Pelargonium Cake Recipe

Harry has been cooking and baking with Pelargoniums for quite some time and has shared his Pelargonium Cake with visitors and customers at many events we have attended. 

The cake got the gardening royalty seal of approval when Monty Don sampled it at the BBC Gardeners World Live show 2025 at the NEC and then went on to talk about it on a future episode of Gardeners' World - Harry said that that praise could only be bettered by a mention from Dame Mary Berry herself! :-)

At our recent Pelargonium Masterclass Harry shared this recipe, and so we are sharing the recipe here with you too...

Pelargonium Cake Recipe

The recipe shared below is a good introduction to cooking with Pelargoniums as it demonstrates the strength of their scented oils by infusing sugar and adding leaves direct into your cooking.  It’s also a classic Pelargonium scent, rose, that slowly releases and tastes just like Turkish Delight but without the adding the potential over flavouring of rose water! 

The Rose Scented Pelargoniums I suggest to use are Radula alternatively, you could use Attar of Roses.  Please make sure you prepare your Pelly Sugar before starting your cake.  There is nothing more annoying that starting a cake and realising you have to wait days before you can actually start – enjoy!

Ingredients

Pelly Caster sugar -

·         500g Bag of caster sugar

·         6-8 Rose Scented Leaves

·         Kilner Jar or equivalent

For the Cake

·         225g Self Raising four

·         1 Tsp Baking Powder

·         225g Unsalted Butter at room temperature (You can us a vegetable alternative if you wish)

·         250g Pelly Caster Sugar (See notes)

·         4 Large Eggs

·         5 Scented Pelly Leaves (Rose Scented – Attar of Roses or Radula)

For the Sugar Syrup –

·         100g of Pelly Sugar

·         100g Water

·         3 Rose Scented Pelly Leaves

Cake Tin -

·         Tay Bake Tin Size – 9X13 Inch (33X23 CM)

Method –

Pelly Sugar (For best results, prepare a week in advance!)

Preparation is key to using Pellies in your cooking, the delicate flavours need time to go from plant to food and the best way I have found is to create a Pelly Sugar.  This works on a similar principal to vanilla bean pods in sugar, adding Pelly leaves to your sugar will allow the sugar to gradually extract the oils form the leaves and transfer the scent to your sugar – giving you a beautifully scented sugar to bake with (or pop in a tea if you like). 

1.      Take your Pelly Leaves and wash these well under a tap and laying out on a tea towel or kitchen paper, pat down and leave to dry completely.

2.      Once dry, bruise and tear the leaves slightly (this will help release the oils) and place two or three of the leaves at the bottom of your jar and pour over a good inch or two of sugar and add more leaves on top and then more sugar.  Keep repeating the process until you run out of sugar and have layers of sugar and leaves (make sure you finish with a layer of sugar). 

3.      Seal your jar and leave the sugar for at least a week – the sent will be amazing! 

The Cake –

1.      The wait is over, now to start baking!  Pre-heat your oven to 160 Fan / 180 Conventional / Gas Mark 4 and grease and line your traybake tin. 

4.      Wash your 5 scented Pelly Leaves and laying out on a tea towel or kitchen paper, pat down and leave to dry. 

2.      Add your butter to a mixing bowl and sift in your Pelly Sugar, don’t worry if a few bits of leaf drop through this will add to the flavour! Beat your butter and sugar together until they become almost white.  You can use a hand or stand mixer.

3.      Gradually add in your eggs, flour and baking power on a slow mix until completely incorporated.  I normally stop the machine, scape down the bowl and beat until fully incorporated a second time.

4.      Finely chop up your now dry Pelly leaves like you would a herb and drop these into your cake batter and quickly mix in. 

5.      Now spoon out your batter to your prepared cake tin and gently level out the batter to fill your tin.

6.      Place in the centre of the oven for 20 – 22 minutes or until just golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Pelly Sugar Syrup

1.      As mentioned earlier, this cake is all about maximising these delicate flavours and the best way to enhance this in your cake and to keep it moist is with a sugar syrup.

2.      While your cake is baking you can whip up this simple syrup adding your Pelly Sugar, Water and 3 washed Pelly Leave to a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Don’t worry if some of the sugar leaves drop in. 

3.      Once boiling allow to simmer for 5 minutes and take it off the heat and allow to cool slightly.

4.      Using a fork scoop out the Pelly leaves but don’t worry about any little bits. 

Back to the Cake!

1.      Once baked – Allow to cool slightly remove the cake form the tin and cool on a cooling rack then gently pick it all over using a cocktail stick.

2.      This next step can get messy so you might want to stand your cake over a tray to catch any syrup run off.  Gently pour your syrup over your cake, making sure to try and cover all of the surface. 

3.      Now, you can allow the cake to cool completely and enjoy it or, if you can wait – wrap your cake in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for a day – this will trap in the syrup and maximise that flavour – Trust me it’s worth the wait!

End Note – You will probably have lots of sugar left over, you can either make another cake or keep it to one side ready for my next recipe, Rose Scented Shortbread – another flavour gamechanger!

Enjoy! :-)

Harry