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ROSEMARY REMEMBRANCE CAKE

ROSEMARY REMEMBRANCE CAKE

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Makes: approx. 10 slices

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  • Nigella Recipe
  • Vegetarian

I have given a recipe for a rosemary-scented cake before - though this is rather different - but felt it deserved its place here, for remembrance. Besides, my maternal grandmother, whom I loved inordinately, was called Rosemary, so I wanted it here, for her. Added to which, it is a beautiful cake, the rosemary sprig curving out over the top, down the length of the palely gold, dense loaf.

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Ingredients

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for the filling

  • 1 eating apple (approx 180g / 6oz in weight)
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary (1 small and 1 long)
  • 1 teaspoon caster sugar
  • zest and juice of ½ lemon
  • 1 teaspoon butter

for the cake batter

  • 225 grams butter
  • 150 grams caster sugar (plus 1 tablespoon)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 300 grams plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
FEAST

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Method

  1. Peel, core and roughly chop the apple and put into a saucepan with the small sprig of rosemary, the teaspoon of sugar, the lemon zest and juice, and butter. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat for 4-8 minutes until the apple is soft. How long this takes really depends on the variety of apple you're using. Coxes cook the fastest, and are good here.
  2. Leave to cool, and fish out the rosemary sprig when it is cold.
  3. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170°C/325ºF. Line a 450g / 1lb loaf tin with a loaf liner, or butter and line the bottom with baking parchment.
  4. Put the cooled apple into a food processor and blitz to a pulp. Then add the butter, 150g / ¾ cup of sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder and process to a smooth batter.
  5. Spoon and scrape into the loaf tin and smooth the top. Sprinkle the surface with the remaining tablespoon of sugar and then lay the long sprig of rosemary along the centre of the cake. On baking, the rosemary sheds its oil to leave a scented path down the middle of the cake.
  6. Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean, then leave to cool on a rack. Slip the paper-lined cake out of the tin once it is cool.

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  • Rosemary stands for Remembrance.A Lovely way to Honour a Beloved No longer of this Earth. Nice to see,since it would help with Grief over death of Beloved sister. Too Young.The Cake is a Divine, delicious Way of Quietly Saying, "You're LOVED". In Absentia...

    Posted by clicquet on 9th Aug 2011 at 22.10