Rosemary Cake

Rosemary Cake with Lemon

Rosemary Cake with Lemon

I love using herbs in both savoury and sweet recipes. This Rosemary Cake with Lemon is a great demonstration of how the addition of a herb can elevate a very easy and simple recipe. It is unusual but not in a scary way. The flavour of the rosemary is not overpowering but enhances the lemon-flavoured cake. I think it is a fantastic way of showcasing the flavour of this wonderful herb, with its warm, spicy flavour.

This Rosemary Cake is one of many loaf cake recipes that I cook regularly. They are so quick and easy to make and you can get really creative with the flavours! On other pages of this blog you can find recipes for Earl Grey and Orange Cake,Lemon DrizzleBlood OrangeLime and CoconutRum and Banana and Ginger and Pear.

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Rosemary Cake with Lemon

Rosemary Cake

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  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 45
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 1 loaf cake 1x
  • Category: Cake
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English

Description

The use of fresh rosemary provides and unusual and delicious twist to this easy lemon-flavoured cake.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 125 g butter
  • 75 g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 175 g self-raising flour
  • 4 tablespoons of milk
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 large sprigs of fresh rosemary (each about 10 cm long) plus a few additional sprigs to decorate, if required.
  • 100 g icing sugar

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 180 degrees centigrade or Gas Mark 4.
  2. Grease a 450 g loaf tin and line the bottom with baking parchment or use a paper loaf tin liner.
  3. Cream the butter with the sugar.  (I usually soften the butter for about 30 seconds in the microwave first as it makes it much easier!)
  4. Gradually add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture.  If it looks as if it is going to curdle, add some of the self-raising flour. 
  5. Once the eggs have been incorporated add the rest of the self-raising flour.
  6. Add the milk and the grated zest of your lemon.
  7. Remove the needle-like leaves from your sprigs of rosemary and chop finely.  Put half of the chopped leaves (about 2 teaspoons) into the cake mixture.  The other half should be reserved for use in the drizzle.
  8. Spoon the cake mixture into your prepared loaf tin.
  9. Put the tin in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
  10. While the cake is baking, put the juice from your lemon in a small bowl  and add the reserved half of the chopped rosemary leaves.   Heat in the microwave for 1 minute. The idea is to heat the juice so that the rosemary releases its fragrance.  (If you don’t have a microwave, you can heat the juice in a saucepan over a low heat on the stove.)    Allow the juice containing the chopped rosemary leaves to cool slightly.  Then combine it with 100 g of icing sugar to form a thick syrup.
  11. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately pour the syrup over the top.
  12. Leave the cake in the tin to cool completely before removing.   If you try and take it out while it is still warm it may fall apart as it will be very moist due to the syrup.
  13. You can decorate the cake with a few further sprigs of rosemary.

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2 thoughts on “Rosemary Cake”

  1. This cake looks great!
    I had a dessert years ago on a works trip which was little filo parcels of apple with rosemary, it was delicious.
    I went home and recreated it as best I could. Can’t wait to try this cake!

    1. Thank you! Rosemary is one of my favourite herbs and I think it works really well in sweet recipes. Your filo parcels with rosemary sound delicious.

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