Recently I saw a lovely sounding recipe for Rhubarb and Butterscotch Layer Cake on Stuff.co.nz, from Birdwood’s Gallery and Cafe in Havelock North, New Zealand. With a superb sounding flavour combination like that, I could not resist making it.
The cake itself contains chopped rhubarb, and is filled with caramel cream cheese icing and rose- tinged rhubarb pieces. There are supposed to be four layers, but I halved the recipe to make a two layer cake.
My cake is nowhere near as pretty as the original, but it sure tasted good.
Tempted? You will need (for a half recipe):
Rhubarb filling
110g rhubarb chopped into 1cm pieces
1 tablespoon sugar
a dash of rose syrup
Place all of the ingredients into an ovenproof dish and bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Caramel Icing
150g sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
200g cream cheese
Combine the sugar and water and bring to the boil; turn down the heat a little allow the mixture to simmer until it turns a golden brown colour, then remove from the heat. Immediately but carefully (as the mixture might spit) whisk in the cream. Return the mixture to the heat and continue stirring until smooth, then take it off the heat and allow it to cool.
Place the cream cheese into a food processor and blitz until smooth, then add 1/2 cup of the caramel mixture and blitz until smooth.
Cake
115g softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
50g sugar
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
3/4 cup sliced rhubarb
25ml cream
Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Place the butter, both sugars, eggs and flour in a food processor and blitz to combine. Add the rhubarb and cream and blitz for 10 seconds. Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven or until cooked through. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Using a serrated knife, cut the cake in half horizontally. Top one half with half the cream cheese icing and all of the cooked rhubarb. Place the other half of the cake on top of the filling, and cover the top of the cake with the remaining icing.
Serve and enjoy.
7 comments:
I love both but never would've considered combining them in a cake. Unique, for sure! Sounds delicious though! Thanks for the recipe!
That sounds like an intriguing combination. Is it very sweet? I like the idea of a tartish rhubarb with butterscotch.
I absolutely love the look of the cake, and the flavour combination seems so out of the ordinary. I visited the link to the recipe and the reader, who requested the recipe, said that it was not overly sweet. I thought the caramel cream cheese might be too sweet and also too rich. What was your opinion of the actual rhubarb/caramel flavour combination and also the cake's overall sweetness?
Lastly where can I get rose syrup?
Love all your blog posts. I have you in my favourites and I chekk you first every day to see if you have a new posting. Always very excited when there is one.
Many thanks,
Angela
Hi Lorraine, the rhubarb keeps things tart and the cake itself is not that sweet.
Hi Angela, first up - thank you - I am so glad you enjoy my posts. I did not think the cake was too sweet as the rhubarb’s tartness balanced out the caramel, as did the tangy cream cheese itself. I liked the combination though recommend cutting the rhubarb in the filling a bit smaller than recommended as it is a bit too chunky. I got my rose syrup at Minh Phat at Queen Vic Market, but places like Essential Ingredient or Middle Eastern stores (eg on Sydney Road in Melbourne) will likely stock it. My Internet search also indicates that Dan Murphys sells it, probably for cocktails. I think using rose water to taste would work too and be easier to find (even in the supermarket) - just more concentrated and less sweet.
No problem - hope you get to try it.
fantastic flavour pairing - I think this sounds so lovely and both decadent and comfort food
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