One of the many things I love about this time of year is Elderflower, a pretty white star shaped flower that is everywhere and free! You can make all kinds of things with it like this delicious elderflower cordial I made this week and it's a great family activity to go out and collect it. Here's the recipe...
Elderflower Cordial
30- 40 Elderflower heads
1 kg Sugar
1.5 Litres of boiling water
4 Lemons
2 oz citric acid
- Place the sugar into a large saucepan. Pour the boiling water over and stir until all the sugar has dissolved and leave to cool.
- Grate the rind of the lemons, add to the sugar water.
- Slice the lemons and add to the water. Add the citric acid and stir, then finally add the flower heads to the water and stir again.
- Cover with a clean cloth and leave to steep for 48 hours.
- Strain through clean fine muslin cloth (I didn't have anything like this so i just used a sieve which is ok but you might just get a few bits) into a clean bowl and pour into bottles.
Once I made the cordial, I was then able to use some of that to make Elderflower Cupcakes.
75g butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg
125ml whole milk
175g self-raising flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
5 tbsp Elderflower Cordial
1 tsp vanilla essence
- Cream the sugar with the butter using a spoon and beat in the egg.
- Next sift the flour and baking powder, and fold the mixture until mixed then add the milk (but don’t over mix).
- Add the Elderflower cordial and vanilla.
- Divide into bun cases and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
