Wednesday 17 November 2010

ICCHFC - Week 60: Lemon and rosemary cake

Laura did remarkably well this week and pulled a massive surprise out of the bag.

I was the last of the cakers to try a slice of the very sticky cake. It was obvious there was a herb involved but the challenge was to identify what. My taste buds told me that it was rosemary but the flecks of green just didn't look like rosemary so like a complete chump I didn't guess rosemary! I'd been fooled by finely chopped rosemary and I was looking for whole leaves. What a plonker.

I don't think I've had a fruit and herb combo before in any type of scenario and it worked really well in this cake. The lemon was very sharp and the rosemary added a great foil to the citrus. It was in that weird place between sweet and savoury. And yet incredibly moreish.


Laura's Lemon and Rosemary cake (adapted from The Times Online)

Ingredients:
200g ground almonds
200g white sugar
200ml olive oil
4 eggs
Grated zest of 1 large lemon
4 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
For the syrup:
Juice of 2 large lemons
Same amount of water
3 tbsp sugar
4 sprigs of rosemary

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. In a large bowl, beat together all the cake ingredients and pour into 8 oiled ramekins.
3. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until golden.
4. To make the syrup, simmer all the ingredients over a low heat, until thickened.
5. Turn out the cakes, prick them all over with a skewer and pour syrup over them.
6. Decorate with Greek yoghurt sweetened with icing sugar, a sprig of rosemary and wedges of orange.

2 comments:

  1. I'm very keen on trying this as whilst the sweet baking and herbs are not a combination that normally springs to mind, I've had honey icecream with thyme in before, and thought it was stunning, in a strange and delicious way!

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  2. Definitely give it a go. We were all pleasantly surprised.

    I think rosemary are lemon are traditional savoury bedfellows. I'd just never think of them as sweet partners, but it really does work.

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