RECIPE: CITRUS AND ROSEMARY CAKE

We’re having a wonderful time firing up the oven and baking gorgeous cakes to see us through these chilly afternoons left over from the end of winter, especially those which use up the fragrant herbs in our garden. This winning recipe is just slightly tweaked from Katie Quinn Davie’s recipe for her Lemon and Rosemary Cake from her beautiful blog, What Katie Ate. You can find the original recipe here. We’ve made it many times and it always goes down a treat with a cup of tea.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

· 4 eggs

· 350g superfine caster sugar

· 325g butter, softened

· 1 tbsp sour cream

· 350g plain flour, sifted

· 230ml milk

· 2 tsp fresh rosemary, picked from stalk and finely chopped

· 1 tbsp lemon juice

· 1 tbsp orange juice

· Grated zest of 1 lemon

· Grated zest of 1 orange

· Pinch sea salt

ICING:

You can top this beautiful cake with a simple lemon drizzle or a classic lemon cream cheese icing.

For the lemon drizzle:

· Juice of 2-3 lemons

· 150g icing sugar

Mix the juice and icing sugar together. You may need to play around with the quantities to get the right consistency and your preferred taste.

For the lemon cream cheese icing:

· 250g cream cheese

· 200g icing sugar, sifted

· Juice of ½ lemon

Beat ingredients together and taste and adjust with more lemon juice or icing sugar depending on consistency and taste.

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C and prepare your cake tin (about 24cm) by greasing with butter or spray with olive oil. Katie uses a beautiful bundt cake tin which gives a classic look although a regular cake tin works too.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy.

3. Add the soft butter and mix until well combined.

4. To your mixture, add your lemon and orange zest and juice, sour cream, milk, flour and sea salt, mixing each in well.

5. Add in the rosemary and beat your cake batter well to aerate the mixture.

6. Pour your batter into your cake tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until the top of your cake is golden and a skewer comes out clean.

7. Allow to cool, then remove from your pan and top with your icing. Note – wait until your cake has cooled before topping with the icing as the drizzle or cream cheese icing will melt if the cake is too warm.

Do you have a favourite cake or Spring baking recipe? We love rosemary in all things sweet and savoury. Have you used it with any unusual combinations recently?

Beautiful image by the wonderful Katie Quinn Davies at What Katie Ate.

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