Rhubarb cinnamon polenta cake

I am a huge fan of rhubarb and have been searching everywhere for a plant to root in my garden. (Okay, so I really haven't looked EVERYWHERE, but I have asked at both local farmers markets and no luck. What more can honestly be expected of me?)

Last weekend, my moaning and whining about my rhubarb-free existence finally paid off and I was lucky enough to received some free rhubarb. I couldn't wait to dig in (pardon the pun), so I immediately turned to my new Nigel Slater book, Tender Vol. II, for his take on the sour stuff. The Brits seem to love rhubarb almost as much as I do, and use it in both savoury and sweet dishes. Of course, theirs sprouts up in February, which would be a welcome sight in any garden.

Anyway, this recipe uses cornmeal, or polenta, which gives the cake a crunchy texture that's rather nice.

I used the wrong sized tin for this, so it came out more tart like than cakey, but it's still good. It keeps well several days after baking, and manages to retain its tenderness too.

Get chopping!

Chop up 500g of rhubarb and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle with some sugar and a splash of water.

While that's baking, you get started on the crust, which comes together quite easily in a food processor. Press into a pan that's actually 20cm and you'll have better results than I did.


When the rhubarb's done cooking, you let it drain and cool for a bit in a colander, then spread it out over the crust.

And top it off with the leftover third of the crust and a sprinkling of turbinado sugar.

The end result looks like this. Slighty more cobbler looking than cake, but again, this would likely be rectified in a smaller pan. Though a bit flat-ish, the cake was remarkably moist.

Serve it with the reserved juices, which thicken once refrigerated. I'll definitely be making this one again, and so should you.

Rhubarb cinnamon polenta cake

From Nigel Slater's Tender Vol. II

Ingredients

For the filling:

500g rhubarb
50g golden caster sugar
4 tbsp water

For the crust:
125g coarse polenta *Nigel explicitly states that you're not to use the fine, sand-like cornmeal, but a coarser variety. I've never seem more than one grind for sale in Canada, so I used some pretty fine stuff and it wasn't a problem.
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of ground cinnamon
150g golden caster sugar
grated zest of a small orange
150g butter
1 large egg
2-4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp light muscovado sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

1. Cut each rhubarb stem into two or three pieces and put them in a baking dish
2. Scatter over the sugar and water, and bake for 30-40 minutes until the rhubarb is soft but still retains its shape
3. Put the polenta, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and caster sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Add the grated zest and the butter, cut into smallish pieces, then blitz for a few seconds till you have something that resembles breadcrumbs
4. Beat egg and milk in a small bowl and add to the crumb mixture. Blitz until just combined
5. Press about two-thirds of the mixture into the cake tin, pushing it a couple of centimeters up the sides with a floured spoon
6. Place the rhubarb on top, leaving a small rim around the edge uncovered and cover with the remaining batter
7. Scatter over the light muscovado sugar
8. Bake on the hot baking sheet for 45 minutes
9. Leave to cool before removing from tin and serve with the juice left over from the rhubarb

Grapefruit yogurt cake

I've had a grapefruit multiplication problem of late. I bought a dozen of them a few weeks ago, and while I've had almost one a day since, there's a mysterious handful left in my kitchen that just never goes away.

In a mild attempt at a citrus cull, I looked around for some grapefruit-themed recipes. I finally found this one, a Barefoot Contessa take on a slightly healthier pound cake, and opted to give it a go. I believe the original recipe calls for lemon, but grapefruit worked well, and I'd imagine good luck would follow with limes or even orange.

The result is a nicely textured cake that doesn't use any butter. It's moist and slightly sweet, with a good grapefruit flavour, though not as strong as I had hoped. I didn't make the glaze, because I found the grapefruit sugar mixture poured on when the cake's still warm to be enough.

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake
Adapted loosely from Ina Garten and found on Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 extra-large eggs
3 teaspoons grated grapefruit zest (approximately one large grapefruit)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup grapefruit juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the grapefruit-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar and grapefruit juice and pour over the cake.

Carrot cake with walnuts and marscapone icing

Have you ever had a craving for cake, and desperately want to give in, but talk yourself out of it because there are healthier things to eat, and all that sugar's not good for your teeth? And then there's the bother of finding the right cake pans at the back of the cupboard, and they'll likely need a wash, and you'll have to let the butter soften first, and bring the eggs to room temperature...and oh, it's all a lot of bother isn't it?

But then, if you're like me, your mind goes to carrot cake, because that's quite healthy, isn't it? I mean, it's bloody well got vegetables right inside it, so that's like eating a cake that's full of all kinds of goodness, not to mention being a boon for your eyesight. And it's chock full of walnuts too, and aren't they like cancer fighting nuts or something? I mean how could I not make this cake for the sake of my future well -being and ocular soundess!

Actually, the real impetus for making this cake is because I read about it in another food blog, written by the wife of Giles Coren. He's a well-known restaurant critic in the UK, but I like him best for his work on a show called Supersizers, which looks at cuisine in different eras of history. If you can find it on the Food Netwwork or online, I urge you to give it a look. It's really one of the cleverest shows ever, thanks to the witty banter between the two hosts. (And not to take away any credit from Coren's wife, who herself is a very good, and quite funny, writer as well.)

So the blog find spurred me into action, not only because it was cleverly written, but because I also adore Nigel Slater, the cake's creator, his writing and his recipes. This recipe is from his book Tender, which is full of mouth-watering vegetable-based treats. I think I would like for Nigel to live in my house and turn my backyard into a lovely vegetable garden like the one he cooks from year round in England. Er, I suppose that might be a bit of a challenge living in Ottawa, but he could try.

Anyway, on to the cake.....

Start by separating out three eggs.

I had to buy some sunflower oil especially for this recipe. I've never bought it before and had to seek it out at a Birkenstock-wearing-hippy-frequented-incense-smelling natural food store.

Grate your carrots and weigh them. British recipes are fun because you have to use kitchen scales and do math (okay, so the math bit's not that much fun).

Measure the walnuts too. You can see my measurements aren't exact, but I don't think a gram or two difference matters all that much.

Beat everything together until it turns this appetizing brown-ish barf colour.

And fold in the egg whites.

Place in a pan. The recipe calls for two 8-inch cake pans, but I couldnt' find/don't have any, so I made do with one 9-inch springform pan.

I ended up cutting my 9-inch cake in half to form layers, between which I spread the cream cheese/marscapone icing. This was my first time ever making cream cheese icing and I have to say it is a dangerous thing. I could eat marscapone straight from the tub. But I didn't. Well maybe just a spoonful, but that's it. I swear.

And this is the cake's top view. I omitted the orange zest from the icing, and it was still very tasty.

Overall, this cake wasn't quite as moist as I'd hoped it would be, but it is quite good. I'm sure you'll like it, especially if you're a fan of walnuts, as they make a plentiful appearance in this cake.

A carrot cake with a frosting of mascarpone and orange by Nigel Slater

For the cake

3 eggs
250g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt
200 ml sunflower oil
25og light muscovado sugar
150g carrots
juice of half a lemon
150g walnuts, roughly chopped

For the frosting

250g mascarpone cheese
200g Philadelphia
150g icing sugar
grated zest of half an orange
some whole walnut halves

1 Set the oven to 180C. Butter 2 x 22cm cake tins and line each bottom with a disc of baking parchment

2 Separate the eggs. Sift together the flour, bicarb of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

3 Beat the oil and sugar in a food mixer until well-creamed then introduce the egg yolks one by one. Grate the carrots into the mixture, add the lemon juice and walnuts and stir. At this point, the sunflower oil will float to the top of the mixture and look gross. Don't worry, this is normal.

4 Fold the flour into this mixture. I did this by hand, but Nige says do it in the mixer.

5 Beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold into the mixture with a metal spoon.

6 Divide the mixture between your tins and bake for 45 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean-ish ... because this is supposed to be quite a sticky cake, except it didn't turn out that way for me.

7 To make the frosting, beat the mascarpone, Philly and icing sugar together in a mixer until smooth and creamy. You stand a better chance of this happening if the cheeses are at room temperature when you start. Stir in the orange zest. Splash some in between your cakes to sandwich together and the rest on the top and on the sides. Decorate with walnut halves.

Eat a large slice and your optometrist will thank you.

Apple Blackberry Cake

My mum and I made this great little cake at the cottage over Labour Day weekend, and then I made it again last weekend for friends. It's from the September issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

The recipe's extremely easy, mostly because it skips the typical cake step of creaming butter and sugar. The butter's melted, which means you don't have to worry about having soft butter, which is never the case for me.

Both times I've made this cake with raspberries instead of blackberries, because that's what I happened to have. The problem with them is that they tend to burn a bit on top as the cake bakes, which doesn't make them look all that pretty, but doesn't affect the taste.

When I added the berries last time, three beetle-like bugs fell out of my punnet of raspberries and I had to fish them out of the cake. I bet Martha doesn't have to deal with disasters like that!

Peeling the apples for the cake. I used two very large Honeycrisp apples instead of Macs.

Ready to go in the oven. I had to use an 8 inch cake pan instead of a round 9-inch springform, because I don't own one. This is about the third recipe I've made this summer that calls for that size pan. Think it's time to buy one!

One thing to note is that with the amount of fruit called for, it's difficult to press the fruit down into the batter as the recipe calls for. There's not much room in a crowded pan!

Ready for a piece? The cake has a nice texture and the apples get soft, but still hold their shape. The berries kind of melt in alongside the apple chunks. Result? Yummy!

Apple Blackberry Cake

Granulated sugar for pan

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 oz. (6 tbsp.) unsalted butter melted, plus more for pan, plus 2 tbsp. cut into pieces

1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp. packed light-brown sugar

1/2 c. whole milk

2 eggs

4 McIntosh apples (about 1 1/2 pounds) peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges

1 c. blackberries

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, and dust with granulated sugar. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Whisk together melted butter, 3/4 c. brown sugar, milk and eggs in another bowl. Whisk into flour mixture.

2. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Arrange apple wedges over batter, and sprinkle with berries. Gently press fruit into batter. Combine remaining 2 tbsp. brown sugar and the cinnamon, sprinkle over fruit. Dot with remaining 2 tbsp. butter. Bake until top is dark gold, apples are tender and a cake tester comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cool. Serve with whip cream if desired.