Ingredients
- Position an oven rack mid-oven, and preheat oven to 170.C.
- Grease and line the bottom of an 8 inch cake pan with baking paper. Set aside.
- For the syrup
- 1 ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ cup water
- 50g butter
- 4-6 green cardamom pods, cracked open with the side of a knife
- Method
- Melt together in a shallow pan and over a moderate reduce by half.
- As with any sugar work watch like a hawk, and don’t stir, but rather swirl the pan.
- Meanwhile wash, de-string and cut your rhubarb into appropriate lengths to fit the bottom of your pan in a snug single layer. Bear in mind the rhubarb will shrink a little as it poaches. Carefully lay the rhubarb into the hot syrup and remove pan from th
- Next prepare your cake batter
- In a small bowl combine
- 300g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- In a larger bowl cream
- 200g soft butter
- 200g soft brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp real vanilla essence
Upside-down rhubarb cake with cardamom caramel
Method
- Cake Batter Cream until light and doubled in volume then stir in 3 eggs, one after the other Tip a third of the dry ingredients into the creaming bowl and incorporate fully
- Gently fold in the remainder, half at a time, with a gentle hand or mixer on slowest speed
- Scrape down the sides of your bowl as your work
- If the batter is too thick add a little milk at a time, until only just loose enough*
- Line your prepared tin with a single layer of your poached rhubarb, and tip over enough syrup to fill any small gaps
- Reserve the remaining syrup for serving
- Tip in your batter, smooth it down, and gently tap the tin on the work surface to knock out any large air bubbles
- Place in the oven and set a timer for 30min
- From this point check your cake regularly through the oven door to ensure it isn’t colouring up to much; if it is cover with baking paper or foil
- At 45min press the top of your cake lightly; if it springs back it is done; if not return to oven and check at 5min intervals
- Remove and allow cake to stand in its tin for 30min
- To plate, cover the top of your cake tin with serving plate, and holding it in place, invert your tin
- If the tin doesn’t immediately lift off, hold it firmly to the plate and give a couple of short sharp shakes
- Lift the tin off and if necessary peel the baking paper from your cake
- Drizzle a little of the reserved syrup over the top and allow to stand for a moment while you whip up 1 cup of labneh 1T icing sugar ½ tsp of rose water Serve dollops along slices of your cake
- Best enjoyed fresh with friends and family
- *it seems counter intuitive but adding milk to ‘lighten’ cake batters actually makes for a tougher finished product, because it enables the gluten in the flour
- My advice - use as little milk as you can get away with
Comments
I love rhubarb; it has an unparalleled flavour and marries particularly well with apple. In this recipe I match it with some equally special flavours; green cardamom and tangy labneh perfumed with rose water. Note the slightly lower baking temp to avoid scorching the topping and developing bitter notes
Thanks to Lebanese Cuisine – labneh; Ann Robertson Free Range Eggs – eggs; and to Butlers Fruit Farm – rhubarb; for providing the ingredients used in the demonstration at the market
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