Double Chocolate Cake with Honey-Rosemary Syrup
- Makes12 servings
- Cook Time1 hour 40 minutes
- Active time plus cooling40 minutes active, plus cooling
- 4
This unique syrup-soaked chocolate cake is our adaptation of a dessert by Briana Holt, who flavors her cake with piney, peppery juniper berries. We opted for herbal, resinous (and more readily available) fresh rosemary. Either is a delicious match for chocolate. If you’d like to try juniper, in a small skillet over medium, toast 2 teaspoons dried juniper berries until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes; let cool, then pulverize in a spice grinder to a fine powder. Whisk 1 teaspoon of the ground juniper into the dry ingredients for the cake; use the remainder in place of the rosemary to make the syrup, but when transferring the syrup from the saucepan to a liquid measuring cup, pour it through a fine-mesh strainer. However you choose to flavor it, make the cake the day ahead, if you can; its texture improves as the syrup slowly soaks in. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days.
Don’t measure the ¾ cup water and then bring it boil it or too much will steam off as it heats. Instead, boil a larger quantity of water in a kettle or saucepan, then measure the ¾ cup. Don’t underbake the cake or it will sink as it cools. When testing doneness, make sure the toothpick comes out clean and dry from the cake’s center. Finally, to ensure even absorption, drizzle on the syrup in four applications, with a brief rest between each. If applied all at once, the syrup will pool on the surface and turn the top soggy.
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