Sometimes you have an idea for a cake and you know where you want to end up and you think you know how you’re going to get there. This cake turned out wonderfully but was the result of misreading a couple of my old recipes by using double the amount of sugar and over chopping my crystallized ginger into a paste. Luckily because I changed the sugar to dark brown muscovado and the rhubarb is so tart this worked perfectly and the ginger being minced made for a more even ginger flavour. I also managed to look at the wrong cooking time and ended up having to send my husband off on the school run as the cake took longer to cook than I thought.
I’d planned to take my daughter to see Harry Hill after school (he was shooting a movie locally) as she was keeping a diary for the class toy dog and had thought it would be cool to have a picture of Cecil and Harry together. So as I’d been told he was shooting until 7pm and feeling guilty that I’d let my daughter down we scurried from the dinner table and arrived just as he was leaving the garden where he’d been shooting. I’d met Harry once before 12 years ago at the filming of the pilot episode of TV Burp and he’d given me a fake sausage which he’d used as a moustache in a sketch. I decided that as I’d missed the opportunity to get this signed all those years ago it was time to right that wrong (and of course it would be worth far more on e-bay as I explained to him LOL). Harry even remembered the sketch which was good as bystanders did remark this was probably the first time he’d been asked to sign a sausage! I took a picture of my daughter with Harry and Cecil (so funny as she was so shy), so all in all we had a successful day after all! Some things are just meant to be:-)
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- Harry signing my sausage.
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- Harry posing with my shy daughter!
My husband and son loved this cake as did I with only my daughter refusing to try it as she’s not a fan of ginger! I will definitely be making this again. This cake will keep for a couple of days but is best on the day of baking.
As this recipe is seasonal I am entering it into Simple and in Season run by Ren Behan and as it’s made from scratch I’m also entering it into Made with Love Mondays from Javelin Warrior’s Cookin w/Luv.
Rhubarb & Ginger Cake
Ingredients
- 230 g Rhubarb chopped into 1.5cm pieces
- 30 g Almonds finely chopped
- 150 g Butter softened or Flora Buttery (which I used)
- 150 g Dark brown muscovado sugar
- 30 g Crystallised Ginger minced in a herb chopper or finely chopped
- 150 g Plain flour
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 2 Large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190°C.
- Butter and flour a large loaf tin (21.5cm x 11.5cm x 6cm).
- Sprinkle chopped almonds into base.
- Whisk butter and sugar together until creamy
- Add the eggs beating in one at a time. Don’t worry if the mixture splits.
- Beat in the minced ginger.
- Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold in gradually.
- Fold in the rhubarb.
- Place mixture into the loaf tin and spread out evenly with a spatula.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for about 50 minutes or until cake springs back to touch in the centre or a scewer comes out clean.
Would you think it’s ok to use fresh ginger root??
Hi Emma, I notice there is a Nigella recipe online which has 2 tsp of freshly grated ginger in it but as it’s on a US site I can actually click to see the whole recipe. I wouldn’t like to recommend substituting fresh ginger for crystallised as they are 2 different ingredients in composition and flavour and without having tried it I can say what the outcome would be.