Sunny Summer Siesta

From time to time, I put a little order in my files to make sure that everything is in place. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a surprise. Today I'm writing one of the first recipes I made on arriving in England last February. The photos date from March 5, if you need proof! The folder was really well hidden. This is a Honey & Rosemary cake. It smells like My Sweet Sunny Provence. 

I felt I should honor it, especially since this is the first cake inspired by a painting from the Birmingham museum, which owns many Pre-Raphaelites. That's nothing more than a rough sketch, but I wanted to share it with you. 

How a nice syrup can turn into a hard sugar shell.

Ingredients : 

150g butter 

115g brown sugar 

175g honey 

200g flour 

1 1 / 2 teaspoon baking powder 

1 / 2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 tablespoon rosemary 

When the syrup dried on the plate, it was almsot
impossible to pick the slices off it!

Preheat oven to 180 ° C. 

In a saucepan, melt sugar, honey, butter and rosemary over low heat. Stir for a minute, then remove from heat and let cool. 

In a bowl, beat eggs. Mix together flour, baking powder and cinnamon, then slowly pour them in the bowl. Keep stirring until fully incorporated. The dough will get difficult to work. 

Strain the honey syrup in order to remove the bits of rosemary, and pour over the dough, stirring constantly. The dough should be smooth and homogeneous. 

Pour dough into a greased and floured loaf mould and bake 35-40 minutes. I wanted to make a caramel syrup to complete the cake, but as you can see, it wasn't very successful. If you want to decorate it, I think the best thing is still to drip some honey before serving.

It tasted good, though.

Detail from Albert Moore's painting, Dreamers, 1884. I was so happy when I saw this one. I knew the museum showed a lot of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, but to actually see it is another story. I would just love to see it on a wall with no other works around, because they kind of get lost in their small space.