Rhubarb and custard cupcakes

Having recently moved my rhubarb into a new position, it has gone crazy! So, as the Wimbledon Ladies’ Final finished disappointing quickly, I had lots of time to try out lots of new recipes to use up my rhubarb!

Having decided to try out a rhubarb and lemon cake, I fancied making something with a Wimbledon theme and so decided on some tennis ball cupcakes. If I were making these for something special, I’d probably have made some more appropriate strawberry and cream flavoured cakes, or maybe even some Pimms flavoured cakes, but as they were just for fun, and I needed to make use of my rhubarb glut, I decided on rhubarb and custard flavoured cupcakes. These also gave me the opportunity to try out my new flavourings from Lakeland.

I followed my standard vanilla cupcake recipe, replacing the vanilla extract with 18 drops of the rhubarb flavouring and filling the cupcakes with rhubarb compote. I replaced the vanilla extract in the buttercream with 15 drops of custard flavouring. The rhubarb flavour did come through gently in the cakes but I think that it could have done with a bit more – I have suggested 20 drops in the recipe below. I’m not completely convinced by the custard flavour – I’m not sure that the custard taste really came through the buttercream – it didn’t taste particularly different to standard vanilla buttercream. I’ll have to try out the flavouring in something else to test this out.

Overall though, I did enjoy these cakes. I wasn’t sure that the grass nozzle (mine came in a set from Lakeland that is incredibly useful!) would give the right effect for the tennis balls, but it worked out pretty well. The cakes tasted good and the slightly sour rhubarb compote was balanced well by the sweet custard buttercream. Will definitely make these again.

Rhubarb and custard cupcakes

Ingredients

1. 110g butter, at room temperature
2. 225g golden castor sugar
3. 2 large eggs
4. 150g self-raising flour, sifted
5. 125g plain flour, sifted
6. 120ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature
7. 20 drops rhubarb flavouring
8. 300g rhubarb
9. 1-2 tblsp soft brown sugar

Buttercream:

1. 110g butter, at room temperature and very soft
2. 500g icing sugar, sifted
3. 15 drops custard flavouring
4. 60ml milk
5. Green and yellow paste food colouring
6. 100g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy this will take at least 5 minutes with an electric hand mixer – don’t rush this stage).
4. Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl.
5. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, a bit at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition. It should result in a lovely light mousse-like mixture.
6. Combine the two flours in a separate bowl.
7. Combine the milk and rhubarb flavouring in a jug.
8. Add one third of the flours to the creamed mixture and stir gently to combine.
9. Pour in one third of the milk mixture and stir gently.
10. Continue to add flours and then milk mixture alternately, stirring gently after each addition, until all have been added.
11. Spoon mixture into the cupcake cases, filling to about 2/3 full (or about 65g each).
12. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until lightly golden brown. The cakes will spring back lightly when touched, if cooked.
13. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in tin for about 10 minutes, before carefully placing on a wire rack to finish cooling.

While the cakes are in the oven:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
2. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Add the green and yellow food colouring until you reach the desired colour.
4. Put buttercream into a piping bag with a large grass nozzle.
5. Chop the rhubarb into approx. 2cm slices.
6. Place in a small saucepan with a splash of water and 1 tblsp soft brown sugar.
7. Heat gently until the rhubarb is soft.
8. Strain off any juices through a sieve
9. Mash the rhubarb gently and add extra soft brown sugar if needed. 

Once cakes are cooked and cooled:

1. Use a tea spoon to cut a cone out from the centre of the cakes.
2. Cut the top disk off each cone and retain.
3. Fill the hole in each cake with a teaspoon of the prepared rhubarb and then replace a cake disk onto each cake to seal the hole.
4. Pipe short grass-like spikes onto each cupcake until covered.
5. Leave to firm.
6. Mix the icing sugar with a small amount of water until it reaches a toothpaste-like consistency.
7. Place this icing into a piping bag with a small round nozzle.
8. Use a rounded knife to gently draw on the curves of the tennis ball onto each cupcake.
9. Pipe over these curves with the white icing.

Tomato tart tatin

I don’t make many savoury bakes, but this tomato tart tatin is delicious! 

I made this tomato tart tatin for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised how well it turned out! I had friends and family visiting for the day and wanted to make something tasty to accompany the buffet lunch I was putting together. 

I used a mix of medium tomatoes and cherry tomatoes: de-seeding them all took quite a while – but trust me, the faff is worthwhile! I didn’t really know what I was looking for when cooking the tomatoes, but if you keep an eye on them, you can tell when the tomatoes have softened all the way through. You can chuck all the tomatoes in the pan at the same time, but you will need to take the smaller ones out much before the bigger ones. I expected there to be quite a bit of juice, but there wasn’t very much at all – not sure if this was due to the tomatoes I was using. However, I deglazed the pan with the sugar and vinegar and drizzled these juices over the tomatoes. 

Having watched people bake tart tatins on Great British Bake Off and MasterChef, I fully expected the turning out of the tart to be really difficult! I was very pleasantly surprised to find the tart came out easily and looked really quite pretty! 

Overall, I was really impressed with this tart. It was simple, but a little time-consuming to make, and the completed tart was really delicious – light, crisp pastry topped with sweet and slightly sour tomatoes! It was perfect for a light summer lunch, and would be great as a vegetarian offering at a barbeque, or for a summer picnic. A great idea to use up a glut of home-grown tomatoes!

Tomato tart tatin

Ingredients

1. 25g butter
2. Splash of good olive oil
3. 800g medium and small mixed tomatoes, halved across the middle and seeds roughly scooped out
4. 1 tbsp light soft brown sugar
5. 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
6. 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves or oregano, plus extra to serve
7. 375g block all-butter puff pastry
8. Plain flour, for dusting

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C. 
2. Melt the butter with a splash of olive oil in your widest frying pan. 
3. Add the tomatoes, skin-side down, in a single layer (you can do this in 2 batches if they won’t all fit) and cook over a low heat until they have softened and have released their juices. 
4. Lift out with a slotted spoon and rearrange in a tart tin (roughly 23cm), skin-side down – cram them in as they will shrink a little and you don’t want any gaps. 
5. Add the sugar and vinegar to the pan, and cook until the pan juices are reduced and syrupy. 
6. Drizzle the juices over the tomatoes in the tin.
7. Scatter with the oregano or thyme and season.
8. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a good 25-26cm round. Lay on top of the tomatoes, and tuck the edges down. Use a fork to prick holes all over the pastry – this will help the steam to escape.
9. Sit the tart tin on a flat baking tray and bake for 30 mins or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. 
10. Let the tart sit for 10 mins, then run a knife round the edge to release the pastry. 
11. Carefully flip the tart over onto a serving plate or board and scatter with more herbs to serve.

Rhubarb and marzipan crumble cake

It’s been over a month since I last wrote a post! To be honest, I haven’t baked much until recently – I was away for much of July and the hot weather meant that it was just too hot to be stuck in the kitchen with the oven going! However, the gorgeous July weather also meant that my rhubarb kept on growing and I did need to bake something to use it up again!

Having not been particularly impressed with the rhubarb and custard cake I made last time, I decided to have a go at a different rhubarb recipe this time: rhubarb and marzipan crumble cake. I found this recipe recommended online and the only change that I made was the addition of the chopped hazelnuts. I love the crunch and the flavour that chopped hazelnuts give to the crumble mixture on my rhubarb crumble muffins and so decided that they would also be a great addition to this recipe.

This recipe is a definite hit! When making, there seemed to be an imbalance between the relatively small amount of cake, reasonable amount of rhubarb and huge amount of crumble, however, once baked, it turned out beautifully. The cake is deliciously moist and fairly tart and the crumble on top is crunchy and sweet. I took this cake into work and it went down a storm! Definitely one that I will be making again!

Update August 2014
Made this delicious cake again last week and I added 15 drops of Lakeland custard flavouring, which added a delicious sweetness to the cake. The cake took a very long time to cook and was very moist still in the middle. I think that the rhubarb gave out too much juice while cooking and so it would probably be a good idea to draw out some of the juices first. I have adapted the recipe below to suggest this. 

Rhubarb and marzipan crumble cake

Ingredients

1. 150g plain flour
2. 125g butter
3. 25g light muscovado sugar
4. 40g chopped hazelnuts
5. 100g marzipan, coarsely grated
6. 100g golden caster sugar
7. 2 free range medium eggs
8. 1tsp baking powder
9. 400g rhubarb, washed & sliced
10. 15 drops custard flavouring (optional)
11. Custard or clotted cream to serve

Method

1. Place the chopped rhubarb in a bowl and coat with 25g caster sugar. 
2. Preheat the oven to 190C.
3. Grease and base line a 20cm deep, loose bottomed cake tin.
4. Prepare the crumble topping: sift half the flour into a bowl and rub in 50g of the butter. Stir in the muscovado sugar, hazelnuts and the marzipan, then set aside.
5. Cream the remaining 75g butter with 75g of the caster sugar until pale.
6. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
7. Sift in the remaining 75g flour with the baking powder and fold in quickly to form a soft batter.
8. Spoon into the prepared cake tin, and spread level.
9. Tip the rhubarb into a sieve to drain away any juices and then scatter the rhubarb onto the creamed mixture.
10. Sprinkle the crumble on top to cover.
11. Bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden and springy.
12. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the tin.
13. Serve slices warm or cold with custard or clotted cream.