Spiced Ginger Cake With Homemade Rosemary-Apple Butter
I’ve been reminiscing on some wonderful experiences during my life recently, one of them being a summer I lived on a glorious farm in Vermont. I can’t say enough things good about this haven. Building a tree house, bathing in swimming holes every day, shoveling trucks full of hot hay, it goes on and on. One story I will share is a meeting of one of the most interesting people I have ever encountered in my life, an excerpt from my book that will one day be complete. It all began one Shabbat Saturday, our one day off from working on the farm….
So it begs…what is that one truth for you? Among all the illusory distractions of the external world, what is the one true thing you own? To be honest, I’m not sure. There are many things I’m not sure about, or don’t know. That’s a great place to start and surely, lends all the more excitement in being alive.
Among this veggie farm, we grew zucchinis, tomatoes, kale, watermelon, red peppers, carrots, garlic, beets, kohlrabi. I learned how to navigate through a prickly raspberry patch without getting too covered in love stings. I awoke at 5 am as the mist was slowly rolling across the high grasses, gathered the compost, let out the ducks and wrangled in the old farm jeep. Engine starts, old ragtime blues begin to play, Nisi the farm dog is in passenger seat, and we galavant down the road, a raw ride hugging the pavement over to the chicken coop down the road. The sunrise is just peaking over Mt. Equinox, and the chickens go crazy when they hear the old engine roar up the gravel road. Nisi, the farm dog, sees a squirrel and flys out the passenger side window before I even have a chance to put the car in park. Oh, such is the life of gaiety and liberated domesticity.
Some of the others grew a little faint thinking about reaching under the chicken’s warm roosting bellies to gather their eggs, but I absolutely adored it. My friend and amazing chef Lauren Valle, who works on an amazing farm now in Pennsylvania, The Ant Hill Farm, and I loved delicately approaching the little cute creatures and collecting the eggs. She gathers eggs on her own farm now and uses them in her own unique recipes for the catering company she started, most recently offering a 5 course meal harvest farm to table dinner, and herbal tea choices from herbs grown on the farm. Photo courtesy of http://www.theanthillfarm.com
One thing we did not grow was the warming spice, ginger, however with Spring around the corner, it’s a great spice to incorporate into your meals. The inner Winter ice is now melting, which is why many experience spring colds, and others, allergies.
Ginger helps to stoke the digestive fire. As widely used in Ayurveda, the “science of life”, it’s known to improve assimilation and transportation of nutrients to targeted body tissues, and clear the microcirculatory channels of the body. It may also help reduce joint pain, motion sickness, morning sickness, menstrual cramp relief, prevention of colds and flus, and migraine relief due to its ability to stop prostaglandins from causing pain and inflammation in blood vessels. This ginger cake is sweet and moist, just like Spring.
Recipe:
Spiced Ginger Cake (makes 2 mini loafs or 1 regular loaf):
2 1/2 cups organic almond flour (I grounded almonds in my Vita-Mix, or you can purchase almond flour pre-ground).
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves (or all-spice)
1/2 tsp cardamom
4 tsp ground ginger
3 organic eggs
1/2 cup honey (I substituted grade B maple syrup as Ayurveda advises that heated honey clogs the circulatory channels and becomes toxic in the body).
1/2 cup ghee, melted
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Using a whisk or spatula mix wet and dry ingredients until combined. Pour into greased pan(s). If baking in mini loaf pans bake for 40 minutes. If baking in a regular loaf pan you may need to bake for about 1 hour. If tops begin to get too brown lay a sheet of foil on top to prevent burning (I had to do this after 30 minutes). I baked mine in a circular cake pan for 40 min.
Remove from oven and insert a toothpick in center, if it comes out dry they are done baking. Allow to cool for one hour before removing from pan. Enjoy!
Rosemary Apple Butter (makes about 2 1/2 cups):
10 red apples of choice, peeled, cored and coarsly chopped
3 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup apple cider
juice from one lemon
1/4 cup honey (once again, I substituted maple syrup)
3 sprigs of rosemary (or more depending on how big they are)
Procedure:
Place all ingredients in an oven safe pot on high heat. Bring liquid on the bottom of pot to a boil and the simmer for 45 minutes stiring occasionaly. Remove rosemary stems (you want some, not all, of the pieces of rosemary to fall off and remain in the sauce….this will happen naturally as your stir) and discard cinnamon sticks.
Remove from heat and pour sauce into a blender and blend until it has an applesauce consistency. For applesauce, your recipe is complete at this point!Pour mixture back into pot and place in a 275F degree oven (without the lid) and cook for 2 hours or until desired thickness. Stir occasionally. When done remove from oven and store in jars for 1 week or longer if you go through the canning process.
Enjoy! This has been one of my favorite creations recently. I even ate it for breakfast the next morning.
Gingerly- rooted in the beginnings of a treehouse in the mountains of Vermont,
Whitney
