Rhubarb And Yoghurt Cake

I love making a good cake and school holidays has been the perfect time for me to do some baking with the kids. They love helping to measure out the ingredients and mix it all together, but the best part is licking the spoon! I used to love doing that as a kid too. Like mother, like daughter!

The other day I picked up a big bunch of rhubarb from the clearance table at the fruit shop. I went in for two things, but came out with cauliflower, a bag of yellow capsicums, purple carrots and rhubarb. You can't take me anywhere!

Last time I cooked with rhubarb it was in a Jamie Oliver recipe with pork. See that recipe here. It was absolutely delicious, but I knew that I wanted to make something sweet with it this time. I was going to make a lovely tart with ricotta and lemon rind, but thought that a good old-fashioned cake might go down better with the mums and kids coming over for a play date this morning.

The yoghurt makes the cake lovely and moist and gives it a slight tartness. If you wanted a slightly sweeter version, use vanilla yoghurt instead of natural, or one of the gourmet flavoured yoghurts with a flavour that you think will match the rhubarb well. The brown sugar also gives a beautiful richness and molasses-y flavour to the cake. If you don't have vanilla sugar to sprinkle over the top, just use extra brown sugar or even just caster sugar.

I'm guessing that the cake was a hit with everyone this morning, given how quickly it was demolished!

I hope you enjoy baking this cake too.

Rhubarb And Yoghurt Cake

60g butter, at room temperature

1 tsp finely grated lemon rind

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup SR flour

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup natural yoghurt

A bunch of rhubarb, ends trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces (I had 10 sticks)

1 Tbs vanilla sugar

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.

Grease and line a 23cm round tin.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using hand beaters, cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each one. Add the vanilla with the last egg.

Fold in the sifted flours and yoghurt. The mixture will be quite thick.

Stir in the chopped rhubarb to combine.

Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and spread to flatten the top.

Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top.

Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee :-)