“Rosey Outlook” Coffee Cake Recipe:    9×9” pan              oven: 350F          bake: 30 min/toothpick test

1 1/3 cups flour

2/3  cup sugar (brown sugar, honey, etc, to taste)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup milk*

1/4 cup butter, soft*

2 eggs*

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup shredded rose geranium leaves and slivers of lemon verbena

Save a pinch of shredded leaves and 5-12 small geranium leaves for lining pan and pressing into top of batter.

Separate leaves, etc and process/scissor cut to add to dry matter and top the cake with…grease baking pan; (glass is my top choice), press into pan some shredded leaves (or whole leaves, provided they are small) and ribbons of lemon verbena…in medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking powder.  Add shredded herbs and use hand mixer on low speed to combine with flour, etc.  ( If using a wet sweetener like honey, add to wet section of recipe.) In another bowl, combine milk, butter, egg, vanilla, *making sure to use at room temperature as butter will “coagulate” with cold milk, etc.  Beat wet mixture on medium until well blended. Pour wet mix into dry mix and beat with mixer on medium for 1 minute or until well blended.  Pour mixed batter into greased pan, on top of the shredded herbs pressed into bottom of pan.  Finish batter with reserved herb material, using a toothpick if necessary to pin down the garnishing touches to the batter (if left standing or curled above, will get crispy and loose more color).

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

Invert out of pan after cooling 10-15 minutes; bottom of pan will still be warm..

Cool completely before cutting; can be served as finger tea cakes, cut into squares and fitted on to rose geranium leaves as doilies. This recipe was first reproduced by Cville Weekly; the article can be found at http://www.c-ville.com/Stop_to_eat_the_flowers. More on recipe with photos at https://specials.planetearthdiversified.com/rosey-outlook-coffee-cake/.