Pine Needle Cake Recipe
If you live in a region where the Great White Pines grow, you have more than a beautiful landscape, tea, tincture, salve, or oil. I use ground pine needles in addition to, or in place of, flour in some recipes, creating healthy, mouthwatering delights.
✵ ✵ ✵ Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
12” x 8’ cake
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Ingredients: Organic When Possible
3/4 cup unsalted butter
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (Organic preferred)
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or white clover extract
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
3/4 cup all-purpose (unbleached) flour
4 tbsp pine needles ground up
Instructions
Preheat the oven: to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 12” x 8” cake pan.
Melt butter and chocolate in a small ceramic bowl.
Place over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Set aside.
Mix eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Slowly add the chocolate mixture. Stir until blended.
Fold in the pine needles and flour.
Pour batter into the baking dish. Spread evenly.
Place on the center rack in the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.
Frost if desired.
Decorate with whichever nature’s merries are available.
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*Note: You can use fresh pine needles to grind. I usually let the pine needles dry for about a week. I use a coffee grinder specifically for herbs. (I use a separate one for coffee.)
If you are grinding more needles than you need for the cake, store the (dry) needles in a glass jar, and use a 50cc Oxygen Absorber in each jar to prevent mold. The pine needles are an excellent addition to tea blends or smoothies to boost flavor and add vitamin C and antioxidants.
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© Marya of the Wood
The wildest cookbook imaginable is to be released soon.