Lavender/Vanilla Sugar

This is a quick win solution, and relatively cheap. No need to buy the expensive stuff from the supermarket.

Have a clean, dry, kilner jar of a suitable size.

Use two/three vanilla pods – score down them to release the essence and put in the jar – now fill with castor sugar and leave. When you take out some castor sugar, just add more. About once every 2-3 months, empty it all out into a bowl, and mix up then put back in the jar to ensure that the sugar at the bottom gets used.

Lavender sugar is the same, except you want to use less rather than more as it is very perfumed. Just use 1 small to medium head of lavender or infuse for only a short time then remove the lavender as the longer you leave it in the stronger it gets. Or you do what I do which is to use ¼ of lavender sugar to ¾ of normal sugar in my recipes thus ensuring you don’t overdo the lavender taste.

Either can be used in cake or biscuit making, or if you use it to infuse icing sugar, to dust over completed cakes/biscuits.

If I can find some nice smelling roses, I might try this with rose petals…. Hmmmm