This cake can be served as a pudding or as a cake with cream. The herb sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) resembles a scented cow parsley and grows in a shady corner of the garden and has a reputation as the sugar herb because the stem is particularly sweet with an aniseed flavour and can be used as a sweetener. It goes well with rhubarb and gooseberries. This recipe works well with gluten free flour.
For the ingredients:
You will need a 20cm springform cake tin, lined with parchment paper
For the cake:
- 3 eggs (weigh these and match the weight of the other ingredients to it)
- Same weight of softened butter, coconut sugar or caster sugar and self-raising flour
- A pinch of sea salt
- Approx. 600g rhubarb, cut into small pieces plus a dessert spoon of extra sugar and a sprig of sweet cicely cut up (optional)
For the crumble topping:
- 125g butter 100g spelt or plain flour
- 75g pistachio nuts, chopped plus a few extra for sprinkling on top
- 75g sugar
Method:
- Preheat the bottom oven to 170C / ESSE dial guide MODERATE.
- For the crumble, add the flour, sugar and nuts into a bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and rub into the dry ingredients. Set aside while you make the cake.
- Weigh the eggs and then weigh out the remaining cake ingredients into a mixing bowl, add the eggs, pinch of salt and a splash of water just to loosen the mixture slightly. Beat well for about a minute (I use a food mixer).
- Turn into the prepared tin and spread out. Cover with the pieces of rhubarb, sweet cicely if using and sprinkle over a little sugar. Cover with the crumble mixture and add extra nuts if you wish on top.
- Bake in the bottom oven for about 50 minutes or until the top feels fairly firm to the touch. You may need to cover the cake with foil if it browns too quickly half way during cooking.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin before taking out of the tin and cutting.
The above recipe was created and photographed by Philippa Vine at Bluebell Farmhouse Kitchen in Arlington, East Sussex. ESSE has teamed up with Philippa Vine for over five years to offer customers amazing cookery experiences at the farmhouse demonstration kitchen in Polegate. Philippa’s cookery school puts ESSE’s electric range cookers and wood-fired cooking stoves through their paces, to show guests the control and flexibility these British-made range cookers provide.
