rhubarb crumble cake
I'm slowly working my way through 'Dessert Person' by Claire Saffitz. As I love rhubarb and it's in season here, I couldn't go past the rhubarb cake recipe. Originally I was going to make this into an upside down rhubarb cake but rethought my plan and instead went with a crumble topping. I took quite a few liberties with Claire's recipe. I made a half size cake; stewed the rhubarb in the microwave and added the bicarb soda in with the flour instead of the puree because the rhubarb puree was such a pretty colour I didn't want it to turn a murky grey. The rhubarb tinted the cake batter such a pretty pink.
I already have a rhubarb crumble cake recipe on my blog, a butter cake studded with diced rhubarb, so I was interested to see how this recipe compared.
Rhubarb Crumble Cake – makes a 17 cm cake
Crumble
50g unsalted butter at room temperature
60g (¼ cup) raw sugar
50g (⅓ cup) plain flour
25g (¼ cup) rolled oats
Pinch cinnamon and salt
Cake
225g (8 oz) rhubarb stalks, chopped into 1 cm pieces
135g plain flour (1 scant cup)
1¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarb soda
Pinch salt
60g unsalted butter (2 oz) melted and cooled
125g (½ cup) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
1 egg
2-3 tbs plain full fat Greek yoghurt
Raw sugar and icing sugar for dusting
Crumble
Make the crumble by rubbing the flour and butter together then stirring in the sugar, oats, cinnamon and salt to make large crumbs. Place in the fridge until needed.
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line the base of a 17 cm cake tin with baking paper. Grease the baking paper and sprinkle generously with raw sugar to coat the base and sides of the tin. Place in the fridge until needed.
Cake
Measure out the rhubarb. You’ll need 125g for the puree, 60g for the cake batter and 40g to top the cake. Place the 125g of rhubarb into a microwave safe container with a tbs of water then cover and microwave on high for 3 minutes. The rhubarb should be soft by this stage. Allow to cool completely in the covered bowl, then mash the rhubarb with a fork to make a puree. You could also cook the rhubarb in a saucepan on the stove.
Sift the dry ingredients into a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, vigorously mix together the cooled butter, sugar, vanilla, orange rind and egg until the mixture is thick and light, about 1 minute. Add the yoghurt and the rhubarb puree and mix until smooth.
Scrape the rhubarb mixture into the bowl with the flour and whisk until the batter is evenly mixed. Fold in the reserved 60g of rhubarb and spoon into the prepared tin. Level the top of the cake batter and then sprinkle with the remaining 40g of chopped rhubarb. Strew the crumble over the rhubarb pieces until they’re mostly covered.
Place into the oven and bake for 80-90 minutes or until the crumble is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cover the top of the cake with foil if it is browning too much while baking. Err on the side of baking the cake more rather than less. It’s a moist cake and under baking it even slightly could cause the cake to fall a bit as it cools.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before unmoulding. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack before serving topped with a dusting of icing sugar. Store well wrapped in an airtight container.
The
rhubarb is front and centre in this recipe but it's very subtle in the
baked cake. I think precooking the rhubarb tames it's flavour a little and I'm wondering what the cake would taste like with a bit more fresh rhubarb and a bit less cooked rhubarb.
I shared the cake with my neighbours and here is Dave's review of the cake. 'Cake was yummy, thank you! And exactly the sort of cake I like... not too rich and creamy. Tasty as hell'. The cake tastes even better 1 or 2 days after baking.
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian
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