RHUBARB GALETTE Chez Panisse

 

One lovely warm evening last summer we were invited out to dinner by some Irish friends.  For dessert they served "rhubarb galette Chez Panisse", a recipe from a famous restaurant in California that I had never previously heard of.  It was utterly divine, in a very rustic looking way, and I knew that one day I would have a go at making it myself.  

We have never been able to grow our own rhubarb in France but our friends who live only a few kilometres away have two thriving plants so I cadged some of theirs to make the galette.  The rhubarb plant we have in the UK does really well in the much cooler and damper climate so whenever we make the trip there we bring some back for the freezer.  A bundle of rhubarb has caused our cabin bag to fail the scanner test at the airport more than once and produced a few raised eyebrows amongst security staff and fellow passengers!

The recipe comes from a book by Rick Stein called "the road to Mexico".  I found a copy in a local charity shop but you can also see the recipe online here.

I don't often make my own pastry these days.  

I used my measuring mat to roll it out to a reasonably shaped circle.

The next step was to arrange pieces of rhubarb in the right pattern on the pastry.

The edges are then folded over and crimped.

Mine didn't look quite as neat and tidy as the picture in the book.

However, it tasted delicious and I would definitely make it again.

A word of warning though.  Rhubarb produces quite a lot of liquid when cooked.  My largest baking sheet, just big enough to accommodate the tart, was very flat and it warped slightly in the oven.  Rhubarb juice was running off the tart onto the oven floor for a while before I realised what was happening, producing one heck of a sticky mess.  I put a roasting tin on the shelf below to catch any further drips but not soon enough to prevent a serious oven cleaning session the next day.  Oh well, the tart was worth it and the oven was ready for a clean!

Next time I will be aware of this and maybe make a smaller tart that fits onto a baking sheet with more of a lip, such as a pizza baking tray.  Or, thinking about this later, I could have baked it on the large Denby platter that I served it on as it is ovenproof, would not have warped and has a lip that would retain any juices.

*I had a mishap when making the glaze, took my eye off the ball and ended up with unusable solid caramel.  So, I drizzled some golden syrup over the tart instead!  Next time I might miss this step out completely as I suspect the tart would be plenty sweet enough without it.  I shall report back!

Ingredients

For the pastry

225g plain flour

pinch of salt

170g cold unsalted butter, cubed

80ml ice cold water

For the filling

500g rhubarb, washed and cut into 6cm (4") batons (keep the trimmings)

zest of 1 orange

200g granulated sugar

pinch of salt

1 tbslp dessert wine (I used sherry)

juice of 1/2 an orange

30g unsalted butter, melted

30g caster sugar

For the glaze*

75ml water

2 tblsp granulated sugar

the rhubarb trimmings, chopped

Method

In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt for a few seconds.  Add the butter and process briefly.  Add the water and process until the pastry just comes together.

Transfer the pastry to a floured work surface and knead briefly.  Pat into a disc then place it on a sheet of lightly floured baking parchment.  Roll it out into circle measuring 35cm and 4-5mm thick.  Lift the paper onto a suitable baking sheet (see my note above) and chill in the fridge while you prepare the rhubarb.

Put the orange juice, zest, granulated sugar and wine into a bowl and mix together.  Add the rhubarb pieces and toss around so that they are well coated.  

Preheat the oven to 220°C / 200° fan.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and arrange the rhubarb pieces on top as in the picture, leaving a border of 5-6 cm around the edge.  Trim the fruit as necessary to fit and save the trimmings.  Sprinkle any residual sugar mixture on top.  Fold the pastry border over the rhubarb and crimp the edge.

Brush the fruit with about 1/3 of the melted butter and sprinkle over about 1/3 of the caster sugar.  Repeat twice so all the butter and sugar are used up.  (I misread this step and used all of the butter and sugar in one go.  I'm not sure it made a significant difference.)

Bake the galette for 10 minutes then lower the oven temperature by 20° to 200°C / 180°fan.  Bake for a further 30-35 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.  Keep your eye on it and don't let it brown too much.

When the galette is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool while you make the glaze.

Put the rhubarb trimmings into a small pan and cook until soft with the water.  Lift out and discard the rhubarb and add the sugar.  Continue cooking until the liquid is reduced to a thick syrup and brush it over the rhubarb.  (See my notes above*.)

Serves 8.

RHUBARB FOOL

This gorgeous old fashioned dessert has a wow factor well beyond its simplicity.

The recipe has its origins in a book by Simon Hopkinson called "roast chicken and other stories" and I found it on a blog called "The Rhubarb Fool". 

The simplicity lies in the cooking of the rhubarb which is just baked in the oven with sugar until tender and processed in a food processor to a slightly lumpy purée. This is swirled into softly whipped double cream to give a marbled effect rather than blended to a homogenous pink.

We were having six guests for dinner on a June evening and it was Nick's idea after he spotted red rhubarb in a local supermarket.  I normally balk at the price of shop bought rhubarb but it does look so pretty for a special occasion.  This rhubarb was mostly a deep red with a little green on the stems which produced a very soft pink colour when cooked.  There was plenty of it so I put a layer in the bottom of each glass before topping with the actual fool mixture.

I happened to have some vanilla sugar on the go, long forgotten at the back of the cupboard from the last time I used an actual vanilla pod, which was a few years ago.  Otherwise I might have stirred a teaspoon of vanilla extract into the rhubarb before baking, or might have used plain caster sugar.

The recipe suggests swirling the reserved juice into the cream along with the purée but instead I served it separately as I was also making a chocolate torte and thought it would also be nice drizzled over that.

I decorated each one with a tiny sprig of mint.

Ingredients 

1.3 kg rhubarb 

500ml double cream

350g vanilla sugar or caster sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange (optional)

small sprigs of mint for decoration (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C / 170° fan / gas mk 5.

Wipe, trim and roughly chop the rhubarb.

Tip it into a baking dish or roasting tin, spreading out into an even layer.  Sprinkle over the sugar and orange zest and stir in.  Do not add any water and cover with foil so that it bakes and does not roast or become brown.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until soft and tender.  Drain through a colander over a jug to retain the juice.

Allow to cool before transferring to a food processor and blend to a slightly lumpy purée.

In a large bowl, whip the cream until softly thick, i.e. not stiff but holds its shape.

Spoon a layer of puréed rhubarb into the bottom of eight glass dishes.  Fold the remaining purée into the whipped cream to give a marbled swirl effect and divide this between the dishes.

Decorate with a small sprig of mint (optional) and chill on a tray in the fridge for at least two hours or until needed.  Serve the reserved juice alongside.

Serves 8

RUSTIC FRUIT TART and a brilliant little gadget!

 

What do you do when a rapid dessert is called for?  You make one of these tarts from whatever fruit you have in!

I used a pack of ready made, ready rolled sweet pastry (called pâte sablée), a few sticks of rhubarb and two apples.  This pastry comes as a circle in France which is handy.  In the UK it's usually an oblong which is more awkward, in which case it's probably better to buy the pastry in a block and roll it out yourself into a circle.

I have made tarts like this before but this time I used a suggestion from Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's excellent book "Love your leftovers".  I used less sugar to sweeten the fruit and spread some strawberry jam on the pastry before filling it instead.  It took very little time to make and was on the table in well under an hour.  Delicious!

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Now would be a good time to mention my latest kitchen gadget.  A Jar Key.

I think I first heard about it from Angela over at Tracing Rainbows who mentioned it in a post some time ago.

I spotted one in Zodio in France recently.  This is a chain of stores selling kitchen ware, craft stuff and home wares, like a cross between Dunelm Mill, Hobbycraft and The Range.  It's a fabulous shop and an Aladdin's cave for enthusiastic cooks, crafters and people who need gorgeous new towels!!

Jar Keys are not cheap but by jove they are worth every penny (or centime).  They take all the effort and frustration out of getting the lid off a glass jar.  AND they leave the lid undamaged so that you can reuse the jar.

As time goes by the fight with jam jar lids has become increasingly more difficult and I have tried everything.  I have tried running them under hot water with the consequent scalding, gripping with bits of bubbly rubber stuff, crushing with one of those lid removers that look like a cross between a tin opener and a medieval torture instrument and, ultimately, asking a neighbour or passer by for help!  Nick is able to get them off with a certain amount of grunting and cursing but if he's out I have no chance.

Well, this little gadget has solved that problem.  It has a neat little grip that tucks under the edge of the lid and with one slight tweak the vacuum is released and it comes off effortlessly.  No more dreading the new jar of olives, jam or compôte!  All the stress is now gone!

Every home should have one.  They should be available on the NHS to prevent jar related high blood pressure and minor accidents in the home!  Brilliant!

You can get them from Amazon, Lakeland and I'm sure many other places.  Don't buy any alternatives, this is the one that works!

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Ingredients

1 pack of ready made, ready rolled sweet pastry (or plain shortcrust pastry)

4 slim sticks of rhubarb

2 eating apples

2-3 tblsp strawberry jam

2-3 tblsp ground almonds

1 tblsp granulated sugar

1 beaten egg or a little milk

demerara sugar for sprinkling

Method

Remove the pastry from the fridge 15 minutes before you want to make the tart.  

Preheat the oven to 190° / 170° fan / gas mk 5.  Place a sheet of baking parchment on a baking sheet.  I usually use the paper that the pastry comes wrapped in.

Unroll the pastry and spread the jam in a circle leaving a margin of about 5cm (2").*

Sprinkle the ground almonds over the jam.  This helps to absorb any juice from the fruit and avoid the dreaded soggy bottom.

Wash and trim the rhubarb and cut into smallish chunks.  Peel, core and chop the apples.  Arrange the fruit on top of the ground almonds.  Sprinkle the granulated sugar on top.

Fold the pastry over the fruit, overlapping as if to form pleats.  

Brush the pastry with either beaten egg or a little milk and sprinkle demerara sugar over the whole thing.

Bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the fruit bubbling.

Serve warm with cream, ice cream or custard.

*You can use a narrower margin and use more fruit, which results in a larger tart with less of an overlapping edge to the crust and will make more servings.

Serves 5-6 portions.

PLUM FRANGIPANE TART

A friend in the village has a tree loaded with very small plums and invited us to help ourselves.

I don’t know what variety they are but they’re about the size of a large cherry.

They are slightly sharp, not quite sweet enough to eat like cherries, but are excellent when cooked.  The only problem is the stones.  Plums make a delicious pudding but the stones take the edge off the pleasure of them I think and more so when the fruit is small and the number of stones even greater.  (I also love damsons but the zillions of little stones definitely spoil a damson pie or crumble for me!)

With over a pound of them in the bowl I decided to try using my pink cherry stoner. It worked a treat and I whistled through the whole bowlful in no time at all.  (I put the egg in the picture so you could gauge the size of the plums.)

I decided to use some of them for a favourite recipe by Mary Berry and the rest went into the freezer.

The base is made from slices of brioche and a basic ready sliced brioche loaf from the supermarket is ideal.  It creates a slightly cakey base that has a definite patisserie style to it.  (If a brioche loaf is not available you can use brioche finger rolls.)

The frangipane (almond) filling is quickly made using a food processor but a stick blender and mixing bowl would work.  Then you arrange the fruit on top as randomly or precisely as you fancy.

It looks good when it comes out of the oven but brushing it all over with melted apricot jam to give it a nice glaze is the finishing touch which definitely makes it look the business.  

I have made this recipe many times, or at least my own adaptation of it, using various different fruits.  It makes a great large dessert to feed a crowd and always goes down well.  Hence I make no apology for re-posting it and giving the recipe again.

Here are a few more versions:

I made it recently using apricots.

You can see how the brioche turns into a nice cakey base.

I made it with rhubarb, which you can see here.

It was very good when I accidentally made it upside down - see here.

It was delicious when I made it using apples as per Mary Berry's original recipe - see here.

Ingredients

4-5 slices of a brioche loaf

175g spreadable butter or baking spread

175g caster sugar

1 tsp almond extract

150g ground almonds

3 eggs

50g plain flour

300-400g small plums, stoned and halved

2 tblsp apricot jam for glazing the pie

Method

Preheat the oven to 200° C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.  Butter a large, shallow baking dish about 28cm dia.

Press slices of brioche into the bottom of the dish, filling in gaps but not overlapping.  (You could also use 5-6 brioche rolls, in which case slice off the top and bottom crusts then slice in half horizontally.)

Put the butter and sugar into a food processor and whizz until light and fluffy.  Add the extract, almonds, eggs and flour and whizz again until nice and smooth.  

Spread the mixture evenly over the brioche base and arrange the fruit on top.  

Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown and the centre is firm.  Warm the jam in a small saucepan to make it runny then brush it all over the top of the pie to glaze.  

Serve warm or at room temperature, with cream, ice cream or custard.

Cuts into 10-12 slices.

RHUBARB AND ALMOND PIE

We have been enjoying Mary Berry's new TV series called "Simple Comforts".  With so much uncertainty about the coming months I need simple and comfort more than ever.  Mary is such a genius at what I would call proper home cooking.  Designed for us ordinary folk for every day meals and the special family occasion.  You really can't go wrong with her recipes.

However, I did with this one!

Here we are back in the UK for the next six months, pining for the lost months that we didn't have in France this year but at the same time feeling so thankful that we managed to get there at all and enjoy eight glorious weeks of almost uninterrupted sunshine.  Back home we are almost through our quarantine period and the weather has been perfect.  Some would call it an Indian summer.  It's been wonderful to be able to sit in our little garden and enjoy some fresh air, even on rainy days the sun has come out in the afternoon.  Quarantine could have been so much worse if it was cold and wet most of the time.

Nick has nurtured our flowering plants back to life so that we have been able to enjoy some colour in the garden.  I picked some of our flowers to cheer us up indoors.  To our delight we have also found that our rhubarb plant, only one year old, continues to keep on giving.

In the first episode of her new series Mary made an apple dessert called "brioche frangipane apple pudding" which looked both delicious and easy to make.  For the base she used slices of brioche and it just so happened that I had brought a sliced brioche back with me from France.

I also had loads of rhubarb from the garden so I decided to use that instead of apples.

Unfortunately it didn't work out quite right as I used the wrong size of dish.  Mine was slightly smaller in diameter and a bit deeper.  The upshot of this was that when the cooking time was up, the middle of the pie was still uncooked, positively liquid in fact.  So I had to cook it for much longer and in spite of covering it with foil to try to prevent burning it did end up being rather crozzled around the edges.  Which does go to show that size does matter!

I was disappointed to say the least and didn't do the extra step of brushing with an apricot glaze and sprinkling with flaked almonds.

However, it was yummy!  Ignoring the occasional rather dark tasting bits, it was quite delicious.  I will definitely be making it again, either with apples or with rhubarb.  Possibly even with sliced pears or plum halves.  But next time I will use a larger, shallower dish.

I especially like the idea of using a layer of brioche for the base of the pie (or pudding).  It worked really well and is a nice change from a pastry bottom.  (Although mine was a touch overdone.)  I shall be doing that again!

The episode with the recipe is currently still available on BBC iPlayer and you can see it on the internet here and here.

Ingredients

4-5 slices of brioche loaf

175g spreadable butter (I used Lurpak spreadable)

175g caster sugar

1 tsp almond extract

175g ground almonds

3 eggs

25g plain flour

about 6 sticks of rhubarb, washed and cut into 5cm lengths

Method

Preheat the oven to 200° C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.  Butter a large, shallow baking dish about 28cm dia.

Press slices of brioche into the bottom of the dish, filling in gaps but not overlapping.

Put the butter and sugar into a food processor and whizz until light and fluffy.  Add the extract, almonds eggs and flour and whizz again until nice and smooth.  Spread the mixture evenly over the brioche base and arrange the fruit on top.  

Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown and the centre is firm.  Serve warm.

Cuts into 8 generous slices.

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I made it again using a larger, shallower dish and it worked better.  It was cooked perfectly in the 40 minutes stated in the recipe.  I also used slightly less ground almonds and more flour; 150g and 50g.  This was because that's all the ground almonds I had in stock but it was still delicious - if anything I preferred it.

I later made it in an even bigger dish, 28cm, using apples as per Mary's original recipe and that worked even better!  You can read about it if you go here.

RHUBARB BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING - more pandemic cooking.

 

I'm enjoying the challenge of using up what we have in rather than going out to shop.  Equally, going out to shop now results in a kind of ready, steady, cook selection of random ingredients at the moment, which also calls for a bit of culinary lateral thinking.

 

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my friend Gaynor recommended the rhubarb and custard hot cross buns from Aldi.  They were a good recommendation but I somehow managed to forget that I had bought two packs (they had loads of them at the time) and discovered the second pack last weekend, in a cupboard and several days past their sell-by date.  They were definitely stale but not mouldy so I instantly thought "bread and butter pudding".

 

 

I adapted a recipe for brioche pudding which I have adapted before as you can see here.  Essentially, it's a pack of hot cross buns (any type will work) soaked in the usual egg custard mixture with a few small bits of rhubarb tucked in between the buns. 

 

Luckily I also had a few eggs.  Only days ago there were none to be had anywhere.  I usually get half a dozen from the milkman (yes, we have milk delivered to the door - in real glass milk bottles, no less) but his supplier had sold out.  There were empty spaces on the shelves where the eggs used to be in all our local shops, big and small, even in the little kiosk at our local farm.  Anyway, the milkman had changed his supplier and come up trumps so I had a couple of eggs to spare.   

 

 

We also have rhubarb in our brand new rhubarb patch.  We planted a new plant last summer and it's taken really well to its new home.  There were several stalks ready for picking and I just used two skinny ones for this pudding.

 

 

The pudding was delicious.  Gorgeous warm with a slick of cream* or cold with extra custard. 

 

*I also happened to have some UHT cream in stock.  I always take a few boxes of Tesco "UHT double cream substitute" with us to France every time, but of course we're still in the UK.  So all the bits and pieces I had set aside to take have been unpacked and can be used up here.  A lucky stash as it turns out. 

 

Ingredients

 

1 pack of four hot cross buns, rhubarb and custard flavour or any other kind

butter for buttering the buns

2 thin sticks of rhubarb**

2 eggs, beaten

140ml double cream

250ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp caster sugar (I used golden caster sugar as that's all I had)

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140° fan / gas mk3.  Butter a suitable baking dish.

 

Slice the buns in half and butter each half.  Cut each piece into two and arrange in the dish, flat edge down. 

 

Trim and wipe the rhubarb and cut into small pieces about 2 cm long.  Tuck them in between the pieces of bun.

 

Put the eggs, cream, milk, vanilla and sugar into a jug and whisk together.  Pour the mixture carefully over the pudding and press it all down slightly with the back of a spoon or fish slice. 

 

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the custard is set and the buns lightly browned at the tips.  Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with cream, ice cream or custard.

 

Serves 6.

 

**My rhubarb was young and skinny so didn't need any pre-cooking.  If using larger sticks later in the season it would be a good idea to poach the pieces in a little water until just softened before adding to the dish.

RHUBARB AND RASPBERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

 

The last time we had guests - remember those days? - this is what I made for dessert.

 

In the freezer I had some of the beautiful pink rhubarb from our trip to the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival last month.  I decided to make an easy upside down cake with it, using the recipe for the fresh pineapple cake which you can see here.

 

 

The cake was actually meant to be just a rhubarb upside down cake but when I arranged the fruit over the base of the tin it was obvious that there were too many gaps.  Consequently I filled in the gaps with some raspberries, about half a punnet that I already had in the fridge.  (We put raspberries or blueberries on our porridge most mornings so usually have some in.)  Rhubarb and strawberries are a match made in heaven so I imagined that rhubarb and raspberries might be equally good too.

 

 

It was in fact delicious and a combination I will definitely use again.  Apart from anything else, it was a fabulous colour!

RHUBARB AND GINGER SCONES

 

I have a bit of a thing about scones.  They usually turn out like rocks.  Not rock cakes, which are edible, but rocks, which are not.  Consequently I have had so many disasters with baking scones in the past that I have more or less given up and haven't made any since my Victoria scones in 2012.  That's seven scone-free years.

 

 

However, the CCC Facebook group seem to have gone bonkers over scones, ever since someone spotted the National Trust Book of Scones appearing for sale at a bargain price on some website or other.  The offer was too good to miss and for only £2.99 including postage I decided to risk a punt.  With the gauntlet thrown and feeling there was a fair wind around the corner I decided to have another go.

 

The thing that spurred me on to actually baking some scones (as opposed to just reading about them) is that the book, written by someone initially as a scone-eating tour of National Trust properties, has a page for Hardwick Hall, a NT property that is just down the road from where we live.  The Hardwick Hall page is opposite a recipe for rhubarb and ginger scones, which I thought was an amazing coincidence.  When we visited the hall last summer and had tea and scones in the tea room, we had rhubarb and ginger scones which were delicious.  And here I was with some lovely Yorkshire pink rhubarb in stock and a new book in front of me.  With all the stars aligned I decided that this was the best sign ever that I might actually be able to conquer my scone nemesis.

 

 

I took more care than usual in gathering together the ingredients.  I rather complicated matters by deciding to halve the recipe quantities as it was for ten huge scones.  In actual fact, having made the upside down cake, I only had enough rhubarb left for a half measure - and there was always the outside chance that they would turn out like granite again and a waste of all the ingredients.  Consequently I actually found myself feeling nervous as I checked and double checked the recipe.  I even rubbed the butter into the flour by hand instead of blitzing it in my food processor, and bought whole milk instead of semi-skimmed.

 

 

I have to say that for me they were a great success.  Probably not the best scones ever baked on the planet but they were light and fluffy, and very tasty.  Delicious slightly warm with butter and rhubarb jam.  I am dead chuffed and although I don't see my scone phobia as banished completely, I'm definitely on the road to recovery.

 

Ingredients (half of the quantities in the original recipe)

375g self raising flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

93g caster sugar

93g butter, cubed

100g rhubarb, peeled, and cut into small dice

1/2 a piece of stem ginger from a jar, chopped into very small dice

150ml whole milk

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

 

Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the butter until you get fine breadcrumbs.  Add the fruit and ginger and about 2/3 of the milk until you get a soft, slightly wet dough,  adding a little more milk as needed.

 

Turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to 3-4 cm thick.  Cut into rounds using a 6cm cutter, place spaced well apart on the baking sheet and brush the tops with milk.

 

Put the scones in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 180C.  Bake for about 20 minutes until risen and golden.  Serve warm with butter or clotted cream and jam.

 

Makes 12 scones.

RHUBARB UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

A couple of years ago I heard of a liqueur made from rhubarb, called Rhucello.  Being a huge fan of rhubarb I was keen to find some but this isn't easy.  It's made by a Yorkshire family from the beautiful pink rhubarb that is raised lovingly in the Rhubarb Triangle in Wakefield.  It is sold at food fairs up and down the country but until the other week I had never been in the UK at the right time to go and buy some.

 

When I heard that there was a Rhubarb Fair taking place in Wakefield and that the makers of Rhucello were having a stall there, only wild horses and six foot snow drifts would have kept me away!  After years of only dreaming about Rhucello I was at last able to get my hands on a bottle (or two) and, as the name implies, it tastes of rhubarb in the same way that Limoncello tastes of lemons. 

 

 

Not only does it taste delicious, it is also a gorgeous pink colour!

 

The Rhubarb Festival was great fun, lots of food and drink stalls selling anything and everything you could possibly make out of rhubarb from gin to chutney.  Also bars, a music tent and cookery demonstration tent.  We spotted Gordon Ramsay posting for selfies as we breezed between the stalls.  Naturally there was plenty of the beautiful pink rhubarb itself for sale and I bought a bundle.  That was just before we treated ourselves to a bowl each of delicious home made rhubarb crumble in the cathedral café - at £1.50 each a real bargain.

 

 

And so with visitors coming for lunch last weekend I decided to use some of my precious rhubarb to make an upside down cake using and adapting a recipe on the Guardian website that you can see here.

 

 

 

You arrange the rhubarb on a layer of sugar and butter in the bottom of a tin, cover with a sponge mixture and bake.

 

 

It was lovely, had a nice texture and just the right balance of sweetness from the caramel and tartness from the rhubarb.  Naturally we served it with a glass of our new rhubarb liqueur alongside!

 

Ingredients

For the topping

80g unsalted butter, diced

140g light soft brown sugar

250g (2-3 stalks) rhubarb, trimmed, washed and cut into 5cm pieces

For the cake

150g caster sugar

175g plain flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

150ml sunflower oil

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

 

Method

Place a circle of baking paper in the bottom of a 23-24 cm round tin with a fixed base.  Alternatively us a springform or loose bottomed tin but line it with foil that comes well up the sides to prevent any leakage.

 

Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 fan / gas mk 4.  Scatter the butter and brown sugar evenly over the bottom of the tin and put in the oven for 5 minutes to melt the butter.

 

Remove from the oven and arrange the pieces of rhubarb over the melted butter mixture, pressing them in carefully.

 

Put the dry cake ingredients into a large bowl and mix together.  Beat in the oil and eggs, adding a little milk if the mixture seems very stiff.  Spoon the mixture carefully over the rhubarb and level the top.  Bake for 45-55 minutes until done (mine took 50 mins).

 

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before inverting onto a plate to release the cake.  Remove the baking paper or foil carefully. 

 

Serve warm or cold with cream or ice cream.  Cuts into 8-10 slices.