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 Entertaining at Home 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
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
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) and grease a 23cm spring form tin.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and cooked in the center. Cool in the tin slightly before removing.
