Rhubarb Rose Cake with a swish of ginger syrup

So you've bought yourself a 250ml bottle of Rose Water for a recipe you liked - but it only required 1 or 2 teaspoons. Now you have 240mls left over - just sitting in the pantry cupboard. What to do? Well, try this...

This is what you need:
2½ cups diced rhubarb
1-2 teaspoons rosewater
1 teaspoon cornflour
¼ cup caster sugar
150g butter - softened
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1¼ cups self-raising flour
½ cup ground almonds
¼ cup milk

This is how you do it:
Slap your oven onto 175 Celcius - fan bake
Line a 22cm square cake tin with greaseproof paper
Combine diced rhubarb, rosewater, cornflour and caster sugar. Mix it up real good
Spread this mix evenly over the base of your cake tin
Haul out your electric beater from that drawer that has everything in it (I always seem to find one beater attachment quite easily but spend a good deal of time rifling through all the other bits and pieces of utensils before finding the other one) then cream the butter and sugar together for a good 3-4 minutes on medium speed
Add eggs (at room temperature) one at a time, beating well
Into this mixture, fold the sifted flour, almonds and milk until you have a smooth batter. No need to overdo it...
Spoon this batter over the top of the rhubarb - making sure it has a smooth even top
Then bake it for 45 minutes or so - or until your cake is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean
Leave the cake in the tin and let it cool on your bench for around 20 minutes - while you make the ginger syrup.
Put a serving tray over the top of the tin and invert/flip it. Now remove the baking paper
And - you're ready to serve as is, or cooled down a bit more. The good news about this cake is that it keeps well in the fridge for 2-3 days and is quite ok when heated up in the microwave.

For the Ginger syrup:
1 cup water
¼ cup honey
6 pieces crystallised ginger - sliced

Combine water, honey and ginger in a medium saucepan and simmer for 5-10 minutes. You want it slightly reduced but definitely syrupy. Best way to serve is warm (or at room temperature) spooned over the cake.
No need to say that the cake and syrup deserves to be accompanied with whipped cream or a good vanilla ice cream.
There you go... Enjoy

Special thanks to Jo Wilcox and NZ House and Garden magazine for the recipe


Rhubarb Rose Cake