Rosemary Remembrance Cake

“As for rosemary, I let it run all over my garden walls, not only because my bees love it but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance and to friendship, whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language.”
Sir Thomas More

Maria over on The Goddess Kitchen suggested members of The Pantry bake a Rosemary Remembrance Cake from Feast: Food That Celebrates Life (Nigella Lawson) in memory of our dear friend Pistachio who sadly died last week.  As Maria states on her blog we are celebrating Pi’s life, love of food and memory in a way she would love and be pleased about. 

I was very unsure about the inclusion of rosemary in a cake, worried it may taste almost soapy, but decided to take the plunge and try it – I know Pi would have done. I’m so pleasantly surprised, there is a subtle rosemary hint, but in amongst an almost Madeira like buttery sponge it is fragrant and exciting. I got some mmm’s and oooh’s but nobody guessed the rosemary was there; everyone did however love the cake.

The inclusion of the stewed apples makes for an incredibly moist, almost dessert like cake, it would be gorgeous served with hot custard, in fact I may do just that this evening; it is certainly cold enough, shiver.

I baked the cake in mini cardboard loaf tins and one round one, of which the loaf tins I’d bought from Lakeland and the round tin was a gift from the lovely Francesca. 

As I had enough mixture for three cake tins I decided to vary the toppings a wee bit, Nigella suggests a sprig of rosemary down the centre of the cake, so that it’s delightful oils can escape and flavour the cake, with a scant scattering of sugar to give the cake a slight crunch. I went ahead and followed the trend using this for one of the cakes but topped the other loaf tin with a tablespoon of za’atar and a little extra sumac and for the round cake I scattered with dried rose petals before baking.

The scent coming from the oven was just amazing, I wish you could have smelly vision!