I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who left such lovely comments last week, I was overwhelmed by your support and kindness. On a lighter and happier note this week, today is officially Cygnet Kitchen’s 1st birthday. I can barely believe it, I’ve been blogging for a year. I say officially because although I launched the blog in July last year, I had been busy developing the website since March. Creating the blog has been a huge learning curve, hard work, often frustrating but incredibly rewarding. If someone had told me a year ago that photography would be one of the main aspects of the blog that I would most enjoy, I wouldn’t have believed them. It has definitely been an interesting journey. There are a lot of people to thank, but none more so than Steve, husband and editor, who has had to put up with a lot this past year, including many lost weekends when I was busy working on posts. I also feel blessed to have such lovely readers who follow my blog and take the time to leave comments that make my day, thank you.

A birthday is not a birthday without cake. Ordinarily, my perfect celebration cake would involve chocolate, but I really wanted to create something different, light and more summery. A few weeks ago, just as the elderflower tree at the back of my garden had almost finished flowering, I managed to salvage enough flowers to make my first batch of cordial. Like most things homemade, the result was far superior to the shop bought variety. The batch made two precious bottles and although I wanted to make them last, the temptation to experiment was too great. I decided to create an elderflower infused cake with subtle layers of flavour. The result, I can honestly say, is one of the nicest cakes I have ever made. Elderflower flavoured sponge, buttery and moist, each layer brushed with a lemon & elderflower syrup, topped with an elderflower & mascarpone frosting so beautifully light it’s almost mousse like and not overly sweet. You could use any (non toxic) flowers to decorate such as roses, I love the idea of fresh white Freesias and mauve Limonium. The perfect cake for a blog’s first birthday…or any summer celebration.



