Peach and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

This cake was created as a result of a glut of rhubarb and those peaches you buy to ripen at home and then they all ripen at once and you have to use them quick before they get over-ripe! It's really moist and the perfect 'pudding cake' as it can be eaten as warm or cold as a dessert with cream, yogurt, custard or ice-cream.  It is also just as nice as a slice of cake with a cup of tea or coffee.

Peach and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

Topping
4 peaches or nectarines
1 large  or two medium stalks of rhubarb, thinly sliced
125g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
125g soft brown sugar

Cake
125g softened butter
125g soft brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
125g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

For the topping

1. Melt the butter and mix with the soft brown sugar. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and spread the butter and sugar mixture in the base of the tin.
2. Skin the peaches by placing in a bowl and covering with boiling water, leave for 2 minutes, then lift them out and the skin should slip off easily.  Slice the peaches into even slices and place on the sugar mixture in a pleasing pattern.
3. Cover the peaches with the thinly sliced rhubarb.

For the cake

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat well with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes until well blended.
2. Spoon the mixture over the peaches and rhubarb and smooth the top.
3. Bake at 190C/170C fan for 25 minutes or test with a skewer, the cake is done when the skewer, when placed into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove from the tin and either serve warm or cool on a cooling rack. 

As it is the season for peaches, here are a few more ideas for cooking, baking and preserving them :

Peach Coffee Cake - Little Sunny Kitchen
Cinnamon Peach and Ice Cream Waffles - Made With Pink
Peach and White Chocolate Cake - Tin and Thyme
Peach, Marzipan and Amaretto Crumble - Casa Costello
Peach and Apricot Jam - Fab Food 4 All
Peach and Ginger Compote - Natural Kitchen Adventures
Peach Upside Down Cake - Jen's Food

I'm adding this Peach and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake to the Midsummer Madness themed Love Cake Linky run at JibberJabber UK

This will also be my contribtuion to Bake of the Week over at Casa Costello

Labels: baking, cake, glut, Peach, rhubarb, Upside-Down Cake

posted by Janice @ 19:54 27 Comments

Rhubarb and Ginger Trifles

This is a rhubarb recipe you can make with only two stalks of rhubarb and it will feed a family of four.  I usually have a pack of trifle sponges or some sponge fingers in my cupboard as I find that a trifle will stretch the most meagre of ingredients into a feast.

Rhubarb and Ginger Trifles
Serves 4

4 trifle sponges
2 tbsp Madeira, Sherry or orange juice
2 stalks of rhubarb
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp caster sugar
250g ready made custard
150 ml double or whipping cream
20 g flaked almonds

1. Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and place in a saucepan with the ginger and the sugar, heat gently until the juices run and the rhubarb is soft.  Put the rhubarb to one side to cool.
2. Place one trifle sponge in the base of each of the ramekins, pour 1/2 a tbsp of Madeira, Sherry or orange juice over each one. 
3. Divide the poached rhubarb between the ramkeins along with any of the remaining juices.
4. Cover the rhubarb with custard.
5. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, either pipe it on top or spoon it over the custard.
6. Toast the flaked almonds in a dry pan until they start to turn golden, let them cool.  Just before serving sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top of the trifles.

Labels: cream, custard, Ginger, rhubarb, The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up, trifle

posted by Janice @ 19:33 8 Comments

Easy Rhubarb Millefeuille for the Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up

The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round Up Linky Party opened on Saturday and is proving very popular.  I'm not quite sure why we have such an affection for these acidic pink stems.  I can only imagine that it is because they are the first 'fruit' of the year and a harbinger of spring.


There is a local rhubarb connection here in the south west of Scotland as James Mounsey, a Scot who had been the doctor to Tsar Peter III, fled for his life back to Dumfriesshire when the Tsar was assassinated. He brought rhubarb seeds with him and from these he successfully grew fields of high quality rhubarb.  The house he fled to is only about half a mile from where I live, so it is perhaps, not so surprising that our rhubarb is prolific and that our plants must be nearly 50 years old.


I thought a lot about the recipe I would make for The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up, I changed my mind several times. I wanted to make something impressive, that didn't need a huge amount of rhubarb and that was easy enough for anyone to make, here is what I came up with:


Easy Rhubarb Millefeuille
Serves 4

125g filo pastry (half a 250g pack)
50g butter, melted
125g caster sugar
6 to 8 slim stems of rhubarb
200ml thick and creamy vanilla custard (I got mine at M&S)
150ml double cream
tablespoon of icing sugar, sifted

1. Lay a sheet of filo pastry on to a baking sheet covered with baking paper, brush with melted butter and sprinkle over a little caster sugar.  Cover with another 3 sheets of filo, each brushed with butter and sprinkled with sugar, press down.
2. Cut into even rectangles, you will need 12 rectangles in total (3 for each portion)
3. Bake at 160C for 8-10 minutes until golden brown, leave on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling tray until cold.
4. Measure the length of the pastry rectangles, then cut your rhubarb into lengths to match.  You will need 24 lengths of rhubarb (6 for each portion). Place the rhubarb into a baking dish and sprinkle over the remaining sugar (75g), roast the rhubarb in the oven at 160C for around 12 minutes or until you can easily pierce the stalks with a knife but before the rhubarb starts to disintegrate. Remove and leave to cool. 
5. Whip the double cream and until very thick and stiff, fold in the custard and load the mixture into a piping bag with a large star nozzle (Wilton 1M).
6. Place the pastry rectangles onto the serving plates, pipe cream in three rows, place three stalks of rhubarb on top, then place another pastry on top and repeat the cream and rhubarb.  Top with the final pastry rectangle and dust with icing sugar.

I hope you will join me and Karen from Lavender and Lovage by sharing your rhubarb recipes and enjoying the inspiration of the great entries we have already received.

Labels: cream, custard, filo pastry, Lavender and Lovage, Millefeuille, rhubarb, The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up

posted by Janice @ 19:53 17 Comments

The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up!

While slender stems of forced rhubarb are proclaimed as a delicacy, I prefer my rhubarb when the stems become thicker and turn a beautiful ruby red, Karen at Lavender and Lovage shares my love of rhubarb and rhubarb recipes, so we are inviting you to join us for

You don't have to be British to join in and you can use fresh, frozen, canned or any other kind of rhubarb that you can get your hands on. It's very simple, here is what to do:

• Post your recipe on your blog with a link to Farmersgirl Kitchen and  Lavender and Lovage  and attach the Great British Recipe Round-Up logo as shown below

• If you put your post on twitter please mention @FarmersgirlCook  @KarenBurnsBooth and #GreatBritishRhubarbRecipes in your message and we will retweet all those we see.
• By entering you are agreeing to let us use an image from your entry on this site, and to pin to Pinterest.
• Please be respectful of  other people's copyright and give credit where it is due. 
• Add your recipe link to the live Linky posted at the bottom of this page.

Labels: Farmersgirl Kitchen, Lavender and Lovage, recipes, rhubarb, The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up

posted by Janice @ 09:30 10 Comments

Your favourites and mine 2013

Last year I did a round up of blog posts for the year, choosing the recipe with the most page views for each month your favourite, and the one that I like best, my favourite.  I enjoyed writing the post and you, dear readers, seemed to enjoy it too.  I've excluded those posts which had major giveaways as those do rather skew the page views!  Many thanks to all who viewed and/or commented  and to the hosts of all the challenges that I have entered.

January 

A soup of bacon and celeriac from The Kitchen Diaries II

Your favourite post in January 2013 was the launch of Dish of the Month, a blog challenge to cook the recipes of Nigel Slater.

My favourite was the Croque Monsieur Whoopie Pies from Let's Make Whoopies by Sophie Gray all part of Breakfast Club and Shake up your Wake Up Farmhouse Breakfast week.

February


Your favourite was this Rye and Spelt Bread and my review of Paul Hollywood's book 'Bread' 

My favourite was Mon Cherry Amour Cupcakes from Le Cookie by Michael Benichou.

March


Your favourite was The Marmalade Awards where I met up with Sue, from A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate and Vivien Lloyd - The Jam Mistress!


My favourite was the birthday cake I made for my Mum's 80th, decorated with crystallised edible flowers.

April

Your favourite was my Random Recipe for April - Treacle Bites

My favourite was this Rhubarb and Orange Frangipane Tart, a recipe I got from Dom at Belleau Kitchen.

May

You favourite was my Rhubarb, Mango and White Chocolate Almond Cake which was an entry for We Should Cocoa.

My favourite in May was the Kugelhopf which I made for Alphabakes.  I have to say this is probably my overall favourite of the whole year, it was quite a labour of love and tasted so good.

June
Your favourite was this White and Green Cabbage with Coconut Chillies and Ginger from the Farm Shop Cookbook.

My favourite is the Vanilla and Coconut Cake I made from the Clandestine Cake Book for Tea Time Treats.

July

Your favourite was Cherry Frangipane Ramekins based on a Nigel Slater recipe for Dish of the Month.

My favourite was the Chocolate Lime Ice Cream I made using Mackays Lime Curd.You can see that my OXO Good Grips Ice Cream Scoop is well used!

August
Your favourite in August was the Cicchetti I made from Valentina Harris and Lindy Wildsmith.

My favourite was the Beef, Red Pepper and Lime Burgers from Miranda Ballard's Burgers and Sliders. I'm not much of a burger person but these were so good.


September




Your favourite in September was Dish of the Month, Lamb Pot Roast and Peach, Bramble and Almond Crumble

My choice is an old favourite with a twist, my Summer Falls into Autumn Pudding.

October
Your favourite in October was the Chelsea Buns I made from The World's Best Cakes book.

I've chosen Braised Scotch Lamb Shanks in Red Wine as my favourite, I cannot begin to tell you how good they were!

November

Sloe Cordial was a popular post in November and I can now report that it went down very well with the recipients!

I loved these Hot n Smoky Cheese and Tomato Wraps, quick and easy to make and very tasty.

December


My Virtual Christmas Party was a favourite post in December, I even won a prize from Pidy for these canapes!

It may not be the most photogenic of dishes, and I didn't think you could really improve on baked red cabbage,  but  Spiced Ginger Red Cabbage made with Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve was even better than I expected.

Thank you so much for visiting Farmersgirl  Kitchen in 2013, I  hope you will return to see what I am cooking and baking in 2014.  I'll be back to wish you a Happy New Year and tell you about my future plans tomorrow.

Labels: 2013, Burgers, Dish of the Month, Farmersgril Kitchen, ice cream, Kugelhopf, Mackays, Nigel Slater, Paul Hollywood, review, rhubarb, Scotch Lamb, summer pudding, Vanilla and Coconut Cake

posted by Janice @ 08:30 6 Comments

Raw Rhubarb and Rosemary Tabbouleh for the Aero Perfect Pairing Challenge

The good people at Aero HQ set out a challenge to create some wacky and wonderful flavour pairings to celebrate the two-toned bubblicious makeover of Aero with it's delicious flavour combinations of orange or mint with bubbly milk chocolate.

To help me with the challenge I was sent a box full of cooking equipment, a flavour thesaurus and some bubbly Aero chocolate to help inspire me!  In fact, I found my inspiration in the Flavour Thesaurus where I spied an amazing combination of raw rhubarb and rosemary marinated in honey, I thought this would work well in a Tabbouleh providing the acidic element to a classic salad.

Raw Rhubarb and Rosemary Tabbouleh (Serves 4)
2 sticks young rhubarb, very finely sliced
2 tbsp runny honey
2 sprigs of rosemary, bruised
250g bulgar wheat
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped mint
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp celery leaves roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
juice of half a lemon

1. Finely slice the rhubarb, preferably on a mandoline using the finest setting.  I used the OXO Good Grips Mandoline for this.


2.  Place in a non metallic bowl and add the honey and rosemary, leave to marinate for several hours or preferably overnight.


3. Place the bulgar wheat in a bowl and cover with boiling water.


4.  When the wheat has swollen and absorbed all the water, add the rest of the ingredients and mix through. 


5. Finally add the rhubarb and marinade, cover the bowl and leave to sit for at least an hour for the flavours to mingle, season to taste.  You may wish to add a little more finely chopped rosemary if you would like a stronger rosemary taste.

If you didn't know it was rhubarb, you would be hard pushed to recognise it, the honey has softened the sharpness to a pleasant bite and a subtle flavour of rosemary permeates the Tabbouleh.

Many thanks to Sophie for the Perfect Pairing Aero Cookery Kit.

Labels: Aero Perfect Pairing Challenge, celery, chocolate, mint, rhubarb, Rosemary, salad, Tabbouleh

posted by Janice @ 21:35 6 Comments

Rhubarb with butterscotch sauce - Dish of the Month

This dish is simple but devastatingly good. Stew some rhubarb with sugar and water until tender, then remove the rhubarb to a dish, reduce the syrup and add muscovado sugar, cream and vanilla.

Nigel describes it as a 'sweet sour sauce for rhubarb' in the kitchen diaries II, a sauce for rhubarb that has the same comforting vanilla flavours as custard without making custard, I served my rhubarb with Madagascar Vanilla Ice-cream. Being a bit of a rhubarb obsessive at the moment, this certainly hit the spot.



 If you would like to take part, then please:

• Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
•  Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @serialcrafter or @Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers. 

Rules:

• If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe.  Likewise recipes on the Guardian Lifestyle website.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

Labels: A little bit of Heaven on a Plate, Dish of the Month, Nigel Slater, rhubarb

posted by Janice @ 19:29 5 Comments

Spiced Rhubarb and Lemon Muffins

It's still Rhubarb Central here! This time I'm bringing you some Spiced Rhubarb and Lemon Muffins.  This is a classic combination with the spices including cinnamon and little pieces of crystallised ginger.  I decided to make these when I saw the Recipes for Life Challenge at Vanesther's Bangers and Mash blog. The rules of the Recipes for Life call for a trio of ingredients, and this month they are rhubarb with lemon and spice. A monthly winner  will be picked and the best of the recipes will be included in a new charity cookbook to be published by SWALLOW later this year.

 

Spice Rhubarb and Lemon Muffins
150g light brown sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon extract (or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
100ml milk
100g finely diced rhubarb
175g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch salt
50g chopped ccrystallised ginger
grated zest of half a lemon

1.  Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Line you muffin tin with paper cases.
3. Place 125g of the sugar, oil, egg cinnamon extract and milk.  Mix together and add the rhubarb.   

  

Wet ingredients

4. Sift your dry ingredients into the bowl, add the wet ingredients and stir until combined but don't over mix or your muffins will be heavy.

Dry ingredients

5. Spoon the mixture into the cases, filling about 3/4 full. 
6. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the remaining sugar (I forgot to do this!)
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
8. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Cakey, fruity gingeryness!

What I really liked about these muffins was that they were really moist, the acidity of the rhubarb and the lemon took the edge off the sweetness and the combination of ginger and cinnamon worked really well with the fruit.  Best of all were the little nuggets of intense crystallised ginger.

Labels: Bangers and Mash, Cinnamon, Ginger, lemon, Muffins, Recipes for Life, rhubarb, Swallows

posted by Janice @ 21:41 7 Comments