I have been meaning to take part in the "River Cottage Rocks" blog campaign for quite a while now, but I couldn't miss out this month as the theme is "baking bliss". I have quite a few of the River Cottage books and have been an avid follower of Mr HFW since the gastro wagon, so I think I qualify to take part. River cottage rocks is a blog campaign run by Jo's Kitchen (@Jos_?Kitchen) with this month's theme being hosted by Charlotteskitchen (@gofreecakes)
My choice for the baking theme is Chocolate and Mint loaf from the River Cottage Cakes No8 Handbook, by Pam (the jam) Corbin page 161, this was actually a lemon verbena cake but there is a twist version using cocoa and mint. One of my earlier posts is a recipe to use mint from the garden in a River Cottage mint syrup, this is another recipe which uses garden mint. (I've got to get rid of it somehow !). The Lemon verbena - Scent from Heaven Cake recipe is posted on the River Cottage website here
The recipe calls for Ground rice but I didn't have any in the store cupboard, so I was going to substitute with polenta which I do have in, but I managed to get hold of the ground rice. I think the mixture would work well with gluten free flour for our ceoliac friends as there is more ground rice than ordinary flour in the mix. The recipe basically consists of making a tea with the herb and then using this in the cake mixture and in a drizzle syrup that you pour over the cake once baked.
The cake smelt lovely whilst baking just like after dinner mints.
I am also posting this as a contribution to we should cocoa run by the lovely Choclette over at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot, guest hosted by A kick at the pantry door for June 2013.
How fantastic! Great to see your freefrom variation too. Thank you so much for entering!
ReplyDeleteCharlotte
@gofreecakes
Very nice post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to mention that I have
ReplyDeletereally enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I'll be subscribing to your rss feed and I'm hoping you write again very soon!
Here is my blog Cupcake Recipe
There is nothing better with a cuppa than a loaf cake, and this one looks the business! Thanks for entering We Should Cocoa.
ReplyDeleteWonderful cake Linzi, I love using fresh herbs in baking, not that I manage it very often. Pam's book is one of my favourites. Only wish I'd known about this challenge last month. Should have been more on the ball. Thanks for entering it into We Should Cocoa :)
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