Tipple | Lavender & Raspberry Cocktails

A fruity thirst-quencher that’s bursting with summer flavours

Serves 6

You will need

100g honey
Juice of 1 large lemon
100g raspberries
1 tsp lavender flowers
6 shots of vodka (optional)
2ltr sparkling water
6 sprigs of mint, to garnish
6 sprigs of lavender, to garnish
18 fresh raspberries, to garnish

To make

1 In a small pan, gently heat the honey, 100ml of water, the lemon juice, raspberries and lavender flowers over a medium heat, stirring frequently until the honey melts.

2 Simmer for a further 5 mins, stirring constantly to avoid it catching, until it starts to thicken. Leave to cool then blitz to a smooth consistency with a handheld blender.

3 Fill tall glasses with ice and pour in a shot of vodka if using, then fill each glass halfway with sparkling water.

4 Add the lavender and raspberry syrup until the glass is three-quarters full. Garnish each glass with a sprig of mint, a sprig of lavender and three fresh raspberries to serve.

These cocktails are just one of the recipes from our June ‘gathering’ pages, a menu for a picnic by the water, which we’ve called ‘A Shore Thing’. It includes recipes for homemade Dips & Chips, Asparagus, Ricotta & Smoked Pea Tarts, Roast Pepper, Onion & Halloumi Wraps and Berry Crumble Cake. The recipes are by Kay Prestney and the photography is by Rebecca Lewis.

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More drinks for summer evenings…

Make | A Soothing Lavender Eye Pillow

Lavender can ease headaches and help with insomnia, so lie down, pop on your eye pillow… and relax.

You will need

1/2m linen (you will have extra)
170g flax seed
30g lavender buds
Lavender essential oil (optional)

How to make

1 Make sure your linen is washed and dried before you begin. For each pillow, cut 2 layers of fabric measuring 12cm x 27cm.

2 With right sides together, sew 3 of the 4 sides, with a 5mm seam allowance. Turn the pillow the right way out and press.

3 In a bowl, mix the lavender buds, flax seed and a few drops of lavender oil. Add to the bag until mostly full, before folding in the seam allowance of the open edge and sewing it closed

For more ideas for projects to make with lavender, including wands and bath soak, turn to page 52 of the July issue of The Simple Things, in which Louise Gorrod talks us through the projects and teaches us a little bit about lavender on the way.

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More from our July issue…

Recipe | Greengages on toast with lavender and fennel flowers

Late summer fruit on toast makes a delicious brekfast or a sweet snack for any time

From their smallholding in rural Somerset Kathy Bishop and Tom Crowford enjoy all their orchard has to offer with recipes that capture the season. You can find the rest of the recipes, including sour cherry cocktails and plum and marzipan cakes starting on page 54 of our July issue

Serves 2

10 ripe greengages
75g cream cheese
2½ tsp honey, plus a little extra for drizzling
A pinch of sea salt
4 slices of sourdough bread
A sprig of lavender flowers, divided into tiny individual blooms (optional)
A sprig of bronze fennel flowers, divided into individual blooms (optional)

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Halve and stone the greengages. Put them in a single layer in a roasting tin, skin side down, and pop them in the oven for around 10 mins until they’re cooked through, but still holding their shape, and have released a small amount of their pale yellow juices into the tin.
2 While the greengages are cooking, mix together the cream cheese, honey, and sea salt. In doing this the cream cheese will loosen a little, so put it back in the fridge to firm up until you’re ready to serve. Lightly toast the bread and set aside to cool.
3 To assemble, simply spread a spoonful or two of the honeyed cream cheese onto a piece of toast. Top with the roasted greengages and spoon over any juices from the tin, plus an extra drizzle of honey if the fruit is a little on the tart side. Scatter over a pinch of the herb flowers to finish (you’ll only need a tiny amount – use them like a seasoning).

Cook’s note: This is best served with the toast and cream cheese cool and the greengages still slightly warm.

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Science | why lavender calms

We all know that our lavenders blue (dilly dilly) make us feel a bit sleepy, but why?

The scent of lavender has long been used to make us feel relaxed or sleepy. And apparently, it’s not only the association with vast fields in Provence, swaying in a purple haze. Nope. Lavender’s benefits have proper scientific roots. 

It’s all to do with linalool, a fragrant alcohol found in lavender extract. Researchers at Kagoshima University in 2018 found that mice exposed to the smell showed fewer signs of anxiety. 

Linalool interacts with the neurotransmitter (or chemical messenger), GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid), to quieten the brain and nervous system, which makes the whole body feel more relaxed. 

However, while the effects of lavender on the brain were accepted, until recently, it was not known what the ‘sites of action’ (where it got in) were of linalool.

The Kagoshima experiment found that mice who had no sense of smell did not experience the same anti-anxiety effects when sniffing lavender as mice that could smell, thus proving that the effect of linalool is on the olfactory neurons in the nose, rather than on the bloodstream via the lungs, as previously thought. 

So, once the smell hits the olfactory neurons, messages are sent via long ‘wires’ to neurons in a part at the front of the brain called the ‘olfactory bulb’, which also stores memories and emotion. From here, GABA gets involved and when GABA attaches to a protein in your brain known as a GABA receptor, it produces a calming effect. Messages are sent to various parts of the nervous system, relaxing the entire body. 

If you’ve not found all that information terribly relaxing, you might want to just pop a few drops of lavender essential oil on your pillow. Or why not pick up a copy of our July ‘Embrace’ issue, which has a feature by Lia Leendertz on recipes that use foraged lavender. We particularly like the lavender and blueberry buns. One of them is enough to relax us right into a nice nap of an afternoon.

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More lovely lavender…

Recipe | Lavender and honey cakes

August is a quiet season for baking... Let these light and pretty lavender numbers tempt you back into the kitchen

LAVENDER AND HONEY CAKES
Makes 12

40g salted butter (room temperature) 
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
11⁄2 tsp baking powder
120ml milk
1 egg
1 tsp lavender essence

for the icing
80g unsalted butter (room temperature)
160g icing sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp lavender essence
Purple food colouring
Dried lavender to decorate (optional) 

you will need
12-hole cupcake or muffin tin lined with 12 paper cases

1 Preheat oven to 170C/Fan 150C/325F. Measure the butter, flour, caster sugar and baking powder into a bowl and use an electric whisk to beat until the butter is incorporated and you have a sand-like texture.

2 In a separate bowl, mix the milk, egg and lavender essence and add slowly to the dry mixture, mixing to form a batter.

3 Pour the batter into the cupcake cases, about a heaped tablespoon in each, and bake in the centre of the oven for 15 mins or until lightly golden and springy to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4 To make the icing, whisk together the butter, icing sugar, honey and lavender essence for a couple of mins until smooth. Add as much purple food colouring as you like, then put in the fridge for 15–20 mins until firm.

5 Ice the cakes using the back of a spoon and garnish with a sprig of dried lavender.

Recipe from Milly’s Real Food by Nicola Millbank (HarperCollins).

Cake in the House is our monthly recipe feature - get a cake recipe every month in The Simple Things!

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More cake recipes:

Make: Stress-busting Massage Balm

Massage this fragrant balm into skin for a relaxing treat

MAKES: 130ml
KEEPS: Around three months

INGREDIENTS
For the lavender-infused oil: 
30g dried lavender flowers
180ml olive oil
180ml grapeseed oil
1tsp grated beeswax

Essential oils:
10 drops lavender
10 drops sandalwood
10 drops cedarwood
10 drops bergamot

1 Make your infused oil in advance. Fill a jar with lavender flowers and cover with the oils. Leave to infuse for 3 to 4 weeks, strain and bottle. 
2 Melt the beeswax into 125ml of the infused oil in a double boiler or bain-marie.
3 Add the essential oils and pour into a container.

Found in The Domestic Alchemist: 501 Herbal Recipes for Home, Health and Happiness by Pip Waller (Leaping Hare Press).
 

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Recipe: Lavender lemonade

A refreshing, sweetly herbal fizzy drink for the moment the lavender is at its most fragrant, just as the flowers are starting to open. Add a shot of gin for an adult version.

Makes 6 glasses

500ml water
200g caster sugar
10 lavender flower heads, plus more for decoration
12 lemons
fizzy water

1 Place the water, sugar and lavender flowers into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Simmer very gently for ten minutes, before removing from the heat and leaving to cool completely. Transfer to a jug or jar, lavender flowers and all, and chill.

2 When you are ready to serve, squeeze the lemons into a jug, tip in the lavender syrup and top up with fizzy water, aiming for about a third of each ingredient. Serve over ice with a lavender stalk and a piece of lemon. 

For more of Lia Leendertz's Seed to Stove midsummer menu, including Gravadlax with dill yoghurt and crispbreads, Latvian midsummer cheese, and Strawberry, apricot and cherry shortcake, turn to page 24 of June's The Simple Things.

More from the June issue:

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Edible flowers: recipe inspiration

Team Simple Things cannot resist anything flowery and perfumed, and our love of edible flowers knows no bounds. Here are three recipes we can't wait to try. White peach lavender soda (above) sounds like the most delightfully delicious way to quench your thirst on a sunny summer's day. Thought up by Emma Christensen, this is one fragrant fancy we're desperate to try. Emma also recommends trying this with a shot of gin.

For the recipe, head to Emma's blog.

Violets are a particularly perfumed flower, and make for a delicate dessert in the form of these violet and lemon eclairs. Head over to Twigg Studios blog for the full recipe.

Raspberries and rose sound like a match made in heaven, coming together in this delightful dessert by Pick Yin. Although the thought of baking a soufflé might be a little intimidating, Pick claims this recipe to be foolproof. Let's give it a go!

For more edible flower goodness, turn to page 38 of May's The Simple Things (buy it here), where Lia Leendertz prettifies salads, desserts and even drinks with edible flowers. Or have a try at making Babousa, a Middle Eastern rose-scented cake.