So here is the second of my garden produce posts and this time I'm using rhubarb. There's quite a few recipes for rhubarb crumbles and compotes going around, so I went for one with cake. I came across this lovely recipe for a rhubarb and almond loaf in the Hummingbird Cake Days book. So here goes. . .
Stewed Rhubarb
4 - 5 stalks of rhubarb - chopped into 2cm pieces
70g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter
Sponge
190g unsalted butter
140g plain flour
190g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
1/2 ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
25ml milk
100g stewed rhubarb (above)
Flaked almonds
1) Preheat the oven to 170oC and then grease the loaf tin with butter and dust with flour. (Loaf tin = 8.5cm x 17.5cm and 7.5cm depth)
2) To make the stewed
rhubarb, place the rhubarb in a saucepan along with the sugar, butter
and 50ml of water. Cook on a medium heat and keep stirring until the
rhubarb softens (but not too much - otherwise it will just disappear
into the cake mix). Set aside to cool completely.
3) Meanwhile make the sponge. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
4) Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Scrape down the sides with a spatula to make sure everything has been mixed in properly.
5) Sift together the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and spices. Add half the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and eggs, followed by half the milk and mix well.
6) Add the remaining dry ingredients and then the rest of the milk.
7) Stir in the stewed rhubarb and make sure it's evenly mixed. Pour into the loaf tin and sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
3) Meanwhile make the sponge. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
4) Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Scrape down the sides with a spatula to make sure everything has been mixed in properly.
5) Sift together the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and spices. Add half the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and eggs, followed by half the milk and mix well.
6) Add the remaining dry ingredients and then the rest of the milk.
7) Stir in the stewed rhubarb and make sure it's evenly mixed. Pour into the loaf tin and sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
8) Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes until it has risen and has a nice golden colour. A skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean.
9) Allow the cake to rest in the tin for a while before turning out to fully cool on a wire rack.
And so that concludes my blog post for rhubarb and almond loaf.
I also must mention - with great sadness - that this is possibly my last post for this blogspot address. Apparently I have reached the limit for uploading photos under the free service. . .so I'm going to have a think and see if I can somehow get round this or look into starting a wordpress blog. This is actually quite well-timed, seeing as I'm back at university next week and I probably wouldn't be posting for a while anyway. However, I hope to sort this blog business out sooner or later and I will live to bake/blog another day. :)
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