rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart

rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart

24 Aug 2026

I was invited to a friend's place for dinner and I usually bring the dessert. As it's rhubarb season here I decided to make a rhubarb frangipane tart but with a twist. Instead of making the frangipane with almond meal alone, the frangipane was made with a mix of pistachio and almond meal. The idea came from Nicola Lamb's fancy rhubarb tart recipe which is in her cookbook, Sift.

I sourced some pistachio meal but I find the taste of pistachio meal a bit intense so I added in some almond meal to balance out the flavour of the frangipane. The rest of the tart is a tried and true recipe that I've been making for many years.

Here's the recipe for you which makes an 11 x 33cm tart. You’ll only need about half the pastry for this recipe. The pastry freezes well, so wrap securely and freeze until needed. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart 

Filling  
1 bunch of rhubarb, washed, trimmed of tough strands and cut into 10-cm lengths
85g caster sugar 
thinly peeled rind and juice of ½ orange  
1 cinnamon quill  
 
Pastry  
¼ cup/40g icing sugar
¼ cup/25g almond meal 
1⅓ cups/200g plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes 
110g cold unsalted butter, diced 
1 egg, lightly beaten 
Cold water 
 
Frangipane 
100g unsalted butter 
100g caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
2 tsp grated orange rind 
1 large egg 
50g pistachio meal
50g almond meal 
2 tbs plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes 

To assemble
½ cup rhubarb or raspberry jam
Sieved warmed apricot jam 

Method 
Preheat oven to 200°C, conventional. Arrange rhubarb snugly in a baking dish, scatter sugar and orange peel over, drizzle with juice and add cinnamon quill. Cover with foil and roast for 5-10 minutes or until you can just pierce the rhubarb with a knife. Set aside to cool. You’ll need about 325g of the rhubarb slices. I like to cook the rhubarb juices until they form a syrup, which I then mix with apricot jam when glazing the tart.

Pastry

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. 

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to 4mm thickness. Line a rectangular (11x33cm) tart tin with the pastry and return to the fridge while you prepare the filling. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional and place a baking tray on the centre rack.

Filling 
Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla and orange rind together until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg  followed by the flour, ground nuts and salt to form a soft batter. You can also do this step in the food processor.

Assembly 
Remove the tart shell from the fridge. Cover the base of the tart with the jam. Carefully cover the jam with the frangipane filling. Smooth the top with a knife then arrange the rhubarb lengths over the frangipane filling. 

Place the tart on the baking tray in the preheated oven. Reduce the oven to 190°C, conventional and bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until the filling is set and the pastry nicely browned. If the rhubarb is drying out too much cover with foil or baking paper. When baked, remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

When cold, glaze the top of the tart with some thinned, warmed apricot jam. Just before serving, unmould from the tin and cut into slices.

This received rave reviews from the dinner party guests who declared it the perfect mix of sweet and sour and that it needed no adornments.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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passionfruit bundt cake

passionfruit bundt cake

17 Aug 2026

It's passionfruit season in Sydney and when I saw a net of plump passionfruit in the grocery store, I had to buy one. My first thought was to make a passionfruit cake and I baked it in my favourite bundt tin.

Rather then re-inventing the wheel, I used a favourite Aran Goyoaga lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake recipe as my base and turned it into a passionfruit version. As it's an oil based cake, it's quick and easy to put together.

Here's the recipe for you which will make a 5-cup bundt cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Passionfruit bundt cake 
Cake
65g (¼ cup) fresh or frozen passionfruit pulp (I don’t like seeds so I blitz the pulp, then strain out the juice.

2 tbs (40g) full fat yoghurt 
100g (⅔ cup) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch table salt
65g (⅔ cup) almond meal, any lumps broken up
135g caster sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs
100mls (80g) extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Passionfruit icing
20g unsalted butter, melted
70g icing sugar, sifted
1 passionfruit

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and flour a 5-cup bundt tin and place in the fridge until needed.

Combine the passionfruit juice/pulp with the yoghurt and set to one side.
Sift the flour, the baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set aside. 

In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl and stir to combine. Drizzle in the oil and the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Add the flour in batches alternating with the yoghurt mixture and stir until a smooth batter is formed.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt tin and bake on the centre rack for 45 to 50 minutes at 180°C, conventional or until a cake tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack, set over a baking tray. While the cake cools, make the icing.

Passionfruit icing
Place the melted butter in a small bowl. Add the icing sugar then enough passionfruit pulp to make a smooth thick icing. Beat vigorously until shiny, then pour the icing over the cake.  

If the icing thickens too much, zap it for a few seconds in the microwave. Once iced, set the cake aside to let the icing set before serving.

The passionfruit icing is definitely the MVP here and I ate half the icing before it made it's way to the cake! The cake also received a tick of approval from my taste testers.

See you all again next week with some baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate zucchini cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing

chocolate zucchini cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing

10 Aug 2026

As the 10 year old birthday girl has simple tastes I decided to make cupcakes for her bithday celebration. I took a tried and tested chocolate cake recipe from Clare Scrine and turned it into cupcakes. To reduce the ingredient quantity to suit the tin size I had to reverse engineer the process so out came the calculator, a pen and paper. 

The batter needed 1½ eggs but I didn't feel like cracking a second egg so I added a little more sour cream to the batter. I wasn't sure about the bake time either, so I started with 15 minutes and the cupcakes weren't quite ready so I added another 5 minutes and they were done.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 cupcakes, adapted from a Clare Scrine recipe. The icing recipe is generous so you may have some leftover. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate zucchini cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing

Cake
1 egg
75g sour cream
100ml/90g vegetable oil (or other neutral oil)
50ml black coffee, cooled or water
1 tsp vanilla extract 
110g finely grated zucchini
135g brown sugar
scant ½ tsp sea salt flakes
120g self-raising flour
scant ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda 
35g  Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Chocolate cream cheese icing
125g cream cheese, at room temperature
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
Pinch sea salt flakes 
140g icing sugar
25g dutched cocoa powder 

60g melted dark chocolate, cooled

To top
Dark chocolate flakes or sprinkles

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C, conventional. Grease a 6 hole Texas muffin tin and dust with flour or cocoa. If you like you can place a small piece of baking paper into the base of each hole.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream, vegetable oil, cooled coffee/water and vanilla until well combined and a little frothy. Add the zucchini and stir well to combine. 

In a separate large bowl, combine the sugar, salt, flour, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined, ensuring you scrape right to the bottom of the bowl to mix well. 

Distribute the mixture evenly between the muffin holes (about 110g/hole), then transfer to the oven and bake for 20–25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out mostly clean. It’s important not to overcook the cakes, so keep a close eye on them. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Carefully loosen each cake with an offset spatula before unmoulding and placing on a cooling rack.

Chocolate cream-cheese icing
Place the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and salt flakes into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa on top. Beat with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes on speed 4 until fluffy. Stir through the cooled melted chocolate. Store covered in the fridge until needed. If the cream cheese icing is too firm, zap it in the microwave for a few seconds to rewarm.

Just before serving, top each cake with a generous dollop of the cream cheese icing and some chocolate flakes. 

The cupcakes were a hit and were described as the 'most delicious chocolate pillows' and best of all, the non fruit eating birthday girl didn't notice the zucchini in the cake. Even this non chocolate believer thought they weren't too bad.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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rhubarb and custard buns

rhubarb and custard buns

3 Aug 2026

I wanted to make as many rhubarb flavoured bakes as I could before rhubarb season was over. As you know, I do love a good bun and whilst I've made rhubarb buns before I wanted to make some rhubarb and custard buns inspired by the rhubarb custard buns at Juno The Baker.

I used my go-to bun dough as my base, adapted from a Sarah Keiffer recipe and made some rhubarb compote inspired by a Trine Hahnemann recipe and a batch of cold start custard from a Natalie Paull recipe. I put them together and hey presto, I had some rhubarb and custard buns.

Here's the recipe for you which will make 7-8 buns. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Rhubarb and custard buns
Rhubarb jam
150g rhubarb
55g caster sugar

Cold start thick custard
25g caster sugar
10g cornflour
pinch fine sea salt
20g cream
1 egg yolk
100g milk
½ tsp vanilla paste

Dough
1¼ tsp yeast
150 mls lukewarm milk
30g caster sugar
1 room temperature egg 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (300g) plain flour 
½ tsp salt
60g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the filling
50g unsalted butter, softened
55g caster sugar
1 tbs almond meal
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch seasalt flakes

To finish
1 egg lightly beaten/melted butter or cream

Rhubarb jam
Cut the rhubarb into one-centimetre pieces, place in a saucepan with the sugar and bring to the boil. Cook for five minutes, then drain through a sieve placed over a heatproof bowl. Return the juice to the pan, bring to the boil once more and cook down until a syrup forms. Leave to cool.

Cold start thick custard
In a medium bowl, weigh the sugar, cornflour, salt and cream. Add the egg yolks last and hand whisk to make a creamy paste. Stream the milk in then the vanilla (paste or scraped pod and seeds) and whisk well. Scrape the mix into a small saucepan.

Place the saucepan on a medium-high heat and hand whisk at a slow pace to allow the heat to suffuse through the mix. Work the small balloon whisk into the corners of the saucepan (where the custard thickens first). After around 3 minutes of whisking, the custard will start to look like a creamy liquid. Speed up the whisking now the custard will thicken fast. It will look lumpy but just whisk quickly and it will all come together into an evenly thick paste in another 1 minute.
As soon as it looks smooth and thick, slow down the whisking and wait for a few burp-like bubbles to pop over the surface. It's a super thick custard and your whisk should leave obvious furrows as it moves through the mix.

Take the pan off the heat and scrape the custard into a bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the custard to prevent a rubbery skin forming. Chill for at least 1 hour. 

Dough
Grease a large plastic container and set to one side. Combine the yeast, milk and sugar in a large liquid measuring cup and rest for 5 minutes or until foamy then stir in the egg and the vanilla. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the egg mixture and mix on low to combine. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been incorporated (about 10 minutes) increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, and the dough comes away from the side of the bowl. 

Transfer the dough to the prepared container. Cover the container with a lid or with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the container and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the container and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Replace the lid or tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours.

The next day, flour a work surface and knead the dough 10 to 12 times to activate the gluten. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the top lightly with flour, and cover with a tea towel and let come to room temperature.  

Make the filling by mixing all the ingredients into a smooth paste.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Roll the dough out into a rectangle measuring about 40 x 15 centimetres. Spread the filling evenly over the dough. Fold the left third of the dough in towards the centre, and fold the right third of the dough over that towards the centre, like you're folding a business letter.  Gently run the rolling pin over the dough to press out any big bubbles.  

Roll the dough out a bit more so that it forms a 16 x 30 cm rectangle and then cut across into eight two-centimetre strips. Take each strip and twist it, then roll each twist into a spiral. Place the rhubarb buns on the prepared tray, pressing down on each so they spread slightly. Cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes or until puffed and well risen.

While the buns are proofing, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional.

Make an indent in the top of the bun and spoon in 1 tbs custard, followed by a spoonful of the rhubarb. Brush the tops of the buns with the beaten egg, melted butter or cream. Place the buns onto the centre rack of the oven then bake the buns for 25-30 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with the reserved rhubarb syrup. Leave to cool on a wire rack before serving.

These are best served the day of baking and are so delicious, I wished I'd made a larger batch! If the whole rolling and folding is too much for you, just make scrolls like Juno did.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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Roasted Apple Cake

Roasted Apple Cake

27 Jul 2026

I recently celebrated a birthday and my sister gifted me a copy of the Monday Morning Cooking Club's new recipe book, 'A Year of Jewish Cooking'. Whilst our switchboard was being upgraded, leaving my building without power during daylight hours, I spent the day perusing the book from cover to cover.

I had some unexpected dinner guests recently and I needed to make a quick and easy dessert. I had Granny Smith apples in the fruit bowl so I decided to make the roasted apple cake from the book. It's definitely a rustic looking cake but it suited the family style meal I'd made. 

I've made the cake twice now and I've made a few small changes from the original recipe to suit the smaller tin size and what was in my kitchen at the time. Instead of lining the whole tin with baking paper as seen in the photos for the second cake, I just lined the base and the cake unmoulded easily. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17-cm cake, adapted from The Monday Morning Cooking Club. You can find the original recipe for an 8-inch cake in the Australian newspaper but it's under a paywall. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Roasted Apple Cake - serves 6-8
Apples
2½ large Granny Smith apples, peeled
15 mls unsalted butter
15 mls apple cider vinegar
35g brown sugar

Cake
100g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lemon

100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
115g self raising flour

pinch salt
60 mls yoghurt or pure cream
1 tbs sugar mixed with ¼ tsp cinnamon

To serve
Cream

Roasted apples
Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. Roughly chop the apples into 1 cm dice. Place in a small ovenproof dish with the butter, apple cider vinegar and brown sugar and mix together. Roast for 40 minutes, basting from time to time, until just cooked through. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Reduce the oven temperature to 170°C conventional. Grease, flour and line the base of a 17-cm springform cake tin with baking paper.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer and bear together for a minute or so to release the citrus oils. Add the butter and beat until very pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla, stopping the mixer and scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Using a spatula, fold it into the butter mixture, followed by the cream/yoghurt. Using the spatula, gently fold half of the roasted apples and any juices through the cake batter. 

Spoon into the prepared tin and scatter the remaining apples evenly on top. Sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream and the reserved cinnamon sugar. 

My brother-in-law took home the leftovers so I made a second cake to share with the neighbours and it was well received by all. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon and passionfruit mini cakes

lemon and passionfruit mini cakes

20 Jul 2026

 

It's passionfruit season here so I decided to make a batch of lemon and passionfruit mini cakes inspired by this Edd Kimber bundt cake recipe. I was going to bake the mini cakes in a friand tin but instead I dusted off my Texas muffin tin. 

I used passionfruit in all it's form, juice, seeds and pulp to flavour and decorate the cakes. I topped the cakes with lemon flavoured cream cheese icing but of course you could flavour the cream cheese icing with passionfruit if you prefer.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 mini cakes, adapted from this Edd Kimber recipe. The cream cheese icing recipe comes from Natalie Paull of Beatrix Bakes fame. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Lemon and passionfruit mini cakes - makes 6
Passionfruit Syrup
2 passionfruit
55g caster sugar 
50 mls water

Tiff’s Zingy lemon stuff (optional)
2 small lemons
2 tbs (40ml) water

Cake
3 eggs
185g caster sugar 
zest of 1 lemon
100ml light flavoured olive oil 
65g full fat yoghurt 
85g self raising flour
35g almond meal
35g fine semolina
¼ tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt flakes

Icing
125g full-fat cream cheese, softened
125g unsalted butter, squidgy soft
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
40g dried milk powder
pinch sea salt flakes
125g icing sugar
50g passionfruit pulp or  50g Tiff’s zingy lemon stuff 

To decorate
2 passionfruit

Passionfruit syrup
Put the passionfruit pulp into a small food processor and process to loosen the seeds. Pass through a sieve, separating the seeds from the juice. You should have about 20mls of juice. If it’s a bit less then top it up with some lemon juice.

Place the seeds in a small saucepan with the sugar and water, bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Cook on low heat for about 5-7 minutes or until syrupy. Pass the liquid through the sieve again reserving the syrup but this time discarding the seeds. Let the syrup cool before stirring through the reserved juice. Avoid heating the juice to retain its freshness.

Tiff’s zingy lemon stuff
Juice one lemon and place the juice in a non-reactive saucepan with the water. Trim the stalk end off the other lemon, halve it, and remove any visible seeds, then slice into thin half-moons and add to the lemon juice in the saucepan. Cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer over a low heat until all the pith is translucent. Take care the lemon doesn't catch any colour as it simmers. You can also use the microwave - cover with a lid and zap for 3-5 minutes on high. Cool, then whiz to a paste in a small food processor. Scrape the paste into a small container, doing a final seed check, and chill.

Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease a 6-cup Texas muffin tray with softened butter, then sprinkle with some flour and rotate to cover the entire tin. Turn the tin upside down over the sink or a bin to remove the excess flour then set aside in a cool place. If you like you can place a square of baking paper in the base of each tin. Set aside.

Place the eggs, caster sugar and lemon zest into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high speed, for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is pale and light. Meanwhile, in a jug mix together the oil and yoghurt. Add the oil mixture to the egg mixture and whisk briefly to combine. In a separate bowl mix together all the dry goods, then add to the liquid goods and mix briefly just until evenly combined. 

Using a large spoon, divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin tins ~ 100g/cake. Bake for 30 minutes on the centre rack or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Place the muffin tin on a wire rack and loosen each cake with a knife. Let the cakes sit on the rack for about 10 minutes before turning out onto the cooling rack. Return the cakes back to the tin before pouring about 1 tbs of the passionfruit syrup over each cake. Let the cakes rest for 30 minutes to absorb the syrup before turning them out onto a tray lined with baking parchment. Let the cakes cool completely before icing.

Icing
Place the cream cheese, butter, vanilla bean paste and milk powder in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Sift the icing sugar on top. Beat with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes on speed 4 until fluffy and pale. Stir through the passionfruit pulp or 50g of Tiff’s zingy lemon stuff. Store covered in the fridge until needed. 

If refrigerated, rewarm in the microwave in 20-second bursts until softened. Load the softened icing into a piping bag with a medium plain nozzle in place (I used my home made St Honore tip) and pipe onto the top of the cakes. Decorate with the passionfruit pulp.

I expected a syrup soaked cake to be a bit dense but the mini cake was lovely and fluffy and a genuine delight to eat.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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