Cooking with Lavender: How to Make Lavender Syrup and What to Do With It!

Oops! I've received several emails asking how to make the lavender syrup I mixed with the preserves and used in the middle of the bunny cakes. I neglected to tell you how to make that. Sorry folks!

If you have any experience making simple sugar syrup it is the same thing except...you guessed it...it's infused with lavender. And we all know how much I love infusing things with lavender!

Once you discover how wonderful infused simple syrups are...trust me...you will be infusing all summer. Lavender, vanilla bean, mint, rosemary, lemon, ginger...oh yes! Then you can combine the flavors, personalize, create! I get so excited when I think of the possibilities! Do not pay money for simple syrup when it is so cheap to make yourself! Think about it...flavor your own coffee or your coke with your own vanilla simple syrup, make your own spritzers all summer long, impress your guests, your coffee group, your bunko group, your Mom!

Sorry...back to earth. So, what can you do with all of these flavored syrups? Well, naturally, I keep lavender sugar syrup in the fridge at all times. Like lavender honey, the uses for lavender syrup are only limited by your imagination.
          Raspberries in lavender syrup and French Vanilla ice cream!

I drizzle it over things, like berries of all types, or ice cream, tarts, cakes, sliced fruit, canned fruit; stir it into things, like whipped cream, or Cool Whip, jams and jellies, hot tea, cold tea, white tea, green tea, all teas! Stir into juices and lemonades for a surprise flavor. Delicious stirred into champagne! The basis for lavender martini's, or margaritas. My favorite right now is stirred into Lillet, a sweet french aperitif wine, sooo good super chilled all summer long! My favorite non-alcholic beverage of the moment is a spritzer made with lavender syrup stirred into Ocean Spray Blueberry Cocktail Juice. Can't seem to get enough!

I could write volumes...but here's the basics.

Making simple syrup is...so simple. The ingredients are 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, or 1 to 1 for whatever amount you want to make.

Lavender Simple Syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
3 tablespoons dried culinary lavender buds
Place ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved, which doesn't take long. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and allow to cool. It steeps while it cools. Strain out buds, store in the refrigerator up to 1 month. Tip: The longer you let the lavender buds sit in the syrup the stronger the flavor, and the longer the syrup simmers the thicker.

Lavender Blueberry Spritzer
1 cup Ocean Spray Blueberry Juice Cocktail
1 cup club soda
1 tablespoon lavender simple syrup
blueberries and lavender for garnish (optional)
Mix together, serve chilled. Adjust to taste.











Lavender and Lillet
I just mix lavender syrup into Lillet Blanc to taste. So simple! Lillet Blanc is around $20 a bottle.













For a more detailed recipe of a very chic cocktail using Lillet that was served at a very lovely wedding, click here and visit the Design Sponge blog. Wouldn't some kind of lavender aperitif be oh, so elegant for a wedding?!

Now go forth and create!  Please report back any wonderful uses for lavender syrup so we can all try them! And remember, a container of lavender syrup with instructions on how to use it would make a great gift for a friend, co-worker, teacher, Mother's Day...just a thought!

Another end to another beautiful spring day!

CL