Monday, May 16, 2011

Classic Rhubarb cake – Klassikaline Rabarberikook (Est.)


This is a retro recipe cherished by many generations. Ask an Estonian and they would know this cake and they would smile picturing it in their mind.

The below recipe is for a cake form of  25cm x 38cm.

Base dough:
150g butter
100g sugar
1 egg
250g plain wheat flour
A good pinch of salt
0.5 – 0.75 teaspoon baking powder

Filling:
400g Rhubarb cut into pieces
8 table spoons sugar
Cinnamon, 0.5-1 teaspoon

Top layer:
3 large eggs (63g+)
3 full table spoons sugar
3 full table spoons flour, same as above

For the dough: Mix the butter with sugar with a mixer, add the egg and mix again. Add the flour, salt and baking powder and mix the dry ingredients together before mixing with the butter. Form the dough into a ball and leave to settle in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Peel and cut the rhubarb into slices.

Heat the oven to 175 degrees C.
Roll the dough more or less into the size of the baking form and place in the form on the baking paper. Form the dough with your hands to fit and cover the bottom. Only cover the bottom, no need to have the dough cover the sides. Bake for 10 minutes until the dough seems cooked from the top and slightly brown from the edges. Pre-baking the bottom is good as the filling and top is heavy and juicy raw and the dough my remain uncooked - not so tasty.

Mix the eggs and sugar in a bowl until the egg forms almost white and very thick foamy mixture – ca 10 minutes. Take a sieve and sieve the flour into the egg-sugar mixture and stiring very carefully mix the flour with the egg.

Mix the rhubarb with sugar and lay the pieces on the pre-cooked dough.
Powder the rhubarb with a very light layer of cinnamon.

Now add the egg-sugar-flour mix on top and bake for further 30-40 minutes until the top firms and turns light brown. I don´t recommend putting an aluminium foil on the top to avoid too quick browning as the cake raises and may stick to the foil. Instead, if you see the colour change too fast, lower the temperature to 150C.

Let the cake cool down in the warm oven with the door slightly open. Cover with powder sugar to give it an appetizing visual effect.

Tastes great with a glass of cold milk.

For a variation of this classic cake add strawberries cut into thin slices or small pieces and place on top of the rhubarb.