Rhubarb crumble

Spring is rhubarb season and I love it! Rhubarb is both sweet and sour and makes for nice summery desserts, like rhubarb pie, rhubarb walnut muffins, and rhubarb almond cake. Since a few years now, I make rhubarb crumble, with rhubarb from my parents garden :-), but I never posted the recipe, simply because I couldn't manage to make nice pics of it. I'm still not very satisfied with these pics but I'd like to share the recipe.

This crumble is based on butter, sugar, and flour, like most crumbles, and it also includes pecan nuts, cinnamon, and oats to add some extra crunchy and taste to it. If you have guests over, you can bake it during dinner and serve it (luke)warm with some vanilla ice-cream, like the one from my favorite ice-cream shop in Lausanne, it will taste great!

Rhubarb crumble (for a 20x30 cm dish)

0.5 kg rhubarb, peeled and cut in pieces
2 tbsp white sugar
a few drops of lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest

For the crumble:

3 tbsp (45 g) butter
0.9 dl brown sugar
0.6 dl flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of salt
0.6 dl oats
0.6 dl chopped pecan nuts

In a bowl mix rhubarb pieces, sugar, and lemon; set aside.
In another bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and butter by hand. Add oats and nuts and mix.
Generously butter a baking pan. Add rhubarb pieces (without the juice that came out while sitting) and cover with the crumble mix.
Bake in the oven 45-50 min at 180 C until crunchy and golden.
Let it cool down a bit and serve with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Lemon and blueberry yoghurt cake

In Summer it's nice to eat refreshing desserts, like sorbets, fruity mousses, and fruit cakes with a nice lemonade or ice-tea. It's not quite Summer yet but I felt like making one of those fruit cakes for my friends last week. I came across a lemon blueberry cake which I modified a bit and liked a lot.

The base of the cake is a yoghurt and lemon dough to which you add a lot of fresh blueberries and that you finally cover with a wonderful, sweet lemon glaze. It takes less than 10 min to mix the ingredients and you can easily store it in the freezer. If you're looking for an easy good cake to eat for coffee or for breakfast I recommend you try this recipe!

Recipe for a 30 cm-long cake

4.8 dl flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.2 dl colza oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2.4 dl sugar
2.4 dl plain yoghurt
1 lemon, juice + zest
3 dl fresh blueberries

Icing:
1.8 dl powder sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt. In another bigger bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients and sugar. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated (don't overmix). Finally incorporate blueberries in dough.
Transfer to a greased + floured cake pan. Bake 55-60 min at 175C until done. Let the cake cool down a bit and then remove it from the pan.

Once the cake is cool, prepare the icing. Mix powder sugar with lemon juice to obtain a viscous mix (you may need to add a few more drops). Drizzle the glaze on top of the cake with a spoon and wait a bit for it to harden before serving.

Orange blossom, vanilla and pistachio cake

When I was on holidays in the Middle East, I indulged in a lot of pistachio and orange blossom-based desserts, I love pistachios and orange blossom water. Even when I go to my favorite local gelato shop in Lausanne, I most often pick pistachio and orange blossom flavored ice-cream. Since I like cake very much, I went on to look for and adapt a nice recipe cake that included these ingredients.

This cake has refined flavors, is moist like I like them, and quick and easy to make. It's a great cake to have for an afternoon cake or for dessert with friends as it is very nice looking and colorful. If you like dry cakes with which you can choke this cake is not for you. If you however love moist, juicy, sweet cakes, then try it, it's for you !!!

Recipe for a 24 cm-spring form:

200 g flour
100 g peeled and ground almonds
150 g sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2.5 dl plain yoghurt
1.5 dl colza oil
3 eggs
2 vanilla beans (seeds)

Syrup:
2.5 dl water
2.5 dl sugar
2 vanilla beans (pods)
2 tbsp orange blossom water
a handful of pistachios

Mix all dry ingredients (flour, almonds, sugar, baking soda) in a bowl.
In another bowl whisk together yoghurt, oil, eggs and vanilla seeds.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix. Transfer the dough to a greased and floured spring form and bake in the oven 35-40 min.

When the cake is done, prepare the syrup. Place water, sugar and vanilla pods in a saucepan. Heat up to allow the sugar to melt and then bring to a boil and let simmer until the volume has reduced by one third. Take out the vanilla pods, let the syrup cool down a bit and then add the orange blossom water to it. Unmold the cake and poke holes with a toothpick on the surface of the cake. Pour the syrup evenly on the surface of the cake and decorate with some hacked pistachios.