I have been searching my cookbooks and recipe files for weeks, trying to find an interesting, spring-ish dessert to make for Easter. After uncovering…oh, about one hundred and eighty two recipes for lemon desserts, I came to realize that my family is a bit lemon-obsessed. We adore lemon in all of its various forms – tarts, muffins, puddings, breads, cakes, dressings, glazes – if it involves a lemon, we’re sure to love it. The problem is, I feel a bit like “been there, done that.” Afraid that I may have exhausted my lemon dessert repertoire, I decided to experiment with lemon and herbs. Rosemary immediately came to mind.
There are many dishes that combine these two flavors (my favorite way to eat roasted potatoes is with a sprinkling of fresh rosemary and a squeeze of lemon juice - you can use this recipe for Roasted Potatoes as a starting point), but I had never seen them combined in a dessert. Hence, my experiment began. I jumped off of a recipe for lemon cupcakes that I found in my file (It is handwritten but, unfortunately, I can’t remember who gave it to me, so I am unable to give them proper credit. Many apologies.). At any rate, I played around with the ingredients and the measurements and, finally, came up with this incredibly light and refreshing cake. Lemon and rosemary are a perfect couple – sort of the Ralph and Alice Kramden of cakes. While, the lemon may be louder, commanding more attention, the rosemary flavor is delicate and interesting, adding depth and sophistication. They play off of each other beautifully, and the texture is absolutely cloud-like. This one is definitely a keeper.
I suppose this makes one hundred and eighty three recipes for lemon desserts:
Rosemary and Lemon Tea Cake
½ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 ¾ cups cake flour
2 tsp. rosemary, chopped
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. lemon extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2//3 cup milk
1 lemon, zest and juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan.
Combine cake flour, rosemary, baking powder and salt, and set aside. Use mixer to beat butter until creamy, then add sugar, lemon extract, vanilla extract and eggs. Add to that the flour mixture, milk, lemon zest and lemon juice, and continue to beat until well mixed. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool completely.
Lemon Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
½ lemon, juiced
Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle over the top of the cake.
Serves 8-10.
