Victoria Sponge-Cake

...and three spring blossoms for syrups and cordials

Tea-time in the garden I think, don’t you? Flower-cordials are the proper accompaniment, preferably your own. The gatherings below were from the woodlands behind my old farmhouse, once a vicarage and earlier still shepherd’s refuge, where I lived for twenty-five years in the wilds of Wales until 2017. The cherry-tree was a gean - bird-cherry, very sour but good for cordial - the primroses were self-sown along the lane, the violets flourished in the shade of an old beech hedge watered by dew-ponds filled from the sky.

Violet: The flowers and leaves of all Viola sp., including pansies and heartsease, are edible. The most fragrant, Viola odorata, is endangered in the wild, but grows happily in gardens and window-boxes. The leaves, when cooked, have a spinach-like flavour and okra-like texture`; shredded into light soup at end of cooking, a handful will thicken the broth. Diarist John Evelyn, author the earliest salad book in English, rates violet leaves “most agreeable of all herbaceous dishes”.

All members of the viola family are easily identified by their pretty little faces formed of four narrower petals and a round lip backed by little spur. The colour of the petals varies from deep purple through pale blue to gold to pure white. Pansies and heartsease, though closely related to the scented violet, are not nearly so fragrant. The exception, however, is the early-flowering yellow viola, says herbalist Eleanor Sinclair Rohde in The Scented Garden in the 1930’s: “to preserve the fragrance for use in cooking, macerate a pound of violet-blossoms in two and a half pints of water for twenty-four hours, strain, add a pound of sugar for each pint of liquid and boil till the syrup thickens a little”. 

For an Eau de Vie de Violette, pack a generous handful of the picked-over blossoms into a bottle of white brandy or vodka, leave for two weeks to infuse. Delicious on strawberries to serve with a slice of Victoria sponge, serve as an aperitif over ice with fizzy water, or with white wine as a kir aux violettes.  To crystallise the flowers, hold each bloom by the stalk, dip gently into egg-white forked with a little water, flip through caster sugar and transfer to a baking rack to dry until the coating crisps – a few hours. Use within the day or store for laterr in an airtight tin.

Primrose: the first sign of spring throughout northern Europe, primroses grow in elegant little posies of lemon-yellow blossoms which open in succession and, if picked carefully without disturbing the parent-plant, continue to produce new buds from December to May.  The blossoms add a touch of sweetness to spring salads while young leaves can be added to the salad bowl, perhaps with a few of the outer leaves fried crisped. To prepare, fry well-grown leaves 2-3 at a time in a small pan in very hot olive oil for a minute or two - don’t let them brown- and transfer to kitchen paper to drain and crisp. 

To candy the flowers, hold each bloom by the calyx and flip it face down through egg-white forked up with its own volume of cold water, then shake to remove excess liquid.  Dust through caster sugar, pinch off the calyx, and spread the sugared petals on newspaper on a baking rack to dry - allow 24 hours in a warm airy corner (I leave the rack near the kitchen de-humidifier). Turn them gently whenever you remember, to allow the air to reach all sides. For storage, wrap in scraps of kitchen paper and keep in an airtight jar no longer than a month.

Cherry-blossom:  Pick on a dry day on the little bunches of stalk, and infuse in enough boiling water to cover generously, then strain, sweeten with sugar or honey and lemon-juice as a refreshing summer drink, or to trickle over a creamy dessert or soak a sponge-cake or flavour an icecream. A degree of almondy bitterness - more marked in some varieties than others but particularly in geans - comes from including the stalks, the source of most of the flavour and colour, while the flowers deliver the fragrance.

Add a splash undiluted to a vinaigrette, or as a dressing for a fruit salad, or as a thirst-quencher diluted with ice, fizzy water and a squeeze of lemon. The blossoms can be candied like rose-petals: to prepare, leave the flowers on their stalks, dip the petals in forked up egg-white diluted with a little water, dust through caster sugar, spread on a rack to dry and use on the day they’re made. Young leaves can be added to the salad-bowl, as can the petals.

p.s. beloved paid subscribers will shortly be in receipt of Primrose Syllabub, Violet Creams and Cherry-blossom Sorbet.

p.p.s. more recipes and stories from the wilds of Wales illustrated by award-winning photographer Clare Richardson in “A Cook’s Year in a Welsh Farmhouse” (second-hand only).