



Hi everyone, I'm back with a recipe *wooo*! Exams (A Levels) have made my life a little bit hectic at the moment, so have been finding it really hard to get posts written and photos taken. Today is Monday and I'm taking a little bit of time off from the books to make a well deserved healthy*ish* cake - what could be better?! The cake today is rhubarb & custard - sounds odd I know but trust me. Now when I was younger, I loved the rhubarb and custard hard boiled sweets (and still do for that matter) so when I came across this cake the other day at a fair in town, I have to give it a try and boy am I glad. It was very different from the usual cake I go for but was absolutely delicious! I knew I had to give making one a go so here I am. Now it's not perfect (I mean it isn't the most 'appealing' cake) but it's not bad for a first attempt - enjoy!

NOTE: the cake doesn't look all that appetising whilst making it but trust me, it'll turn out yummy in the end.





Oven Temp: 160 ° C Fan / 180 ° C / 356 F

Serves: 8 (generous portions)

Cooking time: 40-55minutes





Ingredients





Rhubarb: For the 4 large Rhubarb (approx 400g) 25g Agave Nectar or 50g Caster Sugar 4tsp Ground Almond Cake: For the 250g Butter (Softened) / Hard Marg 175g Kitul* or 250g Caster Sugar 150g Custard (I made mine but a pot of custard would be fine) 250g Self-Raising Flour 1/2tsp Baking Powder 4 Eggs 1tsp Vanilla Extract

*Kitul is a syrup substitute like agave nectar but contains a lot less fructose & glucose (5%) making it much better for you than Agave Nectar (other sugar substitutes will work just as well).





Method

Step 1 - First up is to make the rhubarb ready for the cake. Take your rhubarb and wash them, cutting off both ends in the process. Next you want to cut them in to 1 inch pieces (roughly of course).





Step 2 - Pour into a baking tray then drizzle your 25g of Agave all over them, making sure all the rhubarb is covered before putting them in the oven at 200

°

C for 15 minutes with tin foil over the top. Then take them out of the oven, give them a quick toss then place them back into the oven for 5 minutes. Take them out, draining off excess juice and then add the ground almond. Stir then place in a bowl to the side.





Now for the actual cake making!

Step 3 - Butter your baking tin - I used a deep one (about 5 inches in height) - and leave to one side





Step 4 - Put the butter (softened I may add), Agave, custard (leave aside 1/3 for topping), flour baking powder, eggs and the vanilla into a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until it is all combined. (You can add all the custard to the mix if you're not too much of a fan - the lumps can be a little too much)





Step 5 - Place a 1/3 of the cake mix in the bottom of the tin and spoon over 1/3 of the rhubarb. After this place another 1/3 of the cake mix on followed by 1/3 of the rhubarb, smoothing down the cake mix as you go. Lastly, pour the rest of the mix into the tin making sure it creates rough peaks followed by the rest of the rhubarb and finally dollop the custard around the top. Place in the centre of the oven for 40-50minutes until brown and springs back when lightly pressed.





Step 6 - Take the cake out of the oven and leave to cool for around 20minutes. After this you can slide a knife around the sides of the tin and push the cake out onto a cake. Lastly, sprinkle the top with a little icing sugar (if you want) and then enjoy!









Overall, I would say that it turned out quite well and letting it to cool completely, or even overnight, really enhances the flavour. Perhaps next time I would try it with sugar as the sweetness was slightly mild but then again I could just add a little more Agave, I would also add a lot more almond as it only came through subtly and I love almond! This is definitely a cake to try but I think needs a little more work to perfect it! The last thing I would change would be to make the lumps of custard smaller on the top as it was a little overwhelming in such large clumps.





Let me know if you guys give this a go or have any other slightly exotic recipes which you may have!





Speak soon,

Harriet xo















