Rhubarb, ginger and lemongrass cake

I have a gorgeous rhubarb cluster growing at the allotment. This is now the very start of the short but fantastic English rhubarb season and anxious to sample I picked my first load last weekend.

I have made a cake on this blog before called 'American 1-2-3-4 Cake' which I made with apple puree. For this cake I wanted to use my rhubarb however decided to leave the pieces a bit chunky instead of a puree.

Also wanting to add a bit of extra flavour I added 1 tablespoon of ginger and lemongrass cordial to both the cake mix and the drizzle.

I like to get all my ingredients weighed out and dry ingredients mixed and ready to go.

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 cup softened butter
2 cups caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (the original recipe used vanilla extract but I like the little flecks from the vanilla bean paste)
1 teaspoon ginger & lemongrass cordial

4 large eggs
3 cups Self Raising Flour
1 tsp salt
2-3 cups cooked rhubarb

Glaze:
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp ginger & lemongrass cordial
2 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 180oC/350oC. Grease a 9" x 13" pan

Method:
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (the more you cream the lighter and more voluminous your cake will be).

Add the eggs one at a time and beating each one really well. If you want you can add 1 Tbsp of the flour after each one to stop them splitting. Then add the vanilla bean paste and ginger & lemongrass cordial.

Gradually add the flour and salt and beat until really well combined. If you want you can add a tablespoon of milk at this point.

Put about half of the cake mixture into the prepared pan. Spread the fruit mixture over the top and then dollop the rest of the cake mixture onto the fruit.

You don't need to spread this top.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes although mine took another 10 minutes (ovens do vary).

Allow the cake to cool to just warm and then make the glaze by mixing the four ingredients together

and drizzling over the top.

Then all that is left to do is ...... ENJOY!

I shall be linking this post to The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up.

An InLinkz Link-up