Rosemary and cinnamon cake with mascarpone frosting and gianduia decorations

This Christmas rosemary and cinnamon cake has an amazing taste and surprising decorations made with gianduia namelaka cream and pomegranate seeds. The cake itself is dense and with a delicate aftertaste of rosemary that goes perfectly with cinnamon and cocoa. All covered with a layer of mascarpone and whipped cream frosting. It is absolutely worth taking the time to prepare it.
Christmas cake idea: Rosemary and cinnamon cake with mascarpone frosting, pomegranate and gianduia creamy decorations.
Ingredients
- 280 g all-purpose flour
- 40 g almond flour
- 250 g white sugar
- 2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 170 g slightly salted soft butter (I used Lurpak butter)
- 240 ml room temperature milk
- 5 egg whites
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 80 g gianduia chocolate
- 50 ml milk
- 1 tsp acacia honey
- 100 ml cold whipping cream
- 1.5 g gelatin scheets
- 70 ml water
- 15 g brown sugar
- 2 rosmary sprigs
- 200 ml cold whipping cream
- 500 g mascarpone cheese
- 125 g powdered sugar
- fresh rosemary sprigs
- pomegranate seeds
- Instructions below.
- If you have any questions about this recipe contact me in the comments below or on my social channels. If you have tried this recipe and would like to evaluate it, press the stars above or let me know me why you didn’t like it in the comments.
Notes
11 hours waiting time.
Instructions gianduia creamy decorations
For this recipe I used the silicone moulds from Silikomart – Choco Gianduia. The mould is perfect for creating gianduiotti, chocolates or cake decorations.

The night before making these cake melt the gianduia chocolate over a water bath or in a microwave. Heat the milk and dissolve honey and gelatine that has been previously soaked in cold water for 10 minutes (squeeze it well if you are using gelatin sheets). Gradually add hot milk into the chocolate. Using an immersion blender blend the mixture until smooth. Add cold whipping cream and blend again, trying to incorporate as little air as possible. Pour the mixture into gianduiotti moulds and place in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours to make the namelaka cream become solid. Then place the namelaka in the freezer for about 2 hours to freeze it completely.

Instructions soft rosemary and cinnamon cake
Place sifted flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, dark cocoa powder and cinnamon in a bowl.

Whisk then add butter. Crumble the mix with your finger tips (or with the whisk of your mixer) until you get the consistency similar to a sand.

Mix the egg whites with milk and vanilla extract and gradually add them to the flour. Stir in slowly until you have a thick and homogeneous batter.

Cover the bottom of a 18 cm wide pan with baking paper, Spread the rest of the pan with some butter and dust with flour. Pour the mixture into the pan. You can also use 2 separate baking pans but in that case you need to adjust the baking times.

Bake the cake in the preheated static oven at 180 °C until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean – in my case 1 hour and 10 minutes. Once baked remove the cake from the oven and from the pan and let it cool completely.

Rosmary sugar syrup
Prepare the rosemary syrup. In a saucepan, combine fresh rosemary, sugar and water. Stir and turn on the heat. Cook 3 minutes on low flame from the boiling point and then turn off the heat and let it cool completely. Before using the syrup, remove rosemary pieces.

Mascarpone and whipping cream frosting
Prepare the cream. Begin to whip the whipping cream and as soon as it starts to become firm, gradually add mascarpone cheese and finally powdered sugar. Place in the refrigerator and use when needed.

Cake assemble!
To assemble the cake cut it into 2 pieces and remove the upper crust. Wet the bottom part with half of the prepared syrup. Add layer of cream and cover with the second layer of cake. Also wet this layer then cover the cake with the rest of the cream and garnish with the gianduia decorations (use frozen decorations to keep their shape), the pomegranate seeds and some fresh rosemary. Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to make the cream more firm and let your gianduia decorations thaw before serving.

lot of love. B.
p.s. If you love the taste of the cinnamon in your cake you should check my Greek yogurt and cinnamon cake. (foto below)
