Betty's rhubarb - a crumble and a tart

Dare I say it, but I think I can almost see a glimpse of light at the end of the house renovating tunnel. The demolishing stage felt neverending, but things are finally going back in. Plumbing  is underway, the rewiring is nearly finished and new insulation and plasterboard are going up. Plasterboard automatically makes the space look cleaner and brighter which is exciting.

There have been a few "oh my god, WHAT?!" discoveries and eyebrow raising moments in my six months of house-ownership, but thankfully they have been manageable and fixable without too much cost rather than devastating.

One of the more pleasant discoveries was finding rhubarb growing in the overgrown garden. I didn't expect to find anything edible growing there so it felt like a real treat. Thanks, Betty!

*Betty was the elderly lady who owned the house before me. We found a *lot* of her stockings tied round bits of trees when we were excavating the garden a couple of weeks ago. An elderly neighbour also told me she used to keep clothes in her microwave?! She sounds like quite a character!

As there wasn't a huge amount of rhubarb to use I baked a crumble and bulked it out with two eating apples. I also added a sprinkling of ginger and cinnamon since they pair well with rhubarb. The resulting crumble was incredibly tasty although perhaps a touch on the sweet side. I guessed the sugar quantity and underestimated how much sweetness the eating apples would add to the filling.

Lovely red filling! 

A few weeks ago I trimmed off more rhubarb with the intentions of making another crumble, but my Mum suggested a tart instead. After a raid of the fruit bowl I ended up making an apple, nectarine and rhubarb frangipane tart.

It was a very spur-of-the-moment decision to make a tart, so I used a roll of shop-bought shortcrust pastry from the freezer rather than make my own. Some may frown, but I am absolutely ok with the occasional baking shortcut, particularly when it comes to pastry... and custard powder. I have no shame.

Speaking of custard powder, this tart tasted even better the following day served with custard. Custard made from powder *and* shop bought pastry in one photo/pudding. Told you, no shame.

I definitely felt I achieved a better balance with the sweetness in this tart. I also liked the more fragrant, summery addition of vanilla and nectarine compared to my more autumnal flavoured crumble. My only disappointment with this tart was that it could have done with a few more minutes in the oven as I think there was a slightly underbaked bit of frangipane right next to the fruit layer. At least my pastry wasn't soggy. No soggy bottoms here!

On the whole though, as a spontaneous bake I was pretty pleased with my effort. It's also the first tart I've made in quite a few years. (Holy moly, last time was in 2012 if I don't count mini tarts I made in 2014. Seriously?!) Next time I'll have to be more organised and make my own pastry.

Rhubarb and apple crumble 
I recommend reducing the sugar quantity if you prefer a sharp rhubarb flavour.

fruit filling: 15oz (425g) red rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks
3oz (85g)  caster sugar
2 eating apples, cored and chopped into similar sized chunks
sprinkling of ground cinnamon and ginger

crumble:
4oz (115g) butter (I use slightly salted)
6oz (175g) plain flour
2oz (55g) porridge oats
3oz (85g) soft brown sugar

Preheat oven to 190C/ Fan 170C/ Gas 5 and grease a pie dish with butter. Chop up the fruit for the filling and put into a saucepan along with the sugar and spices. Gently simmer on the hob for a few minutes until soft, but not pulpy. Pour the mixture into the pie dish.

For the crumble topping, rub together the butter and flour in a mixing bowl then mix in the porridge oats and sugar. Spoon the mixture on top of the fruit filling in the dish. Bake for 30 - 40 mins. Serve warm with custard or ice cream. Or both if you're feeling decadent!


Rhubarb, nectarine and apple frangipane tart.

fruit filling:
7oz (200g) rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks
3 nectarines, chopped into similar sized chunks
2 eating apples, cored and chopped into similar sized chunks
a sprinkling of cinnamon (under 1/4tsp)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

one pack of ready roll shortcrust pastry (or make more own)

frangipane topping:
4oz (115g) caster sugar
4oz (115g) softened butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4oz (115g) ground almonds
1oz (28g) plain flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a handful on flaked almonds for the topping

Requires an 8 inch (20cm) tart/flan tin.

If you're making your own shortcrust pastry, prepare that first. If you're using shop-bought, roll it out big enough to cover the base and sides of the tin. Press it into the tin (using a left over scrap of pastry to push it into the grooves/sides of the tin) and prick the base with a fork. Cover with tin foil and weigh down with baking beans to stop the pastry from puffing up in the oven. I also leave the edges hanging over the tin and trim them back after the tart comes out the oven. 

Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6, until you can see the pastry turning golden, then remove the foil and beans and put back in the oven for a further 2 minutes to help dry the pastry out. 

Whilst your pastry case is in the oven make the fruit filling. Chop all the fruit in similar sized chunks and put into a large saucepan along with the cinnamon and vanilla. Gently simmer on the hob for a few minutes until everything has softened. Leave to cool whilst you make the frangipane topping.

Turn the oven temperature down to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4. For the frangipane, beat together the sugar and butter with a mixer for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add in the ground almonds, flour and vanilla extract and mix until everything is fully combined.

Pour the cooled fruit filling in the base of the tart case, followed by the frangipane mixture, which may need a bit of coaxing over the fruit filling with a palette knife as it's a stiffer mixture. Make sure the frangipane fully covers the fruit filling. Sprinkle a handful of flaked almonds over the top. 

Bake in the oven for at around 35 minutes until golden on top and the frangipane is firm to touch. (I forgot to write down how long it was in the oven for, but it was definitely over 30 minutes so keep an eye on it after half an hour),  Serve warm, but not hot, or completely cool. Both are delicious. Cream, ice-cream or custard make lovely accompaniments.

birthday cakes and other bakes

Hello! How's it going? I'm currently feeling a bit run down. I had a sick bug last weekend and this weekend I have a massive coldsore. I look delightful. In an attempt to not run myself into the ground further, I'm going to chill today with some knitting and catch up with blogging.

May and June were quite intense months between work and organising/doing house renovations. Things are moving forward on the house front though. I'm finally at the turning point where deliveries are arriving and things are ready to be installed. I'm looking forward to partitions going back up and the house looking more like a home again rather than a sad, gutted shell.

Anyway, this isn't a house renovating post, we're here for cake pictures. Right? I have a lot of family birthdays crammed into a few weeks in April/May so there's always an intense period of baking. It's tiring but also kind of brilliant. Three of the birthdays fall within a week so there is loads of cake to power through!

Blow away sponge

A cake for my Aunty's 70th birthday. I haven't baked one of these before, or if I have it was so long ago that I've forgotten, but Mum used to make these a lot. It's a fatless sponge, similar to a swiss roll I guess, so very light and fluffy. I sandwiched the sponges with cream, jam and fresh strawberries. I would love to make this again as it's so fresh and summery.

Black Lego brick cake

This is what happens when you leave baking to the last minute so you have to make something simple and the only fondant icing colour you have in the cupboard is black. I kind of love the brick in its basic glory though and oddly black is probably the most appropriate colour for my eldest brother. The cake itself is a Mary Berry basic sponge traybake cut in half and stacked with jam and butter icing sandwiched in between. Mary's traybake never lets me down, it's so good!  The cute lemon meringue cupcakes were baked by my sister in law.

Minecraft cake

This is actually my second Minecraft themed cake (first was for eldest nephew here) but this time it was for my youngest nephew. The cake was another Mary traybake but cut into smaller blocks and iced individually before haphazardly stacking into a structure. Whilst I baked the sponges my Mum did a cracking job of making all the fiddly figures to set on and around the cake.

Incredible Hulk cake

As an Incredible Hulk fan, this was my favourite cake of the bunch, evidenced by the fact I took more than one photo! Unsurprisingly, this cake comprises of..... you guessed it.... yet more Mary Berry traybake sponges.

It turns out making a Hulk cake isn't as straight-forward as one would think. Have a browse through Google Images and you'll understand.... The vast majority look pretty ropey! I think because there are so many different styles of the Hulk he's not got a go-to, recogniseable face to draw, if that makes sense? There were a couple of more hopeful looking cakes though, one of which had the Hulk breaking through a wall. I thought that looked cool so I followed that idea but drew a different face. Initially Mum and I tried to sculpt a 3D face to match the 3D fists but it looked horrendous. It was so bad I almost wish I'd taken a photo. Luckily we had enough green icing to make his face again on a flat layer. I think what we ended up with was presentable and recogniseable. The fists are definitely my favourite part though!

Other bakes:

Apple and mixed berry crumble

My Mum has owned this pretty, flower shaped Denby dish for a few years yet has never used it due to the impractical shape. Whilst I partly agree about it not being the most functional dish, I've always thought it would be great for a pudding. Back in April, I finally put the dish to use and it was glorious.

The crumble was attractively colourful and tasty and I loved how the petals of the dish made perfect portion sizes. The dish might get another outing soon as last month I discovered a few sticks of rhubarb growing in my new garden! Rhubarb crumble is most definitely on the horizon. 

Chocolate chip and pink smartie cookies

A few months ago I baked these biscuits/cookies (whatever you choose to call them) to take to my brother's house for dessert and served them warm with a dollop of Hagendaaz Praline and Cream ice-cream. OH MY GOODNESS IT TASTED AMAZING. I highly recommend it. They're basically The Hummingbird Bakery's chocolate chip cookies from their first cookbook. The only difference was swapping some of the chocolate chips for pink smarties.

What have you been baking recently, anything nice and summery? I've been optimistically flicking through my recipe books but have yet to make anything. I think it's safe to move away from the Mary Berry traybake though!

blueberry and pecan crumble loaf

This cake was so close to not getting photographed. Each time I came back to the cake tin another slice was missing so I thought I'd better take a few snaps before it disappeared completely.

Admittedly I have baked and documented this cake before, but that was surprisingly a long time ago in my first year of blogging so I thought it was worth sharing again. The cake has a lovely soft crumb, bursts of bright purple blueberries and a satisfyingly spiced, crunchy crust. The blueberries all sink to the bottom, regardless of a light flour coating, but it doesn't spoil the cake.

I was having an absent minded moment when I was measuring out the ingredients so I have a feeling I added 25g/1oz too much butter. I was rushing to get the cake in the oven before last week's episode of the Great British Bake Off so I was probably thinking about how much I loved Matt the fireman. It's a good job I had a freshly baked cake after that episode as I was very sad about the outcome.

The cake took far longer to bake than the 50-60 minutes stated in the recipe but I see I had exactly the same experience the last time I baked this cake.  It easily needed another 20 minutes.

Not much else to add, other than that it's a relatively quick, easy cake to bake and the addition of cinnamon and crumble gives it a comforting autumnal quality. I bet it would be good with custard. Mmmm, custard. Custard on everything.

Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days" book, first blogged here.

apple, blackberry and almond crumble

Last week mum and I had a crumble craving. Embarrassingly, I could probably count the number of times I've made a crumble on one hand. They're so quick and easy to make, not to mention incredibly tasty and comforting, that I have no idea why I don't make them more often.

Probably because I would become morbidly obese if I allowed myself to make pudding every night.

But at least with crumble you get to fool yourself that it's nearly healthy. Look, it has *two* types of fruit!

Sweet, buttery crumble with tart blackberries and apples. What's not to like? I toyed with the idea of using cinnamon but went with almond instead. I liked the sweetness and extra texture it added to the crumble topping. 

Apologies for the shoddy night time photographs, the grainy quality is pretty horrific. No amount of brightness or contrast could help, but the crumble was too tasty not to share.

Apple, blackberry and almond crumble

I didn't particularly follow a recipe, but this is roughly what I did:

filling:

1 small packet of blackberries

5 or 6 small eating apples - peeled, cored and cut into chunks

demerara sugar for sprinkling over the fruit

crumble:

100g plain flour

100g butter, cubed plus extra for greasing the dish

100g demerara sugar

50g rolled oats

50g ground almonds

handful of flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/Gas 4 and butter a small ovenproof dish. Cut up enough fruit to sufficiently fill your dish. Once you're happy with the amount, sprinkle demerara sugar on top. The amount you use will depend on personal taste or the type of fruit used. At this point you could choose to soften the apples by lightly simmering/stewing them in a pan with a small amount of water, but we were lazy and didn't so our apples were still a little bit crunchy (which I quite liked.)

To make the crumble topping, rub together the butter and flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, oats and ground almonds. Sprinkle your crumble mixture on top of the fruit in the dish and scatter a handful of flaked almonds on top. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for roughly 40 minutes until the crumble topping has browned. Serve warm with custard, cream or ice-cream. Personally, I'm a fan of Bird's custard :)