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.

Rosemary and cinnamon cake with mascarpone frosting, pomegranate and gianduia creamy decorations

Christmas cake idea: Rosemary and cinnamon cake with mascarpone frosting, pomegranate and gianduia creamy decorations.

Course sweets and desserts

Cuisine vegetarian

Keyword Christmas, Christmas cake, cinnamon, frosting, gianduia chocolate, honey, mascarpone cheese, moist cake, silicone mould, silikomart recipes, whipped cream

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1 10

Total Time 1 40

Servings round about 18 cm wide cake

Calories 144kcal

Ingredients

Ingredients for the cake

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

Ingredients for gianduia namelaka cream

80 g gianduia chocolate
50 ml milk
1 tsp acacia honey
100 ml cold whipping cream
1.5 g gelatin scheets

Ingredients for the rosmary syrup

70 ml water
15 g brown sugar
2 rosmary sprigs

Ingrediends for mascarpone frosting

200 ml cold whipping cream
500 g mascarpone cheese
125 g powdered sugar

To assemble

fresh rosemary sprigs
pomegranate seeds

Instructions

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.

Rosemary 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.