Since I started this blog, my friends seem to have had a lot of “significant” birthdays. Is this just a weird coincidence or is it because I’m more aware of these things now I’m doing my blog and always seem to have cakes on the brain – rhetorical question! Last year we went to a 30th, a 40th, a 50th, a 60th and a 70th birthday party – I thought that was rather unusual. A couple of weeks ago, we were off to the 2nd 60th birthday party this year. Part of the celebrations included painting a mural on a barn wall – what a lovely idea! Unfortunately, the rather wet weather we experienced prevented this happening. I suspected the planned bbq wouldn’t be going ahead either and to be honest it wasn’t a rip roaring success. Luckily there was still plenty of delicious food to be had in the house. So, with some rhubarb to use up, another rhubarb and chocolate cake is what I made. This time my inspiration came from the orange and strawberry cake that I made last year.
This is what I did:
- Melted 100g dark orange spicy chocolate.
- Creamed 175g unsalted butter with 200g dark brown sugar.
- Beat in 3 duck eggs, the chocolate and the grated zest of one orange.
- Sifted in 225g flour (100g wholemeal, 100g white 25g quinoa), 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tbsp cocoa and a pinch of salt.
- Mixed together along with 50g water and 100g Greek yogurt.
- Divided mixture between 2 x 21 cm sandwich thingies and baked at 180C for 30 mins.
- Stewed 700g of cleaned and chopped rhubarb with 2 tbsp of water until most of the water had evaporated and the mixture was thickish. Left to cool.
- Added 1 tbsp orange liqueur.
- Whipped 250ml double cream into peaks, then folded into rhubarb mixture.
- Sandwiched the cakes with the cream (I did have a substantial amount left over which we had over the following couple of days with strawberries – yum), then dusted the top of the cake with icing sugar.
Despite the wretched weather, the party was a lively and fun affair. Amazingly, or possibly not, given it was a birthday, one large table was completely laden with cakes. Spoilt for choice was an understatement. I was rather perturbed, wondering who would go for my relatively plain looking cake but hey, I need not have worried. It seems I have a following and those in the know homed straight in on my cake. I’m glad to say they were not disappointed. This was a great tasting cake. The sponge was even better than the one I had used for the strawberry cake and the rhubarb orange cream was gorgeous and complemented the chocolate really well.
Rhubarb is quite sharp and is a good combination with orange and chocolate. Great recipe.
Oxslip – I’ll soon be posting an even more delicious cake – in my humble opinion anyway.
I want your rhubarb and your inspiration. Yum
Thanks Sushma – that should be easy enough to get hold of then!
hi, Maida is nothing but plain flour..
Hannah – thank you. I’m pretty amazed myself, when I began this blog I had no idea such a huge variety of chocolate recipes were possible and the more I do the more I want to make – aghhh!
Nic – I do try 😉
rhubarb and orange is a divine combination. What a temptress you are with your lovely cakey creations!
This sounds absolutely delicious! I am always amazed at how you come up with new chocolate recipes :o)
Nicisme and Margaret – thank you both for you lovely comments.
Chele – just going over to your blog to see if you did anything with that rhubarb!
Mmmmmmm … i have some rhubarb in the fridge I need to do something with …
The cake looks wonderful and I especially like your use of rhubarb and cream.
I would have gone for your cake first, it looks divine!
Hopeternal – will be watching out to see what you make.
Johanna – thank you for the nice words about my cake. Shame as it was not being able to paint the barn, it still turned out to be a good party.
this doesn’t sound at all plain – it sounds luscious and full of wonderful flavours. And what a shame the weather stopped you doing the barn mural – I think I would love this sort of party
An unusual combination, but it sounds delicious. I had been thinking about making a rhubarb cake…thanks!
hopeeternal
‘Meandering through my Cookbook’
http://www.hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com
Thank you Celia – I like having friends of different ages too, it helps to gain a different perspective on life.
Suzler – Thank you, I just happened to have some rhubarb that needed using up and thinking how can I combine it with chocolate. I’m not sure how many more ideas I could come up with. Next year will be the test as our own rhubarb should be established by then and hopefully I will have lots!
Oh Kath, you say such nice things.
CityHippy – I was hoping for a photo of all the other cakes, so you could all see what a wonderful array there was, but it didn’t come off.
Thank you BVG
Gill – thank you for your confidence – I might need to see your hat first before any betting took place!
CC – it is fun trying out different flavour combinations.
Suelle – I always think of rhubarb as quite a strong flavour, but I guess it depends just how much you want that flavour to come out.
Kate – The co-op do a fairtrade one which I often buy and did use for this recipe. I also use Mayan gold, but it’s more expensive and doesn’t make much difference in a cake.
Hum gooseberries! Off the top of my head, I wonder what they would be like used in an upside down cake – the more I think of that the more I’m liking it. Or something similar to this one using gooseberry fool as the filling – maybe flavoured with elderflower. Or just put whole into a chocolate cake mix????
Jacqueline – Next birthday coming up is mine and I have to make a load of cakes for work – still not sure what I shall do.
Aforkful – I wasn’t quite sure how it would work, but was pleased with the result.
Ele – well I do keep thinking I should maybe try some sort of fruit / crumble combination.
Lucie – Thank you. I sort of thought the white chocolate and rhubarb combination would work, but wasn’t too sure about this, until I made it.
Rhubarb, chocolate and orange – what a fantastic mix of flavours! I love that you have friends from all age groups.. 🙂
What a great combination- so creative! It definitely makes a change from the been-there-done-that rhubarb crumble.
wonderful combination of flavours – this looks a really lovely cake.
Looks terrific! Interesting to know that those flavours work together – I must give the cake a try…
That sounds gorgeous. What a great combination of flavours. Roll on the next birthday and the next cake 🙂
lovely! When you say orange spicy chocolate – do you mean G + B Mayan Gold? That’s a partic fave of mine, but just wondered if there was another similar type.
Any suggestions for gooseberries in chocolate cakes? Just picked some yesterday and I’m wondering whether to just go down the crumble route or involve choc somehow!
Rhubarb and chocolate is a new combination to me too; I’m still a bit sceptical as rhubarb can be easily overwhelmed, but I’ll take your word for it. It certainly looks good!
never had rhubarb with chocolate – how interesting! I can imagine that it works really well
Shame about the weather.
But I’d go for the rather plainer looking cake every time.
I bet my hat it was as gorgeous as it looks.
This cake sounds like perfection to my mind!!
Oh yum! I’d be homing in on that cake too given the choice.
I am very glad you have such sensible friends choosing your cake over everyone else’s. I would too. It sounds like a very delicious cake and the rhubarb orange cream sounds very good indeed.
That just got better and better as I worked my way down the ingredients list! Rhubarb & chocolate cake isn’t something I’d have come up with on my own, but it does sound really, really (really) good actually – especially with all the orangey .. ness. *bookmarks*