Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate

Yes. I'm totally backwards. During the time of the holidays when I should have given you pictures and recipes of treats and special desserts, I gave you macaroni and lentil soup. Now it's January, and you're probably wanting something hearty, warm and healthy to cleanse away all the holiday indulging. But I'm offering you cake. Why do you put up with me? Ok, don't answer that. Just keep reading.

Why am I giving you a cake in January? Well for starters, it's a semi-healthy cake, made with whole wheat flour, and heart-healthy olive oil, which I even reduced in quantity from the original recipe and replaced with skim milk yogurt. Sounding better? Here's the real kicker. It's got a whole tablespoon of chopped rosemary. Rosemary. Go figure. I would never have thought to make a chocolate, rosemary olive oil cake, but trust me, it's delicious. My sister pointed out that the chocolate/rosemary combination tasted a bit like ginger and chocolate .. really interesting, almost spicy, very very addictive and delicious. This cake also has a nice sugar-crusted top and an incredibly moist crumb, even with the reduction in oil. It needs no icing, glaze or frosting -- so no extra calories -- and it's a crowd pleaser for sure. I made it for a New Year's family dinner and it was a big hit. If you wanted to be really good, you could use a higher quality dark chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips, like I did, or skip the chocolate all together and add in some lemon zest instead. Who says you can't have cake in January?



Ok, so I'm going to confess. I'm looking for rosemary recipes. Why? Well, while everyone else is wrapping up their Christmas trees to be taken away to the pulp and paper mill, or where ever your Christmas trees end up when the season is over, we were carefully picking all the needles off of our little rosemary tree. Yup! We decorated a rosemary tree -- our very first Christmas tree, anointed with home-made decorations made of dyed macaroni and egg cartons -- and now, we've got a whole lot of rosemary cooking and baking to do. Any suggestions?

Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 egg
1/4 cup of skim milk yogurt
1/3 cup of olive oil
1/3 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary
1/3 cup of whole wheat flour
3/4 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of sugar
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of coarse sugar

1. Whisk together the egg, yogurt, olive oil, milk, honey and rosemary until well-combined.

2. Sift in the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan or cake tin. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until golden and crusty on top and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Stays incredible moist for a week (I just had another piece!) in an air tight container. Happy January!




Coffee Update!

Manic Coffee: three cappuccinos, a wild blueberry scone and a ginger molasses cookie. So crowded! We were lucky to get a seat at all!
Quaff Cafe: two cappuccinos and a double americano, with a alfajore cookie and an oatmeal cookie.