

Simmer over a medium heat and add in the lavender flowers, let simmer for 3-5 minutes.

Let the syrup rest and absorb the lovely gentle lavender flavour while you make the buns. 

Buns

Begin the buns by creaming the 150g of butter and sugar, whisk until completely combined.

Add in the flour and fold until combined.

Add the eggs and mix until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Set the mixture aside, and strain the syrup. I find a tea strainer works best as lavender flowers are quite small and can slip through a sieve.

When the mixture is strained, add the clear syrup to the bun mixture bit by bit – slowly mixing in until it is absorbed into the batter.

Divide the batter into bun cases – you should get between 12 and 18 buns depending on how generous you or your bun cases are.

Put the buns in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

 

Let the buns cool and make up the cream cheese frosting.

Frosting

Blend the 220g cream cheese and 180g butter until the mixture is completely smooth, then add in the icing sugar and stir to a smooth consistency.

Add drops of red and blue colouring conservatively to make a pale lavender bluey-purple. I used two drops of red for every blue drop.

Ice the buns with a spoon or spatula when they are cool, top with confetti, sprinkles etc whatever your preference is.

 

The buns must be kept in the fridge when not being eaten!

Tip: You can make tiny flags to top your buns, like the ones shown, by taking a cocktail stick and folding over a length of washi tape, then cutting a v-shape. Cute!

Louise balances her many daydreams with the reality of being an animal scientist. So by day she’s lab-coated and covered in animal bits and by night she’s a knitter, obsessive reader, cat-botherer and midnight baker. She lives in Yorkshire with a husband, bunnies and cats. She loves PJ Harvey, pastel hair and drinks cola obsessively.