Rhubarb Crumble cake

 Is forced rhubarb one of the most glorious things to come out of England's soil? Every year I reliably forget the brief season and come away empty handed. Well, not this time. I snagged a pack of the lovely pink stalks a few weeks ago and made this very tasty cake. I made a crumble too, but it was baked and eaten all in one evening, when the light is not at all camera friendly.

Rhubarb Crumble tray bake (adapted from The Caked Crusader)

200g forced rhubarb

1tbsp light brown sugar

1tbsp flour 

*mix these together in a small bowl*

170g softened butter

185g icing sugar

155g self raising flour

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

300g of your favourite crumble mix 

0. Preheat oven to 180 C

1. Cream together icing sugar and butter. Take your time here to get a really fluffy whip. 

2. Beat in the eggs, little by little. The secret to stop splitting (say that with a mouthful of cake) is room temperature eggs!

3. Add the flour and vanilla extract and stir until just combined. 

4. Sprinkle the rhubarb/sugar/flour onto the cake in an even layer. 

5. Cover with crumble with wanton abandon and bake for 45 minutes, (unless you know your oven better!)

My crumble mixture is a decadent blend of not much flour, lots of crunchy demerara sugar, plenty of unsalted butter, a bit handful of rolled oats and some hazlenuts. But you can use whatever make you happy, just use plenty of it.

I added two fat pieces of crystallised ginger this time round too. Don't do this unless you're making your crumble in a food processor, you'll never chop them fine enough by hand. But if you are using a processor, the ginger is a must, it hugs the rhubarb in a lovely warm cuddle.