Elderflower Challenge blog round up

Thanks to all my lovely food blogging chums my blogs first challenge has been a roaring success and saw no less than 14 blog link up posts. This celebration of this great foraged ingredient had bloggers taking part from all over the country eventhough the summer weather has been dire in the UK.

Several of the posts were from the lovely Karen at Lavender and Lovage, Strawberry and Elderflower cake and tart topping was her first, a very versatile recipe that can be used in all manner of ways for topping cakes, ice cream and pancakes. I really like that.

Another of Karen's post was an Old fashioned English elderflower cordial, the quintessential way of capturing the fleeting flavours of elderflowers. Aren't Karen's images stunning as well.

Lavender and Lovage's next post was the very delicious looking Royal Elderflower and Lemon Curd Butterfly cakes, which she devised in celebration of the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebration. The cakes do look fit for a Queen. 

Thanks Karen for all your support and helping to interest so many bloggers to be involved in the #Elderflowerchallenge.

The next link up came from Chris at Cookingaroundtheworld with his Elderflower cordial cocktails , he posts not only how to make the cordial but a few good suggestions of how you can use the cordial in some nifty little cocktails, including elderflower martini which I am sure James Bond would have approved of. Hick !

The next two posts come from All that I am Eating blogger, who has quite a few lovely elderflower posts on her blog, so I think it was probably a bit difficult to choose which to share for the challenge, her first post is  Elderflower sugar and elderflower cakes, gorgeous sweet looking little cupcakes which I am sure tasty equally delicious as well.

The second post is for Rhubarb and Elderflower crumble a classic seasonal combination of  wild and cultivated ingredients, I have tried this combination myself previously and its delicious, the elderflowers adding a delightful muscat flavour to the crumble.

Our next post was from Diana from Gelsomina's Cucina with a delightful Elderflower Panna cotta, I love panna cotta and have made HFW version of this. This is another excellent way of capturing Elderflower fragrance in a delicious summer dessert.

Kate from Turquoise Lemons contribution to the challenge is a Gooseberry and Elderflower Jam, I love gooseberries but don't seem to be able to beat the dreaded gooseberry sawfly so I will just have to lust after this from a far. When Kate posted this recipe there was some discussions on Twitter and the general consensus was scones would be the preferred accompaniment , I think this would be delicious with clotted cream as well.

To my surprise the next link up was from Transition Plymouth and it wasn't recipe it was a whole selection, they call their page Elderflower alchemy and it is the post features herbal teas, compote and elderflower fritters. Please check out the page.

The blog challenge baton ( well I had to get an Olympic pun in somehow) was picked up next by Laura at How to Cook Good Food and she added Strawberry tart with Elderflower pastry cream to our delicious and varied collection of recipes. Given the write up on the blog post this proved a winner with her family and is one I need to try in future.

Inspired by the Gooseberry and Elderflower Jam from Turquoise Lemons, I decided that I would make a strawberry and elderflower jam, minor cheat I know but hey , it contains elderflowers !

Loving all things chocolate I was pleased to see the next linky from Choclette , some very delicious looking Elderflower and White chocolate cupcakes from Chocolate Log Blog, unusually the cupcakes feature Truvia one of the new natural no calorie sweetners. Very helpful  as always, Choclette has provided links to the website for conversions for the Truvia.

Our penultimate linky is from Vivien Lloyd - The Preserves expert, she has kindly posted Elderflower Moments from the fabulous Miranda Gore Browns book - Biscuits ( this is by the kind permission of Miranda and Ebury Press). So that went on my Amazon wishlist immediately. Delightful melting moments filled with a decadent elderflower flavoured buttercream filling, perfect for afternoon tea in the garden.

Last but no means least our final post came from Mainly Baking, a beautiful Gooseberry, almond and elderflower cake. I think the combination of almonds and elderflowers is an inspired one, thanks for the post.

In summation, I have really enjoyed looking at all the lovely elderflower posts contributed to the blog link up, we are so lucky to have so many talented food bloggers in the UK. Thanks everyone for taking part and for making my first linky blog challenge such a success.