RHUBARD & HAZELNUT YOGHURT CAKE

This cake came about due to leftover rhubarb in the fridge and by good fortune I spotted this wonderful recipe.

I love a yoghurt based cake, most of my sponges now days have a yoghurt contingent, it just makes them bit more delicious and moist.

The cake is very straight forward and combines some slightly unusual flavours that compliment each other greatly. The rhubarb, hazelnut & sesame all have a faintly sweet and earthly flavour.

A lovely dessert option or filling afternoon tea cake.

Enjoy!

AUTHOR: FLORA SHEDDEN

Makes two 6” cakes or one 9” cake.

Preheat the oven to 180c FAN. Grease and line your tins.

INGREDIENTS

• 400g rhubard

• 300g self rising flour

• 250g caster sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

• 2 eggs

• 125g Greek yoghurt full fat

• 15g melted unsalted butter

• 90g hazelnuts

• sesame seeds

• caster sugar

METHOD

Finely dice 150g of the rhubarb.

In a large bowl whisk together the melted butter, sugar and vanilla. You can do this just by hand or use an electric whisk, but it doesn’t need a hefty whisk. Add the eggs and yoghurt and mix again.

Add the sifted flour to this wet mix, beat well and whisk until you have a smooth mixture.

Use a spatula to fold in the diced rhubarb.

Pour into the tin (or divide between the two.)

Cut the remaining rhubarb into thick batons roughly 5 mm thick. Arrange these on top of the cake in the middle. Cut the hazelnuts in half or roughly chop and arrange around the outside. Sprinkle liberally with sesame seeds and caster sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes, or 1 hour if doing the larger cake, or until a knife comes out of the centre almost clean. It’s a moist cake so you don’t want to dry it out.