Grandma cake

I’m not exactly sure why, but for me rhubarb has always been a grandmaesque ingredient. Rhubarb is also popping up at farmers markets and green grocers in Sydney at the moment, so I used it as the inspiration for this week’s recipe. I love the pretty deep pink colour cooked rhubarb provides. Because I don’t like my rhubarb too stringy, I cut the pieces quite small, about 1cm wide. I used hazelnuts, but you could experiment with almonds or other nuts.

This cake could be served with some thick cream, ice-cream, natural yoghurt or custard, delicious warm or cooled.

What I was cooking this time last year: Orange Crème Caramel

Rhubarb and Hazelnut Crumble Cake

* The basic cake recipe ingredients list is taken from a Women’s Weekly Recipe Card recipe.

Ingredients:

Rhubarb

• 1 bunch of fresh rhubarb
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 vanilla bean pod
• water, to just cover the chopped rhubarb

Hazelnut crumble

• 150g hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice

Cake

• 125g softened butter
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 50mls milk
• vanilla bean pod from the rhubarb
• Cooking oil spray to grease your cake tin

Method:

• Wash the rhubarb, chop off the green top and the bottom of the rhubarb stalks.
• Chop the rhubarb stalks into 1cm pieces and add to a saucepan.

• Add the sugar and vanilla pod to the rhubarb, and add water until just covered.
• Cook the rhubarb on a medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes until soft.
• Drain the cooked rhubarb from the liquid, and return the liquid to the saucepan.

• Cook the rhubarb liquid until it reduces and thickens.
• Add the rhubarb syrup to the cooked rhubarb and set aside to cool.
• To make the crumble, add the hazelnuts, brown sugar and mixed spice to your food processor bowl.

• Pulse the crumble mix until the nuts are chopped and everything is combined.
• Set the crumble aside.

• Turn the oven on to 180°C.
• To make the cake batter, add the butter, sugar and vanilla pod to the food processor bowl. Beat together until  light and creamy.
• Add the eggs and beat until combined.

• Mix in a little of the sifted flour alternately with the milk, until everything is combined.
• Spray your cake tin with cooking oil to prevent sticking.
• Add half of the cake batter, and spread out over the bottom of the cake tin.
• Top the cake batter with half of the cooked rhubarb, then half of the crumble mixture.

• Add the remaining cake batter, rhubarb and crumble layers.

• Cook in the oven for approximately 60 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back when lightly touched.
• Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 – 10 minutes, then remove from the tin. Your cake is ready to serve warm or you could wait until it is cool. Enjoy.

What is your favourite colour? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Easter antidote

Easter is next weekend and I am super eggcited because it is one of the few times in the year when I can eat chocolate for breakfast without too many raised eyebrows. For most of us, the 4 day Easter break means we go away somewhere, or spend some quality time with family and / or friends. I will be going on a road trip with friends to the Blue Mountains, and will also get to spend some quality time with family (thanks mum and dad for letting us all invade your home).

With a steady stream of visitors calling in during the Easter break, and everyone prone to over-indulging in chocolate, I wanted to share with you my recipe for Apple Sour Cream Tea Cake. My recipe is adapted from a Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe by Annabelle White, who I believe is the New Zealand equivalent of Australia’s Margaret Fulton – someone who a lot of Kiwi’s grew up learning to cook with. I like that Annabelle included her recipe in the breakfast section of her book, but you can eat this cake any time and it goes really well with a cup of tea or coffee.

I have a plentiful supply of vanilla beans at the moment, so borrowed Jamie Oliver’s trick and blended a whole vanilla bean in with the sugar. If you don’t have a vanilla bean you could use a teaspoon of vanilla paste or vanilla extract and add that in when you add the eggs. I use raw sugar rather than white sugar in my baking because it is less processed. Apples are in season at the moment in Sydney and delicious. I like the presentation of a bundt tin, but you could of course use a round or loaf tin. Next time I make this recipe I will need to use a larger cake tin, as some of the mixture spilled out during the cooking.

Apple Sour Cream Tea Cake

* This recipe was adapted from a Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe in “Annabelle White’s Best Recipes” by Annabelle White. I have modified and adapted it to come up with the below reincarnation.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• 125g butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 300mls sour cream
• 2 cups of self-raising flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 granny smith apple
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Cooking oil spray to grease your baking tin

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C, spray your tin with a generous coating of cooking oil spray.
• In a food processor, blitz the vanilla bean and sugar until the vanilla bean is finely chopped.
• Add the butter to the food processor with the sugar and vanilla and blitz until light and fluffy.

• Add the eggs to the food processor, and blitz to combine.
• Add the sour cream to the food processor, and blitz to combine.

• Peel, core and chop the apple into small dice.
• Add the diced apple to a bowl and mix with the brown sugar and cinnamon.

• Add the flour and salt to the food processor and blitz until everything is combined and smooth.
• Add alternate layers of apple and cake mixture to your cake tin.

• Bake the for approximately 45 minutes. When the cake bounces back when touched and is cooked, remove from the oven.
• Leave the cake to cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the tin.
• Turn the cake out of the tin onto a serving stand or plate.
• Your cake is ready to serve, enjoy it while it is still warm or once it has cooled.

What is your favourite Easter tradition? Has this post inspired any new ideas?