rosemary loaf cake

I've been wanting to try and recreate the pleasantly herb-y savory/sweet muffins we had at the Cliff Cafe in Dallas for awhile now, so I thought I'd try this rosemary loaf cake from my go-to lady for things like this, Nigella Lawson, and see if it was in the neighborhood.



Usually I'm an advocate for the sparing use of things like thyme and rosemary, lest they over power a dish, but here I really like the combination of the sweet and savory - and it ended up with a nice fine crumb and somehow feels appropriately ready for fall.

Rosemary Loaf Cake

How to be a Domestic Goddess
Nigella Lawson

1 cup plus 2 tbsp soft unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups self-rising cake flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
about 2 tsp chopped rosemary needles
4 tbsp milk
1-2 tbsp brown or white sugar

9 x 5 inch loaf pan, buttered and lined with parchment

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream soft butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time, folding in a spoonful of flour after each addition. Add the vanilla. Fold in the rest of the flour, then the rosemary. Thin the batter with the milk. Pour into the prepared pan, sprinkle the top with sugar and bake for about an hour. Cool cake in its pan. Serves 8-10.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't have self-rising cake flour so I used regular ol' self-rising flour and I also just greased the pan and skipped the parchment, I suppose because I was being a little lazy. I can't see that either of those things adversely effected the cake, which I'm pretty pleased with, on the whole. Nigella suggests eating it with stewed apples, but I'll save that for tomorrow.