Unrefined Cakery Lavender Lemon cake mix product reviews

It's safe to say that lavender is not a flavour that I am used to eating. I'm more familiar with it as a scent for perfumes, air freshener, dishwashing liquid, candles, oils, and bath bombs, but the idea of having an "unrefined" cake that requires no milk or eggs, has no refined sugar, nuts, or gluten. It frankly doesn't even sound like the mix could possibly form a cake without all of these things, but curiosity got the better of me, and despite the unconventional flavour, I decided to give it a go.

I even decided to ensure everything was completed by the book. I have a tendency to take the easy route, taking any shortcuts available; mainly the idea of turning on the oven and chucking the food in before it has preheated and just adding a few minutes into the cooking time. I wasn't going to allow any issues on my end to create any issues with such an interesting product. So I let my oven preheat beforehand, and surprisingly it actually took 20 minutes to preheat (I'll have to keep that in mind next time I'm cooking).

I loved the idea that I don't need butter, milk or eggs because I'm currently stuck in a lockdown and ran out of eggs 3 weeks ago. Combine that with the fact that I'm lactose intolerant, most of the usual ingredients were out of reach or not ideal. All this cake mix needs is water and coconut oil. Luckily, I was able to find some coconut oil in the local dairy (I've never had to use the ingredient before) and I was ready to go. I dumped the cake mixture in a bowl with the water and coconut oil and gave it a mix. That's pretty much it. Less than a minute of mixing and the cake mix was ready to go into a baking pan (I went with buttering the edges instead of using baking paper because I like crispy edges, but butter isn't really needed for the cake).

The mix itself was very intense in flavour and scent. You could literally see purple flowers in the mix, and smell the lavender and lemon. Once mixed with the oil and water it combined into a strong taste that made me think of ginger kisses.

When the cake came out of the oven, I was quite surprised at how cake-like it looked. There was no longer a strong aroma, and the cake wasn't very tall, but cutting into it, the texture was brilliant. Not too dense, not too airy, and very soft. The butter I used on the pan gave the outer edges a delicious crunch. The lavender flavour is in itself quite a polarizing flavour, that reminds me of the kiwifruit flavour fizzy drink from Freshup. I drank it so many times because I couldn't tell whether I liked it or not. The same goes with this lavender

The cake is both fresh and floral, which is not something I traditionally link with flavours. We gifted some of the cake to a friend and they absolutely loved it. Ate the whole half within half an hour. My partner, thought the flavour too peculiar, and I am still unsure how I feel about the flavour. I could easily eat it, but it was such a unique flavour that my mind cannot really fathom. I used a lemon glaze (combining some icing sugar and lemon juice) which gave it a real zing to boost the lemon flavour. I'd recommend leaving the cake slightly longer in the oven. Don't pull it out at the earliest opportunity, because the softness is nice, but the crunchy tougher texture had a more earthy palatable taste.

On the expensive side, but for a unique flavoured cake batter that can be made with only two ingredients and mixed with zero mess in a minute or so. That is ideal! Well worth a try, and a great way to expand the palate in the young one.

I have had various foods in the past with lavender as an ingredient and I have two children who really love lemon, so it was an easy request to give this a try. The bag is nice and simple in design but points out the important information, like being gluten free, vegan friendly and the bag is fully compostable (and even has a zip lock, though that seems a tad superfluous). Opening it up I could immediately detect the hint of lavender and certainly the lemon. Mixing this up is incredibly easy, you just need water and coconut oil, mix it all together (with some lemon juice or zest, if you feel like it, but I didn't) and pop it into your preheated oven. We did taste the mix before we did the final step and none of us liked the taste.

Getting it out of the oven, the lavender was no longer as detectable but we could still smell the lemon. I decided to make some icing using just icing sugar and lemon juice, which I then poured on the cake once it had cooled down. We each had just a small piece and before I knew it, the kids had finished their piece and were requesting more. Suffice to say that there was none left to store away. My mother and I, both having tried vegan cakes before, were both presently surprised with the overall texture of the cake, it was dense but not gluggy and to top it off, it tasted good. This cake ended up being a huge hit, which was surprising, but it's good to know a good quality cake for when the vegan family come visiting.

I had never eaten a lavender flavoured cake before so this was going to be a first! As soon as I took the pan out of the oven, the smell was unmistakeable - sweet and floral and definitely enticing. I had followed the instructions exactly; we have various citrus trees in the garden but it was dark and raining so I decided to try the product "as is" and check out some variations another time.

The process could not have been simpler. I put dinner into the oven then set about preparing the mix for baking. That took all of four minutes, and half an hour later both the dinner and the cake were cooked to perfection. The instructions said that the cake should be given half an hour to cool before it was cut, so that was ideal. By the time we had finished our main course, the cake was ready to cut for dessert.

The scent of the lavender had dissipated somewhat by the time the cake was cool, but the lemon smell had replaced it, so it was just as appealing. I marked out ten segments for cutting then gave everyone a piece. Again, because of the timing, I did not stop to add any icing at this stage, just put a dusting of icing sugar on top and let the cake speak for itself.

The reaction from everyone was identical. They all loved it! Because it was denser than similar cakes, what appeared to be quite a small slice was actually sufficient - we were all quite full after eating it. There were six slices left so I wrapped them individually for freezing. When I defrost some at a later date, I might try the coconut cream and lemon topping suggested on the packet.

It is good to see quality mixes like this coming on to the market. More and more people are choosing healthy alternatives, our family included, and it is rewarding to see that the packaging itself is biodegradable. In the past, I have put other recyclable packaging into my compost bin and have found it breaks down well: everything helps to keep the environment safe. The packaging also displays a clear "best before" date, which is appreciated since some products have to be inspected with a magnifying glass if you want to find that information. Nutritional information is provided in a user-friendly font and prominently displayed beside the preparation instructions. And finally, the label is printed so that there is a clear space around it. This means you can see the contents before buying. Always useful!