Day 14 – Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake (page 30) Muscat-Mascarpone Cream (page 31)
I’d initially discounted making this cake as I thought the rhubarb season was well and truly over, The Eat the Seasons website told me it was January time not mid-September. Further worry as Nigella says to use the ‘first, forced fruit’.. Imagine my surprise when driving up Alexandra Road in the drizzle, I spied a bunch sitting merrily in the roadside fruit and veg stall. £1 for the bunch – bargain. It may have been a little bit ‘end of season-y‘ looking, but heck I’m a cooking maverick, I thought, let’s go for it.
It seemed perfectly fine when washed and chopped into tiny 1/2 cm pieces. This was done to the kitchen accompaniment of Radio 4’s programme about gold miners in Indonesia and mercury poisoning – interesting stuff and helped the monotony of the task in hand. The rest of the cake preparation was pretty standard, although adding in yoghurt and polenta to the mix was unusual.
Into the oven for an hour. Lovely golden colour on top and springy to touch. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of the full cake in all it’s glory due to a slight mishap of plate and cooling rack. Bother! Anyway, here is a slice:
The Muscat-Mascarpone cream was super easy to make…lots of whisking of egg whites, egg yolks, icing sugar, mascarpone and muscat. Muscat is a sort of sweet dessert wine and flavours the cream deliciously. Paul described it as “a bit like sherry flavoured cream in a trifle”…you get the picture.
My lovely friend Karen happened to pop in and she had a slice!
My camera phone seems to be letting me down on some pics…..camera for Christmas perhaps?
Marks out of 10: 8, Paul thought the rhubarb staying slightly crunchy was good and bad at the same time…strangely like eating teeny bits of celery.
Bakers comment: I haven’t tasted it yet myself as today is a fast day, but I enjoyed making it! Quite time-consuming, but that is a pleasure when there is something good on the radio 🙂
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