Deliciously Moist Rhubarb and Orange Cake.

I’m back in Norfolk,
just in time for the last few stalks of our first flush of
home-grown rhubarb. I was going to declare this to be one of my
favourite things, but I think it’s quite clear by now that anything
edible is my favourite thing, so instead I’ll just ever-so quickly
eulogise on its many virtues before getting into a delicious recipe
for you all to try. Rhubarb is one of those wonderous
things that breaks the cycle of sad suppers that make up the latter
part of February and the early part of March. You know that Spring
is on its way when you can have a little rhubarb crumble, or
compote or cake or… well the list is fairly inexhaustible to be
honest, and joyously, it stays with us until June time, although it
loses the lovely tenderness of the earlier sticks. Rhubarb
is traditionally cooked with ginger, however, I prefer orange
as it’s lovely and tangy and so the recipe I’m about to show you
has had the orange quantities upped because I love it so
much.

I’m
afraid that although I try to go for cheap, wholesome recipes
normally, this one is a bit of a treat as it uses ground almonds
instead of flour for the most part, and you’ll probably have to go
and get yourself some golden caster sugar (although I
sucessfully combined regular caster sugar and light muscovado and
it all went as well as usual…) unless of course, you’ve managed
to have a particularly good bin-raid that features said
ingredients! So, how to make this delicious delight? Scroll
down……….
Cake. 350g/12oz rhubarb (rinsed and
cut into inch lengths) 200g/8oz golden caster sugar finely grated
zest and juice of a small orange 140g/5oz butter, softened 2 egss,
beaten 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 85g/3oz self-raising flour (you
can use regular and add baking powder according to instructions on
the side of the BP tub, to make it into self-raising) 100g/4oz
ground almonds Topping. 25g/1oz
butter, melted 25g/1oz light muscovado sugar finely grated zest of
1/2 small orange 50g/2oz slivered almonds icing sugar for dusting
So, now the fun begins. Pay close attention as it’s a little on the
complicated side at moments! This first bit is using only
ingredients from the cake part of the recipe -

• mix the rhubarb, 50g/2oz of the caster sugar, and the
  orange zest and leave for an hour. Give it stir once or
  twice.
• preheat oven to 190/gas mark 5/fan oven
  170, then butter and line the base of a deep, 23cm/9inch cake tin.
  (I use an 8.5″ tin and its fine)
• cream the
  butter and remaining caster sugar. (Look up how to cream sugar and
  butter in my Floral Fairy Cakes post – http://velvetalphabet.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/floral-fairy-cakes/)
• add the eggs, baking powder, flour and ground almonds,
  gently beating, but not over-mixing.
• Stir in
  the orange juice
• pour into your greased/lined
  tin and smooth it to make it flat. Do NOT give it a good shake to
  make it even out, you’ll lose all the air in it and you’ll be
  left with a horrid pancake lurking in the bottom of your
  tin.
• Drain your rhubarb and gently spoon
  it on to your cake mixture, then slide into the oven and
  bake for 25 minutes.

Whilst this is cooking, you have time
to make your topping. Simply combine the butter, sugar, zest and
almonds from the recipe for the topping, and after the 25 minutes
is up, sprinkle the topping over the cake, put it back in the oven,
and reduce the temperature to 180/gas mark 4/fan oven 160 and allow
to cook for another 15-20 minutes. Obviously if it starts to look
singed though, take it out!

Leave to
cool in the tin, then dust with icing sugar, put on a pretty
plate and serve with some lovely sour cream. I’m not one for fiddly
recipes, but I’m always prepared to go through the hassle for this
one, it’s really really worth it! (Adapted from Good
Food: 101 Cakes and Bakes)