rhubarb semolina and almond cake

rhubarb semolina and almond cake

• 6 Jun 2016

Plums have long gone from the fruit shop but I wanted to make this Karen Martini semolina almond and blood plum cake. I decided to make the cake using rhubarb instead of plums.



I set to work adapting the recipe. 



I reduced the juice to make a syrup to brush over the cake but the syrup was too thick and wouldn't brush. I could have thinned the syrup down and started again or used some sieved warmed raspberry jam but by this stage I wasn't prepared to wash up any more utensils so omitted this step.





I took my slice home for dessert and while the cake was lovely and moist, the cake without the reduced syrup wasn't quite sweet enough. If you omit the syrup, you may want to add a little more sugar to the cake batter or add the reserved rhubarb juice to the batter which is how I've written the recipe.



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Rhubarb, semolina and almond cake, adapted from this Karen Martini recipe

Ingredients
200g trimmed rhubarb cut into 1 cm pieces
1 tsp grated orange rind
¼ cup orange juice
40g brown sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
2 extra-large eggs
70g full-cream natural yoghurt
¼ cup buttermilk
25 mls orange juice
100g fine semolina
100g almond meal
100g plain flour, sifted
1¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 handful flaked almonds

To serve - icing sugar and cream

Method
Preheat the oven to 190ºC conventional. Grease a 20-centimetre round springform cake tin and line with baking paper.

Combine the rhubarb, orange rind, orange juice and brown sugar to a bowl and toss through gently. Set aside for 15 minutes or more, gently tossing the rhubarb through the liquid every now and then.

In a large bowl cream the butter, caster sugar and orange rind until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.

Combine the yoghurt, buttermilk and orange juice in a bowl. Drain the rhubarb and add the reserved juice to the yoghurt mix and add to the cake batter. Beat until combined.

Combine the semolina, almond meal, flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl, and then fold into the mixture by hand. Mix until smooth and well combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and arrange the rhubarb over the batter. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the rhubarb and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out cleanly.

Cool for 15 minutes before unmoulding.



Best served warm, dusted with icing sugar and served with a dollop of cream.



I hoped you managed to stay warm and dry during the weekend.

See you all again next week,

Bye for now,

Jillian