These delicious rhubarb honey cakes, known as nonnettes in France are lightly flavoured with rose. They’re made with the addition of rye flour but without eggs. This gives them an almost silky mouthfeel with a delightfully soft texture.
When I found that rhubarb had been picked for the One Ingredient blogging event in April, I so wanted to take part. But our rhubarb was ailing and I just can’t bring myself to buy something that we used to produce in prodigious quantities on our old allotment plot.
The other day, however, my mother, called in with stack of rhubarb from her garden. Luckily we had given her some of the plants from our old plot. Hooray, the one ingredient challenge might be over, but I could bake with rhubarb.
Since I saw the rose and rhubarb combination over at Laura of How to Cook Good Food, I’ve been itching to try it. My only dilemma was in what form?
Nonnettes
Actually, the dilemma was easily solved. Turned out my one remaining duck egg supplier was attending a wedding this week and I had run out of eggs. I needed an egg-free bake. Bingo! Nonnettes it had to be. Not exactly a hardship in my experience. Since I first tried nonnettes back in December, I’ve become enraptured with these very tasty honey cakes.
Nonnettes are individual egg-free cakes originally made by French nuns in Dijon. The name, in fact, means “little nuns”.
What with friands as well as madeleines, the French are little cake bakers par excellence.
Roasted Rhubarb Jam
This is a really easy way to make a quick rhubarb jam. It won’t keep for ever as normal jam would, but it will keep for a month in the fridge if you keep it well sealed. All you need to do is place the rhubarb, sugar and rose water or rose syrup into an oven proof dish and roast in the oven for thirty minutes.
Spoon into a sterilised jar and seal. Here’s a useful link if you need a reminder on how to sterilise glass jars.
Roasting really brings out the flavour of the rhubarb. It also tends to come out a nicer colour too. The jam will thicken as it cools. You can use it in these nonnettes, spoon it onto puddings such as semolina, spread it on toast or indulge with some scones and cream.
Rhubarb Honey Cakes with Rose
I was quite excited at coming up with a nonnette nouvelle. The combination of rose and roasted rhubarb jam has probably never been used before. This in conjunction with some delicious Cornish honey, ought to be irresistible, I thought. As we still had quite a bit of cake in the house from my recent Clandestine Cake Club event, I used half the normal quantities to make six rather than twelve individual cakes.
These rhubarb honey cakes turned out even better than I could have wished. After the first bite, I was very much regretting that I only made six. They were absolutely scrummy and as CT stated later, tasted French. I think this was a compliment.
They have a lovely soft texture which I attribute to the presence of rye flour. The rose makes its presence felt but isn’t in the least overpowering. And it contasts well with the distinctive tartness of the rhubarb. The roasted rhubarb jam was a delight in itself and has adorned various slices of toast all this week.
Other Rhubarb Cakes You Might Like
- Matcha, chocolate & rhubarb marble cake
- Remarkable rhubarb cake
- Rhubarb bundt cake with a hot ginger glaze
- Rhubarb pudding cakes with edible flowers
- Rose & rhubarb polenta cake
- Spelt rhubarb muffins
- White chocolate & rhubarb friands
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these rose flavoured rhubarb honey cakes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Please share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more honey recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Egg-Free Rhubarb Honey Cakes. PIN IT.
Rhubarb Honey Cakes – The Recipe
Rhubarb Honey Cakes Flavoured with Rose
Ingredients
Roasted Rhubarb Jam
- 300 g rhubarb (I used 4 sticks)
- 1 tsp rose water
- 50 g golden caster sugar (I used cardamom sugar)
Nonnettes
- 40 g unsalted butter
- 100 g good quality honey (I used local Cornish runny honey)
- 50 g light brown sugar
- 50 ml milk
- 50 ml water (I used 40ml water and 10ml of homemade rhubarb liqueur)
- 1 tsp rose water
- 2 cardamom pods
- 100 g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 50 g wholemeal rye flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ½ small orange zested
- 25 g white chocolate chopped
Icing
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- orange juice or rhubarb liqueur
- 1 drop rose water
Instructions
Roasted Rhubarb Jam
- Wash & trim the rhubarb then chop into 1 cm lengths.
- Place into a greased Pyrex dish and sprinkle a teaspoon of rose water over the top.
- Spoon the sugar over the rhubarb.
- Roast in a preheated oven at 200℃ (400℉, Gas 6) for 30 minutes.
- Leave to cool, then spoon into a sterilised jar.
Nonnettes
- Melt the butter in a medium sized pan.
- Add the honey and sugar.
- Turn off the heat and add the milk, water, rose water and rhubarb liqueur (if using).
- Stir until smooth then leave to cool.
- Grind the seeds from the cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar.
- Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.
- Add the cardamom and the grated zest from the orange.
- Stir in the chocolate pieces.
- Make a well in the centre and pour in the honey mixture. Stir until all combined.
- Divide the mixture between six buttered silicone muffin moulds and leave in the fridge for an hour.
- Place a teaspoonful of rhubarb jam on the top of each one.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 20 minutes.
- Leave to cool, then turn out.
Icing
- Mix the icing sugar with a little of the orange juice or rhubarb liqueur (I used homemade liqueur) and a drop of rose water to form a slightly runny icing.
- Drizzle over the cakes whilst still warm.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
When I made these egg-free rhubarb nonnettes, I had not one, not two, not three, but four blog challenges in mind. Here they are:
Simple and in Season – a monthly challenge to get us to cook uncomplicated food using seasonal ingredients by Ren of Fabulicious Food. This month it is being guest hosted by Urvashi of The Botanical Baker. Rhubarb is in season right now, so these rhubarb and rose honey cakes fit in nicely.
Alpha Bakes – Caroline Makes and Ros of The more than occasional baker take it in turns to pick a random letter from the alphabet which inspires the theme of the bake. This month Caroline picked H and my H is for Honey Cakes.
Tea Time Treats – the fabulously sugar overloaded monthly tea time party run alternately by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked. The theme this month is floral. Rose is my flower of choice. This is because I love roses as mentioned in previous posts and one of the reasons why I chose rose as one of the We Should Cocoa challenges.
Made with Love Mondays – Javelin Warrior’s weekly challenge to get everyone making dishes from scratch from Javelin Warrior’s Cookin w / Luv.
Lucy Taylor says
Rhubarb is so underrated – and so easy to grow! Ths recipe looks divine.
Homeandfood says
Rhubarb and rose are flavours that are perfect for summer, these look really good.
Never tried making nonnettes myself but will have a go soon hopefully.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
cakeboule says
These were what you were talking back a while ago – I have never made any of the nonnette or madelines but I am going to – love the fact they are egg free as I have not done that yet!
Phil in the Kitchen says
Nice variation on the old nonnette – sounds delicious. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a rhubarb version before.
Kit @ i-lostinausten says
Lovely cake with all the flavor that I love! Glad to find another rhubarb recipe coz I’m actually looking for some rhubarb recipes. I’ve just planted a rhubarb in our veg patch! And again another amazing recipe from you, Choclette! Have a lovely day! 🙂
celia says
Sounds like a fabulous combination of flavours, Choc! You’re always so creative! 🙂
Janice says
Thank you for this recipe. My rhubarb is at it’s peak just now, so I could do to make something with it. Probably make a variation on this rather than with the rose flavour, will let you know how i get on.
Caroline says
Oh, thanks for reminding me about the nonettes – I meant to make them when you first posted them. Must get round to it. Bookmarking this post to remind me! Love the sounds of your flavour combo too.
Karen S Booth says
FABULOUS cakes and I am SO impressed that these cakes fitted FOUR blog challenges! LOL! Good for you! I LOVE Nonnettes, our local patisserie stocks them! THANKS for this fab Tea Time Treats entry.
Jacqueline says
Those sound amazing Choclette. And wow, the flavours. Amazing!
thelittleloaf says
You always make such gorgeous little cakes using really interesting flavours. I love the idea of combining tart rhubarb with floral honey and rose.
Choclette says
Yes, I want to try and find all the classic little French cakes and give them a go, but I don’t really know how to find them. There don’t seem to be any books about it, only patisserie which I love to eat, but not to make! This was a lovely combination which I really must remember.
Baking Addict says
Thank you for entering these to Alphabakes! A lovely entry – I love the combination of rose, rhubarb and honey. Your nonnettes look so cute! You’ve almost beat me with the number of challenges entered with 1 recipe 🙂 Well done on the multi-tasking!
Choclette says
Ros, it was you that inspired me to enter so many in one go – I wouldn’t want to take the title of champion from you 😉
Working london mummy says
these look lovely, so delicious and a great combination of flavours. Your friand and nonette posts have inspired me to cook some Lemony friands today for this months One Ingredient challenge!
Choclette says
Ooh now lemon friands sound really good – look forward to seeing those.
chilliandchai says
I’m about to put rhubarb in the oven, glad I stopped to read this first, will definitely be adding rosewater! Beautiful combination.
Choclette says
It’s all in the timing! Glad it worked for you.
Javelin Warrior says
I love the multi-tasking this recipe accomplished! I’ve never baked with rose water before but it sounds like it would be good with rhubarb. And I love how you managed to work in a little chocolate 😉 Thanks so much for sharing with Made with Love Mondays…
Choclette says
I’m not usually this organised JW, so I was feeling rather pleased with myself 😉 Rose can be an acquired taste (although I love it), but it really works with some things and rhubarb is one of them. And of course I have to get a bit of chocolate in somewhere!
Alicia (foodycat) says
I had rhubarb jam in a cafe this morning, and it was so good I am now craving rhubarb EVERYTHING! These nonettes look lovely.
Choclette says
Know what you mean. I’m feeling rhubarb deprived. I’ve been used to having too much of it in the past and now we don’t have it growing any more, it’s a bit desperate. This jam was so easy to do, I shall be making more next time I get my hands on some.
Alida says
These are really good cakes. I love the flavour of honey, surely better than sugar! X
Choclette says
Yes Alida you are so right. Honey has at least got some health giving properties and it does taste so good.
laura@howtocookgoodfood says
Wow, this mat just be a flavour sensation! I love the sound of your nonettes and didn’t know you could make rhubarb liqueur. I must keep that in mind for when our rhubarb patch is in full flourish next spring.
What a clever recipe and one I will be trying out for myself, love it! xx
Choclette says
Laura, thank you. The flavour combination was yours, but it does work so very well in these gorgeous cakes. We’ve just planted some new rhubarb, so maybe in a year or two we’ll get lucky. Rhubarb liqueur is dead easy to make. It’s just a case of chopping some rhubarb up into a jar, adding sugar to taste and filling with vodka. Leave for at least 6 months and longer if you can. You could always add a vanilla pod to it too.