Almond Lavender Cake

Week 39. I'm writing this at 11 PM and I should be asleep but I'm not sleeping a lot lately. Not because anything is wrong — everything is right, or as right as it's been in a long time. I just keep waking up and lying there in the quiet apartment listening to Megan breathe and thinking about the fact that our whole life is about to change in a way I can only imagine half of, at best. I've read things, I've talked to Tom, I've had conversations with guys at work who have kids. Nobody can really tell you.

I made kielbasa and sauerkraut this week, the slow-cooked version where the kielbasa spends an hour in the sauerkraut and the whole thing gets a little dark and caramelized and sour and sweet all at once. Megan, who has consistently eaten everything I've made this entire pregnancy, ate this and said "yes, this is right" in a tone of voice that suggested she'd been waiting for exactly this. I don't always know why a craving is a craving. I just try to meet it.

I called Steve Katz Thursday night. Danny's dad. I do this every couple of months, have since Danny died, though the calls have gotten a little easier over the years without getting less important. He asked about the baby and I told him October and he said Danny would have been thrilled to be an uncle, which he would have. He absolutely would have. Steve cried a little and I did too and then he asked about the Packers because that's what you do in Wisconsin when you need to come back to steady ground. We talked Packers for twenty minutes. It helped.

Megan is from a small Irish-Catholic Milwaukee-suburban family. The small Sunday-dinners at her small parents’ house rotate with the small Sunday-dinners at Jake’s parents’ house. The small in-laws on both sides have been the small welcoming-presence. The small two-family-network is the small extended-support the small newlywed-life rests on.

The small future-kid-conversations have begun. Megan teaches small fourth-grade at a small public school in Wauwatosa. The small adoption-vs-biological conversation is in the small early-discussion stage. The small five-year-plan includes the small kid-or-kids in some form. The small kitchen is the small place where the small future is being practiced.

The small Lakefront Brewery shift-work continues to be the small steady-paycheck. The small forty-hour-week brewery-floor job pays the small twenty-two-an-hour rate that the small Milwaukee-blue-collar-economy supports. The small benefits are the small union-decent. The small ten-year-tenure-target is the small career-anchor.

Megan and Jake married in June 2024. The small newlywed-rhythm is in its small second year. The small two-bedroom rental on the small east-side of Milwaukee continues to be the small first-home. The small thirty-year-mortgage-eventually-someday is the small five-year-goal. The small marriage is the small foundation the small life is being built on.

The small Polish-American heritage is the small kitchen-identity. The small pierogi-recipe-cards from Babcia Helen (Jake’s grandmother who passed in 2018, who had lived two blocks from the small Bay-View family-house) is the small monthly-Saturday-tradition. The small kielbasa-and-sauerkraut. The small bigos. The small recipes that came over from the small Krakow-region in the small 1910s.

The small Milwaukee-winter is the small six-month-condition. The small cold-weather-comfort-food rotation runs October through April. The small soups, the small stews, the small braises, the small heavy-baked-goods. The small Midwestern-comfort-vocabulary is the small kitchen-language.

After the kielbasa cleared the table and Megan declared the dinner “right,” she sat back and said she wanted something sweet — not heavy, just a little something to close the night. I’d been thinking about Babcia Helen’s almond cake all week anyway; baking feels like the thing I can actually control right now, which isn’t nothing. The lavender came from a jar my mom gave us at Christmas and I’d been waiting for the right moment. Week 39, ten days out, phone call with Steve Katz still fresh — that felt like the right moment.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine salt
1 tbsp dried culinary lavender, finely chopped
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp pure almond extract
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
For the glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, 2–3 tbsp whole milk, 1/4 tsp almond extract, pinch of salt
2 tbsp sliced almonds, for topping

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment. Dust lightly with flour and tap out the excess.
Combine dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chopped lavender. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand mixer on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 3–4 minutes. Scrape down the sides as needed.
Add eggs and extracts. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix until just combined.
Alternate dry and wet. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions (flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour). Mix until just smooth — do not overmix.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake 33–37 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the edges pull slightly from the pan. Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the glaze. Whisk powdered sugar, 2 tbsp milk, almond extract, and salt until smooth. Add the remaining milk a teaspoon at a time until the glaze flows slowly off the whisk. It should be thick enough to hold on the cake without running entirely off.
Finish and serve. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake, letting it drip down the sides naturally. Immediately scatter sliced almonds over the top. Let the glaze set 10–15 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Almond Lavender Cake — Something Sweet for the Long Wait