Olive Oil Cake with Rosemary and Chocolate

This month's We Should Cocoa Challenge which is guest hosted by Linzi from Lancashire Food chose the theme 'new ingredient' ie a new ingredient paired with chocolate that you've not tried before. I've baked a lot with chocolate and have tried many combinations so my thoughts turned to herbs. I know rosemary and chocolate is a fairly common combination but it's not one I've tried previously so I was excited to try it out plus it would fit the challenge and quite a few other blog challenges too! 

A quick google search brought me to this delicious looking cake which I knew I had to try. It's a very unassuming cake. Not much to look at but it sure packs a punch in terms of flavour. Everyone who ate the cake said it was absolutely delicious. The rosemary flavour is strong but not overpowering. The little bits of chocolate complements the rosemary rather than opposing it. The cake itself tastes "healthy" especially with the wholemeal and spelt flour. Definitely a very successful recipe and one that I will be making again without a doubt. 

As mentioned, I'm entering this to We Should Cocoa hosted by Linzi from Lancashire Food who chose the theme 'New Ingredient'. We Should Cocoa is the brainchild of Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog. 

As it contains rosemary, I'm also entering it to Cooking With Herbs hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage.

I think this cake also fits the theme for this month's Four Seasons Food hosted by Louisa from Eat Your Veg and Anneli from Delicieux. The theme this month is Virtuous Food and eating this cake definitely makes you feel virtuous even though it's cake! 

As this cake is made from scratch, I'm sending it to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior.

The One Ingredient Challenge hosted by Nazima from Franglais Kitchen and Laura from How to Cook Good Food has the theme of "Healthy Recipes" As far as cake goes, I think this is fairly healthy as it contains no butter and other healthier ingredients.

You know how much I love a multi blog challenge recipe so I'm going to send this to Tea Time Treats guest hosted by Jane from The HedgeCombers and run by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is eggs, eggs, eggs! This recipe contains 3 eggs and it's a perfect tea time treat.

 caster sugar, spelt flour, olive oil, wholemeal flour, milk, rosemary, eggs, dark chocolate 

 flour mixture on left, rosemary milk mixture on the right and chopped dark chocolate 

 ready to go in the ove

 It's a plain looking cake but it's really tasty 

 You can see the lovely crumb texture and the bits of hidden chocolate 

Recipe adapted slightly from local belle

120g spelt flour
230g wholemeal flour
170g caster sugar
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
2.5 tablespoons chopped rosemary
140g dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup milk
1 cup olive oil
3 eggs

• Preheat the oven to 170C
• Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and add in the olive oil, milk and rosemary. 
• Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
• Stir in the chopped chocolate.
• Pour the batter into a round cake tin or a loaf tin and bake for about 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.