Rhubarb & Custard Cake

• Today is my Blog Anniversity – I started in 2015 – Can you believe it is 10 years of Blogging?
• Today is post 676!
• Still lots of recipes to come in the future – lots of books to look at and lots of recipes from friends and family.
• Today’s post is inspired by an English combination.
• Stewed rhubarb and warm custard is often served as a pudding in England.
• Yesterday I had coffee and cake in a local department store.
• I tried a piece of Rhubarb & Custard cake thinking I could use this idea.
• Sadly this cake was not as nice I imagined as I could not taste any custard and the cream was much too sweet; although the rhubarb – rather like a tart jam was good.
• However I thought I would use this idea to make a cake using  budyń  – thick Polish custard and some cooked rhubarb as fillings.
• The rhubarb filling has to be made in advance and needs to be cold.
• Cook the rhubarb until it has lost all its structure – into a pulp – but without any liquid left.
• It needs to be still a little tart to balance the sweetness of the other ingredients.
• You need :
• 2 Sponge cakes – ones using butter
• Rhubarb filling 
• Budyń 
• Icing Sugar to dust

Ingredients

• 8- 10 stalks of rhubarb
• 3-4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons of water (more might be needed)

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to GM2 – 150°C.
• Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and place into a roasting tin.
• Sprinkle with the sugar.
• Cook for around 40 minutes.
• Keep checking and add water if necessary.
• Do not allow the sugar to burn.
• Cook until the rhubarb is very soft.
• Mix to a pulp with a fork. 
• Leave to cool completely.

INGREDIENTS for budyń

• 500ml milk
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2-3 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons of potato flour (or cornflour)

METHOD for budyń

• Put 300ml of the milk, the butter and sugar into a saucepan.
• Heat gently till the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved, stirring all the time.
• Bring this to the boil for a few seconds and then take off the heat.
• Blend the potato flour with the rest of the milk (200ml) and with the egg yolks.
• Add some of the boiled mixture to this and stir well.
• Add this mixture to the rest of  the boiled mixture and stir well.
• Put the pan back on the heat and bring back to boiling point, stirring gently.
• Keep at boiling for 1 minute, stirring all the time.
• Leave to cool completely.

Ingredients for Cake

• 4 Eggs
• Butter
• Caster Sugar
• Plain flour
• 2½ teaspoons of baking powder
• 2-3 drops of vanilla essence

Method for Cake

• Grease and line the base of 2 x 21.5cm  sandwich tins. – I find anodised aluminium tins are the best. (my old tins say 8 1/2 inch on the base – 21cm or 22cm would be OK)
• Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°c
• The first thing you have to do is weigh your eggs – complete with their shells.

• You then weigh out the same amount of  butter, caster sugar and flour.
• At first I thought this was very strange but now find that it gives a very good way of getting the right proportions no matter what size the eggs are.
• I heard the late Marguerite Patten in an earlier recorded programme on the radio a few weeks ago saying that Victorian cooks often  used this method. 
• Cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one by one whisking again until the the mixture is light and fluffy again.
• Seive the flour and mix in the baking powder.
• Fold in the flour with a metal spoon taking not to over mix the mixture and knock out all the air.
• Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 prepared tins.
• Bake in the centre of the oven for around 25 to 30 minutes  – the cake should  be golden brown and be clean when a cake tester is used.

Layer up the Cake

• Place one of the sponge cakes on a glass plate or stand.
• Spread the rhubarb over the cake up to the edge.
• Spread all the budyń over the rhubarb up to the edge.
• Gentle place the second cake on top.
• Dust lightly with icing sugar.