do you remember in the seventies when carrot cakes were all the rage? no..weren't even born then! well..believe me when i say they were de rigueur and cutting edge gastronomy back then..what? a vegetable in a cake? oil instead of butter? wow!
i got on the carrot cake bandwagon with great enthusiasm..come on..i'd just returned to australia after having lived in a small town in the mountains of northern greece for a few years..i was easily excited..
one day i thought i was being clever when, instead of using a flavourless oil, i used extra virgin olive oil to make my usual carrot cake..no surprise then that it tasted strongly of olive oil but my taste buds just weren't up to the flavour in a cake even though they were olive oil inured so i reverted to the flavourless stuff..now fast forward to yesterday when i put all of my decades old extra virgin olive oil in cake prejudices aside to make this recipe..the cake has herbs de provence in it too..what? herb de provence in a cake? wow!
i found the recipe for this herbs de provence and rose olive oil cake here when i was looking for ways to use all the grapefruit my girl kat gave me..the flavours in this cake intrigued me but i wasn't sure how i would like them but i think they're wonderful..i thought the rose water* would dominate but it's quite subtle and goes really well with the grapefruit..and the herbs de provence* add intriguing and delightful notes that complement the delicious fruity flavours of the olive oil..not being one to waste much i made candied peel from the juiced grapefruit skins..that was the only thing i did differently..oh..hang on..i did cut down on the sugar a bit..
note: * i used a french rose water concentrate imported by the essential ingredient purchased from here and herbs de provence, brought back from france by my dear friend robyn, that included rosemary, thyme, basil, marjoram and summer savoury..
have you come across any flavours that have intrigued and surprised you lately?
Perhaps carrot cake is a bit old school but I still love it! Your cake looks delicious and creative as usual. I am not sure if it counts but 'my' barista made me a special coffee just yesterday with some single origin beans from Brazil. Very different and more intense than the standard beans the cafe normally uses and fun to try something new! x
ReplyDeletei still like carrot cake too jane although i haven't made it for ages..the coffee you had sounds really interesting..x
ReplyDeleteJane, that cake sounds weird. Is it a lot of salt or is it just my ignorance?
ReplyDeletehi glenda..when i was making the cake i questioned the salt too but i went with it on the premise that it was worth a try to see what it was like..it worked..i guess a bit like salted caramel..x
DeleteI tinkered with a recipe (vegan) the other day and turned it into a matcha, black sesame seed and rose water syrup cake that was absolutely unctuous and moistly gorgeous. Can't wait to tinker with your cake and make it unctuously mine...first dump those eggs...most of the rest of it has been done for me though. I love "Local Milk" isn't it a gorgeous website? Cheers for the exciting share. I am a woman that eats steamed sweet potato, apple and sultanas for breakfast, herbs in a cake? Bring it on! ;)
ReplyDeletei hope you post your cake recipe fran..it sounds really interesting..not sure about the current predilection for what i call 'faux photography'..reminds me of makeover shows where i tend to prefer the honesty of the before shots than the hasty glamorised version..x
DeleteAll flavours that I think I would whole heartedly embrace Jane. (Not like a recent buckwheat gluten free lemon tart number I made...oh that was hideous. I will eat most of my experiments, but even this one was out of bounds.)
ReplyDeletei made a pumpkin and ricotta lasagne recently to use up an excess of lasagne sheets i'd made..it was boring and tasteless but i was determined to eat it rather than waste home grown pumpkin, biodynamic eggs and good quality ricotta..i was even eating it for breakfast just to get rid of it!
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