Written By Catherine Parrott

Many savoury herbs and spices are very welcome additions to baking and desserts. Sage goes very well with anything nutty, in this recipe, the nutty butter so I’ve included a very handsome amount. The ‘upside down decoration’ method for this recipe is also incredibly versatile, you can use fruits, nuts or even a crumble mix to line your tin before your cake batters for a fun finish. I’ve also included a non-churn ice-cream recipe - just take it out the freezer 10 minutes before serving so it’s softened enough to scoop.

RECIPE:

GOLDEN SYRUP ICE-CREAM

  • 1 CAN OF CONDENSED MILK

  • 600ml DOUBLE CREAM

  • 80ml GOLDEN SYRUP

  • JUICE OF 1 ORANGE

(No 0ne will be THAT mad if you use shop bought ice-cream here. But this recipe has zero additives/ingredients we don’t know how to pronounce)

NUTTY SAGE SPONGE

  • 12 SAGE LEAVES

  • 200g UNSALTED BUTTER

  • 80ml GOLDEN SYRUP

  • 180ml WHOLE MILK (lower fat, semi-skimmed milk is also fine)

  • 4 SAGE LEAVES, CHOPPED

  • 100g SOFT BROWN SUGAR

  • 2 WHOLE MEDIUM EGGS

  • 300g SELF-RAISING FLOUR

  • ½ Tsp BAKING POWDER

  • ZEST OF 1 ORANGE

GOLDEN SYRUP (To drizzle)

BEFORE YOU START…

  • Preheat your oven to 160c (fan oven, 165-170c for other, less powerful ovens)

  • Grease and line a 23cm cake tin

METHOD:

FOR THE COLDEN SYRUP ICE-CREAM…

Whip the cream till medium soft peaks. Fold in the golden syrup, orange juice and condensed milk. Pour into you loaf tin and freeze for at least 6 hours before serving. (allow to soften for 15 minutes before serving so you can scoop it.)

This type of ice-cream makes great ‘stick lollies’ if you can get hold of the moulds!

FOR THE NUTTY SAGE SPONGE…

Blanch the sage leaves in boiling water for about 20 seconds. Remove from the pan and plunge into cold water to stop the cooking, pat dry and lay on the bottom on your lined cake tin. THIS BOTH SOFTENS THE TEXTURE OF THE LEAVES, WE’RE BAKING WITH LEAVES NOW AND THE TASTE NOTES. If we’re using savoury herbs (leaves) we’re going to use them softly, softly.

Melt the butter in a pan until nutty in colour, be careful not to burn it. Stop the cooking of the butter by adding it to the rest of the liquids (the golden syrup and the milk). Finish by adding the finely chopped sage leaves. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Sieve together the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients gradually into the egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Finish by mixing in the dry ingredients and then pour into your prepared cake tin and bake for 45 minutes (making sure to do the knife test as always!)

Drizzle the sponge with a tablespoon or so of golden syrup while the cake is still warm.

TO SERVE: Serve this cake upside down to show the sage leaves, with a scoop of your ice-cream.

Catherine Parrott
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