rhubarb apple cake
I'd been marooned at the doctors for an hour and saw some photos of a rhubarb and apple cake whilst looking through a magazine. The cake looked pretty good but when I went to get the recipe, someone had torn out the page. Who does that in this day and age, I thought, when you can photograph the recipe with your mobile phone? I will not be defeated so I decided to work with one of my old favourites, the country apple cake, adding a batch of oven baked rhubarb to the filling.
The cake itself doesn't take long to put together but the oven baked rhubarb is probably best prepared the day before making the cake so it has time to cool.
The pastry base is patted into the tin though I think it's easier to roll out the top than patting it out.
Those apples you see came directly from a tin. If you want to cook the apples from scratch you'd need to lightly stew 4-6 large green apples.
You never know how these things are going to work out but on this occasion the rhubarb and apple combination was a brilliant success and a combination I will use again in the future.
Here's the recipe for you, which makes an 17cm cake. 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 oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make a bigger version, use a whole egg in the cake batter and double everything else to make a 23cm cake. The baking time will remain the same.
Rhubarb and Apple Cake
Filling
1 quantity of drained oven roasted rhubarb
1 tin pie apple (400g)
2 tbs caster (superfine) sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Oven Roasted Rhubarb
1 bunch rhubarb, stalks washed and trimmed.
4 tablespoons caster sugar
The juice of half an orange
2 strips of orange rind, each strip ~ 5cm long
1 cinnamon stick
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Cut the rhubarb stalks into 5cm lengths and place into a baking dish with the orange rind and the cinnamon stick. Sprinkle with the sugar and drizzle the rhubarb with the orange juice. Cover the dish with foil or a lid and bake for ~ 20-30 minutes or until the rhubarb is cooked but still holds its shape. Remove the dish from the oven and allow the rhubarb to cool, still covered. When cool, remove the cinnamon stick (it can be washed and used again) and store the rhubarb in a sealed container in the fridge.
Filling method
Gently combine the apple, the drained rhubarb, sugar and cinnamon. Stir to combine then taste for sweetness and adjust as necessary.
Cake
1 cup self-raising flour
⅓ cup cornflour (corn starch)
2 tbs cup caster (superfine) sugar
100 gm unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tbs milk
Extra milk and caster sugar
Icing sugar and cream to serve
Cake method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly grease a 17cm spring form tin and line the base of the tin with baking paper
Sift the self raising flour with the cornflour. Put the sifted flours, the sugar and the butter into the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. In a small bowl combine the egg yolk, the vanilla and the milk.
With the food processor running, gradually pour in enough of the milk mixture and process until the mixture wraps around the blades. Using floured hands, press ⅔ of the mixture into the base and up the sides of the tin. Spoon in the apple and rhubarb mixture, which won’t completely fill the tin. Fold over any overhang of pastry from the sides of the tin, then using floured hands, flatten the remaining mixture into a disc (or you can roll this out with a rolling pin between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper) and cover the top of the cake. Don’t worry if there are a few holes. They’ll close over as the cake bakes. Brush the top of the cake with milk then sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar.
Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes at 180°C/350°F. If the cake is browning too quickly, cover the top with a piece of grease proof paper. Don’t be tempted to take the cake out too early as the cake mixture won’t have cooked through.
When cool dust with icing sugar and serve with cream.
I've been working on my photos from Etosha National Park, so when I get a chance I'll put together a post.
See you again soonish,
Bye for now,
Jillian
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