Lemon Curd and Lavender Ice Cream

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
~ Anthony J. D'Angelo 

Sometimes, life's like that. Cloudy and depressing, but I always try to never forget how things looked when the sun was out, shining its warmth down on us. And so when the sun's taking a break or given up temporarily, I go ahead and make my own. Fake sunshine, that is. This ranks somewhere alongside a fake tan, or fake flowers even...you know it's not real, but oh, it's still exudes beauty!

So what am I going on about, exactly? Lemons, of course! Life's lemons. Thrown hard like a curveball and hitting me right between the eyes....in fact, I'm still reeling from the impact. The last few days, the sun disappeared momentarily on me, and all I saw were stars (albeit of the dazed and hallucinatory kind).  

Still, I refuse to bow down to life's hard knocks. Instead, I'll just take the lemons and turn them into something beautiful, something satisfying, something that symbolizes a slap in the face to the things that try to take us down with them. I'm really not giving you much of a story here, am I?

Okay, let's just say I had a pretty rough weekend and past couple of days because that's life, you know. And I'm living it large so whatever the consequences, they also tend to come in a size 'L'. This weekend was most probably an 'XL'!

BUT enough. Who's in the mood for ice cream? Lemon curd ice cream, to be precise. Because I've opened up my jar of sunshine (a.k.a. lemon curd jar) and turned it into something delicious, an ice cream that's buttery and tangy at the same time, a taste of it will wash away your blues. At least for a while.

And I've sprinkled lavender sugar in the lemon curd cream to bring a touch of floral to the ice cream. Lavender, lemon and butter - I've often thrown these trio of ingredients together in my cakes and I know the flavors go really beautifully together. This was the first time I ever combined them in a frozen dessert but I somehow wasn't too worried about how it would all turn out. And I was right... I think I might have just made my own sunshine.

I served mine over a bed of fresh strawberry compote and wholemeal waffle toasts (that's just two pieces of toast grilled in a waffle-maker). Of course, not before I had several spoonfuls straight out of the container and was politely reminded that hey, I still had a photoshoot to do!

The recipe I'm about to give you is super-simple, it's unbelievable. It's also super-sinful, but that's a whole other story. Yes, you can make your own lemon curd from scratch and grow your own lavender, but why bother? I bought mine from the store. And the end result still made me happy. :)

Lemon Curd and Lavender Ice Cream
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons dried lavender buds
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup Mascarpone
170g/6 oz lemon curd

Method:

1. Grind sugar and lavender buds in a processor until very fine. You can sieve the powder to remove the bits from the flowers, but it's fine to leave them in too (I did). Use this lavender sugar in the mixture below.

2. In a bowl, whisk cream, mascarpone, lemon curd and lavender sugar together until well-blended. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm. Best consumed within a 3-4 days of making.