I was in the mood for baking this weekend and am fortunate enough to live in a very cool basement apartment, at the moment, which means I can bake on a hot spring day and get away with it. Since tea and scones are always a welcome addition to my weekend agenda and I had a few bouquets of lilacs adorning my kitchen counter, a batch of lilac scones were a no-brainer.

To be honest the lilac flowers don’t give the tender scones much flavour, but they are quite pretty and also just an interesting way to use edible flowers in everyday food.

Lilac Scones

3 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 12 Tbs. salted butter, well chilled 1 cup full-fat buttermilk 1 cup of lilac blossoms, removed from stems, no green

Cream, optional

Preheat oven to 425°.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Over bowl, cut butter into small bits, dropping them into the flour mixture as you go. Cut the butter into the flour or work butter and flour together with fingers, until butter is about pea-sized at its largest. Add your lilac blossoms.

Mix the buttermilk, then pour into the flour-butter mixture, and fold together until you can pull the dough into a rough ball (mix as little as possible). Dust your surface with clean flour and roll out to a 3/4 inch of thick. Cut into triangles and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Rub a bit of cream on top of the raw scones and sprinkle generously with sugar, coarse if you have it.

Bake until golden at the edges, around 10-14 minutes. Eat when warm out of the oven with whipped cream and jam.