What's in a name?

My mother and I enjoy a good play on words and are also known for using malapropisms. It’s our greatest fear that one day we’ll say something and people won’t “get” the humour and think we are just stupid like a certain US ex-President. When I was growing up we always referred to Rhubarb as Rupert and a popular winter dessert in our household was Rupert Crumple. Today I present to you a very tasty Rupert cake recipe.

I had a large amount of cream left over from a dinner party and thought it would be a good idea to use it up in a cake that perhaps called for buttermilk in keeping with my well publicised theory that dairy is pretty much interchangeable. My mother-in-law had given me some rhubarb from her garden so I searched for rhubarb and buttermilk and came up with a recipe from Allrecipes.

I read a lot of the reviews which mentioned cutting down the sugar, upping the rhubarb, adding oats to the topping and adding extra spices so I decided to tweak the recipe and see how it turned out. I’m pleased to say that this is definitely a keeper. It’s a very moist and tender cake, probably on account of all that wonderful fat from the cream. Usually I don’t know how well cakes keep because more often than not I take my baking efforts to work and there are never any leftovers. Most recently I baked this cake for my father-in-law’s birthday and it was eaten over a long weekend. If anything the cake got moister.

Rhubarb and Ginger Cake
Makes a 9" x 13" cake

Ingredients
½ cup butter (4 oz)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup cream (or milk) soured with the juice of half a lemon or 1 tablespoon of white vinegar
4-5 cups sliced rhubarb
½ cup crystallised ginger washed (to get the sugar off), and sliced (optional)

Topping
¼ cup butter (2 oz)
1 cup brown sugar (very lightly packed)
½ cup rolled oats (regular, not quick cooking or steel cut)
1 tsp cinnamon

Method
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Add egg, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon and beat well
Into a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda and salt
Add dry ingredients alternately with cream to the butter and sugar mixture.
If desired toss the rhubarb in a little flour (I omitted this step with no ill effect)
Add the sliced rhubarb and ginger
Spoon into a lined and greased 13” x 9” cake pan
Combine butter, brown sugar, rolled oats and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the cake.
Bake at 350 degrees F/180 degrees C for 40 minutes or until cake tests done.


This is the cake before going into the oven - just use your imagination for how delicious it looked after baking. I'm sure it would be delicious served warm from the oven with a dollop of cream on the side.