18 May Rhubarb cake with meringue topping

Posted at 11:10h in Blog by

I’m a big believer in openness. So much so that sometimes I worry that I overshare on this blog and try to tone down my natural tendencies. Yet I have been given some feedback recently from a few different people and apparently you, the reader, likes to get personal. Don’t worry, I won’t hit you with a bomb of over-personal information right away (or perhaps you’d enjoy that) but I can commit to slowly opening up once more, perhaps a bit more like I used to when I first started this blog. When I examine my approach, there was no conscious change, yet I think that with time I started holding back a little bit with the fear of being seen as an emotional car crash. I love receiving feedback because it alters my perspective. It gives me a chance to let go of any fears I have and grow more into myself, even if sometimes that might be slightly dramatic or over-emotional. I am Slavic after all. And talking of those Slavic roots, here we have a cake based on my gran’s old recipe, only with seasonal rhubarb…

There were a couple of mishaps while making this: firstly, I misunderstand my mum when she was reading the recipe aloud and put too much butter in the dough, so it was too soft. Secondly, my mum put it on too a high a temperature in the oven. No matter. It was delicious nevertheless. Here however I give you the correct quantities and temperature, so that yours will be even better still.
Ingredients
500g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 egg yolks
350g of caster sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
800g rhubarb
150g raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks
Recipe
– Make dough out of the flour, baking powder, 125g of sugar, sour cream and egg yolks
– Take a handful of dough and put in the freezer
– Put the remainder of the dough in a plastic bag in the fridge
– Peel the rhubarb, cut into chunks
– Mix the rhubarb with the raisins and 100g of sugar
– Butter a baking tray and roll the dough out to fit the bottom
– Place this in a pre-heated oven for 10min at 180 degrees C
– Add the rhubarb mix and put it back in the oven for another 10min
– Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
– Add vanilla essence and the remaining sugar tot he whites and keep blitzing until the mixture thickens
– Pour this over the top of the rhubarb.
– take the small dough ball out of the freezer and grate over the top
– Bake int he oven altogether for a further 35min at a reduced heat (about 160 degrees C)
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