Infused Rosemary in Honey Pound Cake

For a second year in a row, we have been growing our herbs in containers on our deck and have left the garden for the tomatoes, green peppers and zucchini. The herbs have been growing in big wine barrels where we have parsley, basil, cilantro, chives, rosemary and thyme flourishing. The extreme weather conditions that we have been having here in Indiana have just reinforced how important it is to water every day, especially in the morning, for your garden to prosper.

One of our favorite herbs this summer has been rosemary, where the aroma is just so strong that it is amazing. One baked item that we have continued to enjoy has been honey “infused” rosemary pound cake. A secret that we have been doing with our rosemary having it infuse in honey for at least a week. The flavor has been enhanced tremendously and therefore has accentuated our pound cake.

It was really simple to infuse the rosemary into the honey, we used a glass container with a lid, filled it with honey and stalks of rosemary. We gently rubbed the rosemary to allow the oils to come out and into the honey. The closed container stayed in our pantry for roughly a week as we waited in anticipation to make a favorite dessert of the summer.

Infused Rosemary in Honey Pound Cake
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour + 1 cup all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 T finely chopped fresh rosemary (this is actually for placing within the batter)
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup rosemary honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter your bundt pan. Mix together flour, baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt. In your mixer add butter, sugar, rosemary (that you have finely chopped), and vanilla. Slowly add in the eggs and then the flour mixture with rotating in the milk. Place the batter in the greased bundt pan. Cook for 50 to 60 minutes. Then lightly brush cakes some of the rosemary honey on the outside of the cake. Allow it to cook for 10 -15 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes more. Slice, and serve warm with more honey.