Cakes & Bakes: Rhubarb upside-down cake

Slice of home-made rhubarb upside-down cake with cream | H is for Home

We planted a rhubarb crown in a dolly tub in our garden about 3 years ago. Gardening/allotment experts say you should allow a young plant at least a year without harvesting to encourage vigour. We’ve finally felt able to pick a few stalks this year.

Rhubarb plant in a vintage dolly tub in our garden | H is for Home

I’d normally use it to make a crumble however, I’ve never made a rhubarb upside-down cake before and thought it would go down a treat.

Soft brown sugar and butter in a cast iron skillet | H is for Home

I tweaked a recipe I found on the Guardian website. The results were so delicious, I’m already planning on reusing the recipe to make a pear upside-down cake next week.

Sliced rhubarb in a cast iron skillet | H is for Home

I love the pretty patterns that you can make with fruit on the ‘top’ of upside-down cakes.

cake batter ingredients | H is for Home

The cake batter is one of the easiest I’ve ever thrown together. It calls for vegetable oil instead of butter, a couple of eggs, caster sugar, flour and baking powder – just mix the wet into the dry ingredients. It takes all of about 3 minutes!

Cooked rhubarb upside-down cake still in the skillet | H is for Home

The soft brown sugar and butter in the base of the skillet came together to form the most wonderful, chewy caramelised edges.

Home-made rhubarb upside-down cake | H is for Home

It was lovely with a little pouring cream but it would be equally good – hot or room temperature – with vanilla ice cream or on its own.

Save the recipe to Pinterest here!

Rhubarb upside-down cake
Serves 8
Ingredients
  1. 80g/3oz diced unsalted butter and a bit more for greasing
  2. 140g/5oz soft brown sugar
  3. 4-5 stalks rhubarb
  4. 150g/5¼oz caster sugar
  5. 175g/6oz plain flour
  6. 1 heaped tsp baking powder
  7. 150ml/5 fl oz sunflower oil
  8. 2 large eggsHome-made rhubarb upside-down-cake ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
  2. Grease a 30cm/12-inch cast iron skillet with a little butter
  3. Scatter the brown sugar and butter over the bottom of the skillet and put it in the oven for 5 minutes
  4. Remove the skillet from the oven and press the raw rhubarb into the melted butter and sugar
  5. Mix the sugar, flour and baking powder in a large bowl
  6. In a measuring jug, beat the vegetable oil and eggs together
  7. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix well
  8. Pour the batter over the rhubarb in the skillet and return the pan to the oven for about 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes away clean
  9. Allow the cake to cool in the skillet on the top of the stove before running a sharp knife around the rim and carefully turning the pan upside down on to a plate
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Adapted from The Guardian
Adapted from The Guardian
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/
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Cakes & Bakes: Rhubarb and custard tart

Home-made rhubarb and custard tart | H is for Home

One of the things that Todmorden is famous for is Incredible Edible, a group of local people who have started something of a revolution, growing food in public places in & around the town centre.

Incredible Edible rhubarb, peas, onions and chives growing in Todmorden Train Station car park

There are vegetables outside the police station and local community college, herbs along the canal tow-path and in the train station and an apothecary garden in the grounds of the health centre.

Stalks of rhubarb with metal colander

Everything is free for anyone to come along and help themselves – or even do a little weeding and clearing if the fancy takes them!

Measuring jug with eggs, custard powder and vanilla essence

The train station is on one of our daily dog-walking routes and it’s been lovely watching the progress of the peas, red onions, chives and the like.

Making custard

This week, along with the dog, I left the house with a pair of scissors and a carrier bag and cut a few stems of rhubarb – to use in a rhubarb and custard tart.

Pouring custard on tart pastry base

Rhubarb & custard is a classic British combination as is baked custard tart. I’ve put them together and come up with a delicious dessert.

Sticks of rhubarb in custard

I used the same pastry recipe as last week’s pear tart and made sure to add a tad more sugar than normal to the custard recipe… and a tablespoonful of Bird’s Custard Powder.

Home-made rhubarb and custard tart | H is for Home

The sweetness of the custard and the tartness of the rhubarb worked incredibly well – I’ll be making this one again before the end of the rhubarb season.

Home-made rhubarb and custard tart | H is for Home

Rhubarb and custard tart

Cook Time 40 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine British
Servings 8 slices

Ingredients
  

For the pastry base

  • 200 g/7oz plain flour
  • 60 g/2oz icing sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 125 g/4½oz very cold butter
  • 1 egg yolk

For the custard

  • 400 ml/14 fl oz double cream
  • 100 ml/3½ fl oz creamy milk
  • 2 eggs plus 2 yolks
  • 100 g/3½oz caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp custard powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

For the pastry base

  • Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine
  • Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely - you'll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that's just fine
  • Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition
  • When the egg is in, process in long pulses - about 10 seconds each - until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds
  • Just before your pastry reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change, so listen out
  • Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Very lightly and sparingly - make that very, very lightly and sparingly - knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing
  • Butter the tart tin and press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the tin. Don't be stingy - you want a crust with a little heft because you want to be able to both taste and feel it. Also, don't be too heavy-handed - you want to press the crust in so that the pieces cling to one another and knit together when baked, but you don't want to press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly shortbread-ish texture
  • Freeze the pastry for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking
  • Preheat the oven to 175ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 4
  • Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminium foil and fit the foil tightly against the pastry
  • Bake the pastry for 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. If the pastry has puffed up, press it down gently with the back of a spoon
  • Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer the pastry case to a cooling rack; keeping it in its tin

For the custard

  • In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, slowly bring the cream and milk to a simmer
  • In a large, heat-proof measuring jug, whisk together the eggs, yolks, sugar, custard powder and vanilla extract
  • Pour the hot cream & milk mixture into the bowl, whisking continuously
  • Carefully strain the custard on to the cooked pastry base (don't overfill)
  • Slice the rhubarb into lengths and place into a pattern in the custard
  • Carefully put the tart tin into the oven (rearrange the rhubarb lengths if they drift in the liquid during the move!)
  • Bake for 40 minutes or until the top begins to brown
  • Remove from the oven, sprinkle a little granulated sugar over the top and allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving
Rhubarb & custard tart ingredients
Keyword custard tart, fruit tart, rhubarb, tart

Cakes & Bakes: Rhubarb, apple & cardamom crumble

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Home-made rhubarb apple & cardamom crumble | H is for Home

In a recent post, we mentioned that Justin wasn’t a massive fan of fruit crumble – there was utter disbelief amongst some of our readers! We’ve talked through it over recent weeks – it’s good to get things out in the open. To be precise, he doesn’t like a soggy zone between the fruit & browned topping. The merest hint of uncooked, wet flour and there’s real distress.

Now we’ve identified the true cause of his phobia, we’ve been able to work through it together (with the help of a crumble counsellor) and have experimented with different methods. We don’t add any water to the fruit or pre-cook it any more – and top with thinner layers of crumble mix to produce crispy, crunchy perfection. There’s no stopping him now – strawberry, pear, plum – bring it on!

Cardamom pods

So, for this week’s Cakes & Bakes we’ve got a crumble – rhubarb, apple & cardamom crumble.

Sugared crumble fruit

The cardamom adds a distinctive and really interesting twist…

Crumble ingredients

…and chopped almonds in the topping also worked well.

Uncooked rhubarb apple & cardamom crumble | H is for Home

So, the only decision left to make – custard, cream or ice cream. It was a custard kind of day for us!!

Bowl of rhubarb apple & cardamom crumble with custard | H is for Home

Second helpings for Justin – we really have moved forward from those dark, crumble-free years!

Pin the recipe for later!

Home-made rhubarb apple & cardamom crumble | H is for Home

Rhubarb, apple & cardamom crumble

Course Dessert
Cuisine British
Servings 2

Ingredients
  

  • 2 large stalks of rhubarb
  • 1 Bramley apple
  • 50 g/1¾oz demerara sugar
  • 3 cardamom pods
  • 100 g/3½oz plain flour
  • 25 g/1oz rolled oats
  • 10 g/⅓oz almonds roughly chopped
  • 75 g/½oz cold butter cubed

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6
  • Remove the cardamom seeds from their husks and grind finely with a pestle & mortar
  • Slice the rhubarb into 2½cm/1inch slices
  • Peel, core & chop the apple into 1cm/⅓ cubes
  • Put the rhubarb, apple, half the ground cardamom and 2tbs of the sugar into a medium-sized bowl and mix until the sugar coats the fruit evenly
  • Decant the mixture into a 30cm x 15cm oven-proof dish
  • In a medium-sized bowl, add the flour, oats, sugar, chopped almonds, butter and remainder of the cardamom. Rub in the ingredients with your fingers until they resemble coarse, lumpy breadcrumbs
  • Cover the sugared fruit evenly with the crumble mixture
  • Cook for 20-30 minutes until the top has begun to brown and fruity syrup is bubbling up
  • Allow to cool slightly and serve with custard or vanilla ice cream
rhubarb, apple & cardamom crumble ingredients
Keyword apple, cardamom, crumble, fruit crumble, rhubarb

Cakes & Bakes: Rhubarb and berry shortcake pie

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Rhubarb and berry shortcake pie | H is for Home #recipe #rhubarb #baking #pie #shortcake

We have a rhubarb plant growing in a dolly tub our garden that hasn’t done at all well this year. The stalks normally stand tall and to attention but they seem to have lost their va va voom. They’re thin and bendy from the weight of their huge leaves. I decided to chop them all down today in the hope that they’d revive with more vigour next year.

We also still have an ice cream tub full of frozen blackberries that we picked late last summer. We kept some back when we did our jam & jelly making to use in compotes, crumbles etc. Ripening fruits are already in evidence on this year’s bushes so I thought I’d clear out the freezer in readiness for the new crop.

I found and adapted a rhubarb, blueberry and strawberry shortcake pie recipe found in Pie: Delicious sweet and savoury pies and pastries from steak and onion pie to pecan tart by Dean Brettschneider. It’s very much like a cobbler and is delicious hot or cold with vanilla ice cream, cream or – my favourite – a dollop of Rodda’s classic Cornish clotted cream!

Rhubarb and berry shortcake pie | H is for Home #recipe #rhubarb #baking #pie #shortcake

Rhubarb and berry shortcake pie

Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • For the shortbread
  • 125 g butter softened & cubed
  • 125 g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 225 g plain flour
  • 25 g cornflour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • For the filling
  • 3 –4 stalks rhubarb
  • 3 tbsp Demerara sugar
  • 250 g fresh or frozen blackberries
  • 125 g fresh or frozen blueberries
  •  
  •  

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF/Gas mark 6
  • Line a shallow 20–22cm round cake tin or flan dish with baking/parchment paper
  • Put the cubed butter and caster sugar into a medium mixing bowl and, using a hand-held electric whisk, combine until light and fluffy
  • Add the egg before sifting in the flour, cornflour and baking powder. Combine until just mixed
  • Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the tin/dish
  • Set aside the remainder of the dough, covering it with cling film
  • Trim & slice the rhubarb before putting it into a large, non-stick frying pan
  • Sprinkle over the Demerara sugar
  • Put the pan over a low heat shaking the pan occasionally, until fruit is almost tender
  • Add the blackberries & blueberries to the rhubarb, gently mix for a few seconds before turning off the heat and allowing the fruit to cool
  • Spread the lukewarm fruit over the shortbread base before carefully dabbing pinches of the leftover dough over the top, allowing a little of the fruit to peep through
  • Bake for 30 minutes or until the shortcake top turns golden brown
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack and then onto a serving plate
  • Sprinkle the top with icing sugar, slice and serve!