I am aware that there are an unreasonable number of recipes for financiers on this blog. Financiers are my favorite kind of cake because they are not very sweet, but they are very rich (hence the name). They’re easy to make gluten free because most of the flour is made from ground nuts. They get their structure from Egg Whites, which I usually have leftover in the freezer from when I use egg yolks in sauces or custards. There are more financier recipes here than meet the eye, because sometimes I get embarrassed by the number of financier recipes and call the cake something else. Here are ALL of my financier recipes….

• Hazelnut Brown Butter Financier Wedding Cake with Pomegranate Curd, White Chocolate Icing, Fresh Figs and Honeycomb
• Cinnamon Financiers with Apples and Walnuts
• Pistachio Financiers with Rhubarb Cherry Compote
• Brown Butter, Hazelnut, Buckwheat Financier
• Almond Fennel Cake
• Rosemary Walnut Financier
• Marzipan Cake with Baked Figs and Mint
• Black Sesame and Lemon Tea Cake
• Cardamom Orange Cake with Coconut topping

I am also a person who has a ridiculous number of floral sundresses. Somehow these things feel related to me. I made this Lavender Almond Financier for my mother’s birthday tea party exactly one year ago today.

The Lavender Almond Financierwas really for my mother’s guests, because my mother does not eat egg whites. I had been making her yolk only scrambles with farm eggs during my visit and I wanted to use up the leftover egg whites that had accumulated in her freezer. I also made her a gluten-free and vegan Lemon Blueberry Tart with a Coconut Crust.

Today we made the Blueberry Lemon Tart with a Coconut Crust again for this year’s birthday tea. The spread was smaller this year since we spent the morning making a succulant garden in a broken vase!

Here is a photo of my mother holding a birthday Dahlia bigger than her head that a friend grew and brought to the party.

Okay back to the cake. I had hoped to make this one again this year but my mother’s lavender crop did not like the very wet, then scorching hot weather this year. I think it would work with dried culinary lavender as well, but if you have fresh lavendar to use, it’s truly wonderful.

Lavender Almond Financier

If you are not gluten-free replace the rice flour, tapioca starch, and arrowroot starch with 1 cup total all-purpose wheat flour

• 10 tablespoons butter, plus extra for buttering the tin
• 1 cup almond flour (about 4 oz)
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar, divided in half
• a few sprigs of fresh lavender fresh lavender
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup arrowroot starch
• 8 room temperature egg whites (about 1 cup)
• a pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup sliced almonds
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar to sprinkle on top

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a  9 or 10 inch round springform cake tin.  Line the bottom with parchment paper and butter the paper too (don’t skip this).
2. Melt the butter, remove it from the heat.  Set it aside to cool.
3. Combine 3/4 cup of the sugar with the sprigs of lavender in a small bowl. Use your fingers to rub the sugar into the lavender, gently bruising the flowers so that they release their scent. Remove the lavender sprigs, and flowers that have fallen into the sugar are fine.
4. Combine the almond flour with the lavender sugar brown rice flour, tapioca starch and arrowroot starch lemon.
5. In another clean large bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form.  Add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar in a steady stream, beating until the mixture forms soft peaks again.
6. Starting with the dry mixture and ending with the melted, cooled butter, alternately fold the dry mix and the melted butter into the egg whites, one-third at a time.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, top it with the sliced almonds and bake for 50 minutes.
8. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes before unmolding it.   Sift the powdered sugarover the cake.  Serve warm or at room temperature.