I also love making a simple syrup (equal quantities sugar and water, heated until the sugar dissolves) flavored with basil. Tonight I made 4 cups of simple syrup and while it was still warm. dropped in all the basil from the box (stems, flowers and all – rinsed well, of course!). Tomorrow I’ll strain out the basil and refrigerate the syrup. I can use it to flavor iced tea, make a frozen ice or sweeten fruit salads. And since it’s not watermelon season yet, I can save my basil syrup and use it to make a modified version of Martha’s margaritas. (It’ll keep at least a month in the refrigerator.) Yum!
Ok – so then Suzanne mentioned basil cake. I found a recipe online for Lemon Basil Cake, calling for Trader Joe’s vanilla cake mix gussied up with the zest of 2 lemons and 1/2 cup chopped basil. And a lemon cake with basil syrup at Epicurious.com. And pound cake with lemon-basil-orange syrup. I can totally see the connection between lemon and basil, but chocolate? There was a chocolate basil cake on the Enlightened Cooking blog. Here’s the recipe. If I hadn’t already put all my basil into sugar syrup, I’d try this tomorrow.
