I’ve been wanting to put a local event together for a really, realllly long time, so I am beyond excited to share that I’ll be hosting my first workshop here in my hometown of Portland along with Christiann of Portland Fresh! The 1-day only workshop will take place in Tillamook Station’s sweeping industrial event space in northeast Portland on Saturday, April 4th, from 9 am to 3 pm. Material covered will include hands-on styling and plating of dishes with an emphasis on greenery & spring flowers, adjusting internal camera settings and their effects on the image, lenses and their focal lengths, manipulation of natural light, as well as an hour long post-processing session in Adobe Lightroom 5. We’ll also enjoy a full sit down, styled community lunch for a chance to get to know each other and unwind, and refreshments from the local Stumptown Coffee will be served. Students will walk away with content for a full blog post, a strong understanding of styling, composition, photography, and post processing, social media content, and gift bags from local Portland vendors. I’d love to have you join us. You can click the link below for registration at our early-bird rate, which will go up a teeny bit after February 25th, hope to see you soon!

Dark Chocolate Cake With Lavender Ganache & Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Cake
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- dark chocolate shavings or cacao nibs optional garnish
Lavender Chocolate Ganache
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
Vanilla & Lavender Buttercream
- 1 cup butter softened
- 3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons whole milk or heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 drops culinary grade lavender essential oil
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. First, begin steeping the lavender for the ganache. Bring the cream to a simmer over low heat. Remove from heat and use a tea strainer to steep the dried lavender in the hot cream for at least 1 hour.
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While the cream is steeping, you can prepare the cake. Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
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In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the cocoa powder, vegetable oil, and baking soda at medium low speed. Add the boiling water and mix to combine. Add the sugars, milk, eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Add the melted chocolate mixture, flour, baking powder, and salt and mix at low speed until a silky batter forms.
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Evenly distribute the batter between 2 greased 8-inch cake pans lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pan and allowing the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack, parchment paper side down. The cake is very moist so if you do not leave the parchment paper on, the cake will stick to the wire rack.
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While the cakes are cooling, you can finish preparing the ganache. Remove the lavender from the cream and discard it. Heat the cream and chocolate in the top of a double boiler over low heat until melted and smooth, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
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To prepare the buttercream, beat the butter and powdered sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment at medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the cream, vanilla extract, and lavender essential oil and continue beating until the frosting takes on an airy whipped texture, about 3-4 minutes.
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To assemble the cake, cut each cake layer in half horizontally so that you have 4 small cake layers. Place the base layer on your serving dish and coat the top with the ganache. Repeat two more times so you have three cake layers with ganache on them. Place the top fourth layer on the cake and ice the top and sides with the buttercream. Garnish with chocolate shavings or cacao nibs and serve.
Again with the infusing! š That ganache just looks too good!
Simply love the cake. Your brother is a lucky man!
And since I still have dried lavender from the summer, I will try the infused ganache š
Beautiful, as always! Lavender + chocolate is a fabulous combo š
Gorgeous, gorgeous photos, Eva! That wedding cake is sure to be lovely. And oh, I wish I could attend your Portland workshop!! š
Your brother is so lucky to have you!! These photos are seriously stunning!
Sues
This looks so delicious. Styling and photos are amazing as always!
I wish I still lived in Oregon! Arizona never has any cool workshops š
Can I just point out how beautiful is your photography?!!!! AMAZING <3
https://aspoonfulofnature.wordpress.com/
Amazing pics! This cake looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing this great post.
House cleaning Islington
magnifique!!! tant la recette que les photos
This looks like the cake of my dreams. Lavender and chocolate? Yes, just yes.
Love these photos, so beautiful! I'm sure your brother and his wife loved their wedding cake, it looks and sounds delicious!
She is so sad her cake is dead.
Please indicate the number of servings for what size of cake for this lavender chocolate cake.
Looking to have it made for about 196 -225 cake servings.
If you have any further details about how you organized this for the wedding you did, it would be greatly appreciated.
Essential oil is NOT food safe, and it worries me that so many people think it is. Lavender extract should be used in the frosting instead.
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