I’ve been a fan of Rachel Allen, the bubbly Irish celebrity chef, for some time now and some time ago I purchased Rachel Allen’s [amazon_link id=”0007309031″ target=”_blank” ]Entertaining at Home[/amazon_link] cookbook, which is the companion book for her Rachel’s Dinner Parties tv series.
It’s a beautiful book, and if I was to put together a cookbook, this is the type of book I would want. It’s pretty, contains beautiful photography and is well laid out – with chapters focused on food for brunches, casual meals, eating outdoors, canapés, and celebrations. It’s the type of book you could spend an hour flicking through for inspiration, which is exactly the type of thing I like to do.
So when I recently bought some rhubarb I turned to Rachel’s book because I remembered seeing a recipe for Rhubarb Crumble cake, which sounded delicious. This was actually my first time cooking with rhubarb. It’s not that I hadn’t eaten rhubarb before as I’ve enjoyed it in desserts at restaurants, but for some strange reason had never felt inspired to cook with it at home. I’m glad I made that leap though, because it’s delicious, and even better, it’s versatile – watch out for a rhubarb cocktail recipe coming soon!
This Rhubarb Crumble cake is gorgeous and when you cut into it you find a surprise pretty pink, almost jammy layer of rhubarb. Yum!
Are you a fan of Rachel Allen? What is your favourite Rachel Allen recipe?
Rhubarb Crumble Cake
From Rachel Allen's book Entertaining at Home
Ingredients
- RHUBARB LAYER
- 400 g of rhubarb trimmed and cut into 2 to 3cm pieces
- 100 g of demerara sugar
- 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons of water
- CRUMBLE TOPPING
- 100 g of plain flour
- 75 g of butter cubed
- 75 g of light brown sugar
- 25 g of flaked almonds
- CAKE
- 100 g of butter softened
- 100 g of caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- 175 g of plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp of baking powder
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) and grease a 23cm spring form tin.
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Place the rhubarb, sugar, water and ginger in a small saucepan and cover with a lid. Bring to a simmer over a low heat and cook until the rhubarb is tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and remove the lid and leave to cool.
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To prepare the crumble topping sift the flour, baking powder into the bowl of a mixer fitter with a paddle attachment. Add the butter and sugar and set the mix to it's lowest speed and mix until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Place in the refrigerator while you make the cake.
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To make the cake batter, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix to combine before adding the milk and ginger. Then sift over the flour, salt and baking powder and fold into the cake batter.
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Spoon the cake batter into the prepared spring form tin and spread out evenly before topping with the cooked rhubarb along with the liquid. Finally top with the crumble topping and finally the flaked almonds.
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Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and cooked in the center. Cool in the tin slightly before removing.
A gorgeous cake! It looks so smooth and scrumptious. I cannot resist rhubarb-based desserts.
Cheers,
Rosa
I always love the way your props & cutlery complement your food ..beautiful cake Jennifer..love the pink strip from rhubarb peeking through! Have a nice weekend
This certainly looks gorgeous! Ive really loved baking with fresh fruit this year, and baking with rhubarb has been a new experience for me as of a few months ago, its lovely stuff! So if i get my mitts on some more then this looks like a genius recipe 🙂
I’ve never heard of Rachel Allen and I’ve never eaten rhubarb… it sounds like I’m seriously missing out! I’ll have to keep this recipe in mind next time I head to the grocery store; it certainly looks beautiful (and delicious).
I wish I had a slice with my coffee right now! It looks delicious!
Thanks Lisa 😀 I’d send you a slice if I could!
That looks fantastic Jennifer! I do have Rachel Allen bake but I’m yet to actually bake from it! 😛
Lovely presentation and the cake look absolutely delicious! Love the pink strips of rhubarb peeping through…
Thank you Sanjeeta 😀
Rachel Allen is not on my shelf although I see her recipes in Good Food Mag from time to time. I wish we were able to get decent rhubarb in Dubai as this looks right up my street (and your pics are lovely). Maybe a raspberry layer?
I think a raspberry crumble cake would work beautifully Sally. Apple too! 😀
Beautiful cake and just the thing with a coffee or cold glass of milk!
Strangely enough I’ve never heard of Rachel Allen! I own tons of cookbooks so I’m gonna have a look if I can find hers. This looks wonderful!
Thanks so much Simone 😀
Oh I love Rachel Allen! Everything she makes turns out fab and Im totally envious of her bread skill haha. I love the rhubarb in this – for the first time making something with rhubard, you look like a pro 😉
Thanks Nic 😀
I am yet to find a recipe from Rachel Allen that would disappoint. I’m going to try and get a hold of this book too!
The cake looks fabulous for just about anytime of the day.
It’s a gorgeous book, I think you will enjoy it too. I’ve bookmarked a number of recipes to try. 😀
I have a confession to make, I don’t have any cookbooks… well I have 2-3, but I never open them, so they don’t count. I find all my inspiration online, in blogs like yours 🙂 Beautiful photography, interesting texts that make you feel like you know the woman behind it in person and gorgeous recipes. If the bloggers I follow write a cookbook – that ones I will buy and read with pleasure 🙂