A cake to celebrate spring

I made a Rhubarb and Orange Cake on Friday night to celebrate the arrival of spring -- made the first pick of Rhubarb before going to work.

The recipe came from BBC Good Food magazine some years ago.

RHUBARB & ORANGE CAKE

Rhubarb mixture
12 oz rhubarb cut into 1 1/2 inch lengths
2 oz sugar
zest of an organge

Cake mixture

6 oz sugar
5 oz butter
2 eggs beaten
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 oz SR flour
4 oz ground almonds
juice of an orange

Topping

1 oz brown sugar
2 oz flaked almonds
1 oz butter


The first step is to stir 2 ozs on sugar and the grated zest of an orange into the chopped up Rhubarb - and then leave for an hour so that some of the bitter juices are drawn out.

For the cake mixture itself cream together the marg/butter and sugar, then stir in the flour, baking powder, ground almonds, eggs, orange juice then put into a 9 inch round greased cake tin. Drain rhubarb chunks and distribute over the surface of the cake.
Cook for 25 minutes at 170c (fan oven 170).

Prepare the topping by melting together the butter and brown sugar, then stirring in flaked almonds.

After 25 mins remove cake from oven and distribute topping over surface. Return to oven for 15 mins at 180 c (fan oven 160) - test centre is cooked and along to cool a little.

The cake is best served warm with fresh cream or ice cream.