the June nights are long and warm; the roses flowering; and the garden full of lust and bees,

Virginia Woolf, letter to Vanessa Bell

June! And with it, the usual explosion of hydrangeas in my building’s garden.
The gardeners do the most beautiful job coaxing massive hydrangea bushes into producing gorgeous flowers of every possible hue from nearly neon pink to deep periwinkle blue.
The hydrangeas grow so eagerly that they seem to clamber over one another to bloom, sometimes their blossom burden so heavy that they bow in the heat.

They are absolutely one of my favorite flowers, and they are such a harbinger for the season. I pause to marvel at them every time I walk through the garden.
I wanted to translate their colorful chaos into a little tea cake.

Hydrangea serrata leaves can be used to make a naturally sweet tea, a traditional herbal tisane in Japan and Korea. They contain phyllodulcin, which is an ultra-sweet molecule.

While I don’t have ready access to serrata leaves, I do have access to other natural sweeteners.
This cake utilizes deeply amber colored local clover honey to sweeten, flavor, and moisten the cake. Honey is more hygroscopic than sugar, so between itself and the buttermilk in the recipe, the cake is very soft and moist.
The honey flavor sings subtly and pairs beautifully with extra-buttery vanilla Italian cold meringue buttercream.

The swoopy blooms on top are truly just for show. The cake combination itself is simple, quick, and highly effective.

When I am going to be doing a great deal of piping with my Italian meringue buttercream, I often make a cold meringue buttercream. This basically keeps the emulsion extra thick and dense, perfect for control with piping. It does make it a good deal more rich, so I keep the layer between the two cakes quite thin to avoid an overpowering butter-load.
You can learn more about cold buttercream here from GG CaKraft.

This video is a straightforward tutorial on how to pipe hydrangeas with a petal tip.  I do recommend doing it on a flower nail with parchment paper and then transferring to a fridge until hard before placing on your cake. I just find hardened buttercream flowers much easier to work with and place onto the cake.

Piping tips used: Wilton petal #102, Ateco ribbon #789
Food coloring: Wilton and Americolor
Special equipment: 1/4 sheet pan

Honey Cake
lightly adapted from Odette Williams via NYT Cooking
makes 1 4×7″ 2-layer cake

for the honey cake:
85 grams (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
75 grams (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
145 grams (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) AP flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
120 grams (1/2 cup) buttermilk
130 grams (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) honey

for the Italian meringue buttercream:
2 egg whites
100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar, divided roughly into ~25 gram and 75 gram (1/4 and 3/4) portions
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 grams (1/4 cup) water
225 grams (2 sticks) butter, cool
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

directions:
Make the cake: preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease, line with paper, then grease and flour a 1/4 sheet pan.
Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with sugar, salt, and vanilla.
Whip on high until light and fluffy, then add in egg and egg  yolk 1 at a time, being sure to allow them to incorporate fully before adding the next.
Sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda together.
Whisk buttermilk and honey together.
Add the wet and dry ingredients in 3 portions, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Portion out the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a tester comes out with a few moist crumbs and the tops spring back.
Allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, prepare the Italian meringue buttercream: place sugar, salt, and water into a pan over medium heat.
Begin to whip egg whites on high; once the sugar syrup comes to 240 degrees F, the egg whites should be at soft peaks.
Slowly stream the hot syrup into the whipping egg whites, being extremely careful to not splatter the syrup.
Whip on high speed until the meringue has cooled to room temperature (this can take a long time, pause your mixer if it is overheating).
Add cool butter one piece at a time, whipping until fully combined.
Then add vanilla and whip until fluffy.
Tint the frosting as desired with gel food coloring.
Frost as desired.