Cityplot recipes -4

What spring tastes like: dandelion cake

I used to think that dandelions were blooming in great quantities everywhere for most of the year. They give off a vibe of ordinariness and permanence – just part of the landscape. That was until the first time I ate this moist and delicious (and vegan!) dandelion cake, first created and baked for us Pluk! CSA farmers many years ago by harvester Henriette Walz.

Since then, my heart leaps when the first dandelions appear in early spring (they started blossoming last week in Amsterdam!). And I know that the window of opportunity to bake and eat this cake is short, we probably have around a month of dandelion supply depending on the weather. They may come back later in the season, but not in the same abundance as now, when fields around the city are dotted with promising yellow blossoms. It’s a sad day when they go to seed, although as one who tries to live with the cycles of nature it gives reason for optimism that they will be back in even greater numbers next year.

The recipe is very simple and ‘foolproof’ (as my mother used to say, with me being the fool as the patience and exact measuring required for baking not being my strong points). The most fun part is gathering the flowers, you will need quite a few (I estimate about 40 for this recipe). As you would do with any other foraging, keep in mind that dandelions are important food sources for bumblebees, solitary bees, honeybees, hoverflies, beetles, and butterflies so you should harvest from places where they grow in abundance, and pluck selectively here and there.

Flowers for the cake batter

Here is how to gently twist the flowers off to use in your cake batter

Once you have your flowers, I recommend rinsing them and shaking them off to dry. And then you need to twist the green parts off the yellow/white parts (see video). In botanical terms, this involves removing the ‘involucre’, the green bits that hold the yellow ‘florets’ together. You want to do this soon after harvesting, as the flowers will start to close up and make it harder to access the fluffy florets which is what you want for the recipe. The green bits are perfectly edible but a bit bitter for a cake. In fact, if you’re already out gathering the flowers you might also want to pick some dandelion greens to make this Palestinian recipe for boiled greens with tahini.

But back to the star of this post: the cake! I can’t stress enough how important the lemon glaze is for the messiest and most luscious result. And of course real vanilla extract is nicer than powdered, but harder to find if you’re in the Netherlands. Eet smakkelijk!

Pluk! Farmer Annie is lucky that her birthday coincides with peak dandelion season!

Dandelion Cake Recipe
Seriously delicious cake developed by Plukker Henriette Walz. It’s vegan and incredibly moist!

300 g flour
1 package baking powder
150 g sugar
1 package vanilla sugar
250 ml soy or almond milk
135 ml oil
1 TL vinegar
1/2-1 lemon juice and zest
2/3 cup dandelion flowers

Blend all wet ingredients in one bowl, mix all dry ingredients with the flowers in another one; mix together quickly. Bake at 180 degrees for about one hour. Glaze with a mixture of lemon juice and powdered sugar. Sprinkle with zest.

A dandelion cake field

Too late!

Photos by Ann Doherty, Henriette’s photo by Kjerstin Gjengedal

by Ann Doherty, City coordinator and GDGD teacher and former Pluk! CSA farmer

Recipe by Henriette Walz, founding and former board member of the Cityplot Foundation / Pluk! CSA