Dad’s off to Brighton tomorrow. He’s taking fresh rhubarb. He’s taking Rhubarb’s Marmalade. I’m doing a last ditch attempt to send more rhubarb down in cake form.
As such, this evening I baked up Rhubarb Crumble Cake from Jane’s Patisserie. I’d never been to Jane’s site before, but the recipe randomly showed up on the news/links section of the Chrome homepage on my phone this morning. Probably not that randomly, really, as I’ve been searching ‘OMG, WTF DO I DO WITH ALL THIS RHUBARB, GOOGLE?!’ and lo, Google decided that it would provide. Anyhow, it looked simple and tasty, so I thought ‘who am I to pass on this sign from the gods?’ and I went for it.
It was very simple to make, quite soothing in that way that cake batter can be. Making a crumble mix is always pretty satisfying, too, especially when you have cold butter so it turns into crumbs properly (Dad hasn’t quite twigged that now it’s getting warmer, the butter belongs in the fridge). I halved Jane’s crumble mixture because I wasn’t planning on doing anything else with crumble, and it seemed to be the right amount. I did need to give it 30 minutes longer to cook, hence some extra browned bits on top, but I’m 99% sure that’s my oven, not the recipe. The oven is shite, and there’s no point in replacing it until we move because I want to get a wider one so cake pans fit on the same shelf. That won’t fit in the space we currently have.
The taste results are a bit mixed. The rhubarb is too tart for my palate, but that’s not a recipe fault, and a lot of people do prefer their rhubarb on the tart side. I’m not one of them. The sponge tasted nice, and I liked the crumble crunch on the top a lot – something I’d like to use on other things. Adding some cream didn’t do it for me, either. However, dad enjoyed it and reckons that the rhubarb isn’t too tart, so I think this is down to tart tolerance. I’m wondering if soaking the rhubarb in sugar for a few hours (or overnight) would improve the sweetness for me.
I’m thinking I’m going to try a few more of Jane’s recipes, because there are some pretty delicious looking desserts on there. Without rhubarb. The Chocolate Orange Cheesecake looks especially appealing.