Thursday 11 May 2017

Rhubarb Vanilla Yogurt Cake

I happened upon this recipe, on the Riverford Organic Farmers website, by chance, while looking for new recipe for a rhubarb cake. I wanted one which didn't use a lot of fruit, as my crowns aren't doing well this year (I think it was the lack of a prolonged cold spell during last winter).

All I can say is that I'm thrilled to have found this recipe; it made a perfect cake! As an added bonus, it couldn't be simpler to make - dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another then combine the two and mix briefly. The rhubarb was even mixed with the dry ingredients, reducing the steps needed to mix the batter even more, as fruit is often folded in separately at the end. I think it's probably quite important to keep the rhubarb pieces small, so that they don't sink through the cake during baking, but the raw cake batter was thicker than normal, which also helps.

I did make one change to the recipe - I only had vanilla yogurt available, rather than plain, but as I wasn't adding an additional flavour, only a little more sugar, I decided to go ahead anyway. The resulting cake was light but moist, with a really tender crumb, and it wasn't too sweet either (even when using a sweetened yogurt), allowing the tart flavours of the rhubarb and orange zest to show through. It was fantastic while still warm, as a dessert, and almost as good when it was completely cold, eaten as a cake. This is definitely a cake to make again!

4 comments:

Katie said...

That looks wonderful. The kind of cake I can imagine eating with a large pool of custard too

Phil in the Kitchen said...

Rhubarb and cake is a fine combination - it looks and sounds very, very inviting. To be honest, I'm slightly bothered about the tablespoon of orange flower water in the original recipe. If it's one of the more powerful versions of that flavouring then I doubt that you'd taste much else.

Suelle said...

I think you're probably correct, Phil - I've certainly had similar problems with rose water.

Snowy said...

I agree with both of you - both the flavourings can be overpowering.
This cake sounds and looks delicious, and it'a great to have a new recipe for using rhubarb.