Basil cake bread バジルブレッド

My wife came up this as a variation on Mint cake. We have a forest of basil on the kitchen window sill and we are hard pressed to keep up with its production. After making a batch of mint cake my wife looked at the basil forest and thought, ‘if we can make a cake using mint how ‘bout a cake made with basil?’ This is how Basil cake came to be. 

The basil cake as shown below (sans icing) tastes very good and we were quite satisfied to eat most if it this way. 

Then my wife came up with the idea of making an icing of goat and cream cheese. This is very good too. (The icing is optional). 

Ingredients:
one 5.5 oz package of baby spinach cooked (about 1 cup when cooked and moisture drained off)
1 1/2 to 2 cups raw basil (packed)
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup olive oil
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt


Icing (Optional)
4 oz of cream cheese
4 oz of goat cheese

Directions:
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and then set aside. Put the spinach, basil, eggs, and vanilla, in a blender and puree. Then with the blender on a slow speed add the olive oil to make an emulsion. Add the vanilla and mix in. Add the spinach/mint mixture to the flour. Put into a greased 6" x 10" inch baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper (to made it easier to get the cake out of the pan when it is done.) Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

For the icing. Put the two cheeses in a stand mixer bowel. Using a paddle, cream the two cheeses together. Split a piece of the basil cake in half and spread on the cheese blend

This was a very good innovative cake/bread. It has a nice moist texture. The main thing, however, is the rich robust flavor the basil brings to the show. It “sings” a note of almost meat-like umami savoriness which contrasts well with the overall slight sweetness of the cake. (I wondered if this is because when I taste basil it is generally in association with a meat rather than a sweet dish?) 

The cake tastes very good just “as-is” and after contentedly eating half of it that way my wife came up with the idea of making an icing out of cream cheese and goat cheese whipped together. A sweet icing such as the one used for mint cake would not have gone well with the robust flavor of the basil but this alternative really works because it is some what savory. Whatever, this is a great and surprising way to gain some constructive control over the basil forest.