Rhubarb Streusel Cake

Another recipe from Sue Lawrence's book 'On Baking' - this was the one I'd originally planned to bake, before I turned the page and saw the recipe for Date and Ginger Shortbread Squares, which I couldn't resist! I haven't added many rhubarb recipes to the blog this year, as my husband's favourite dessert is rhubarb crumble, which is so easy to prepare that I'm happy to make it regularly during the rhubarb season. This cake made a nice change from crumble, but to be honest, it wasn't as good!

Sue bakes this recipe in a 20cm (8") square cake tin, but it wasn't clear from the recipe how deep the tin needed to be, so I played safe and used a 22cm (9") round tin instead, then cut the cake into wedges to serve. It would have been OK in a shallow square pan, of the type used for brownies, as it wasn't a very deep cake, so now I'll know if I want to make it again. The dough base was quite scone-like after baking, and quite dry, rather than a light cake, but this was balanced by the moistness of the rhubarb layer on top. To enjoy this cake at it's best, it really needs eating fresh, on the day it is made.

The only change I made to the recipe was to roast the rhubarb and sugar, rather than cook it in a saucepan on the hob. I find the rhubarb is more likely to keep it's shape this way. I also drained off the juice formed during cooking.

Filling - 450g rhubarb, chopped into 3cm lengths, roasted with 50g light muscovado sugar at 180C for about 20 minutes, until tender, then cooled and drained.

Base - 85g ground almonds; 170g SR flour; 85g light muscovado sugar; 115g butter; 1 egg; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Streusel Topping - 2 heaped tablespoons porridge oats; 2 tablespoons plain flour; 3 tablespoons light muscovado sugar; 1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger; 2 tablespoons sunflower oil.

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and base-line a shallow cake tin  - 20cm square or 22 cm round.
Put the flour and almonds into a bowl and rub in the butter. Mix in the sugar, then the vanilla and the egg until everything is evenly mixed. This will not be a soft batter at this stage, more like pastry to handle.
Tip the dough into the baking tin, and use dampened finger tips to spread evenly over the base.
Carefully spoon the rhubarb over the base, leaving a small margin around the edges.
For the topping, mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl, then sprinkle evenly over the fruit.
Bake for about 50 minutes, until well-risen and golden. Cool in the tin.

Overall, this was a pleasant cake, but nothing special. If I made it again, I think I'd double the amount of topping, and perhaps add some flaked almonds, as the cake seemed a little unbalanced with such a small amount of streusel, although it was nice to see the pink rhubarb poking through.