Rhabarbertorte

There are lots of nice, seasonal bakes in Das Butter Buch, but this is one of my favourites. The sheer volume of rhubarb, with soft, tart pieces in every bite, makes this cake a real winner. It’s beyond easy to prepare too, so the perfect vehicle for rhubarb windfalls of all sorts.

From the youngest (seven) to the oldest (seventy-eight) the whole family loved this easy, rhubarb-stuffed cake.

Rhabarbertorte

100 g butter

200 g sugar

3 eggs

pinch of salt

zest from one lemon

200 g flour

1 tsp baking powder

500 g rhubarb, washed and chopped into 1-2 cm pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350 ° F / gas mark 4.

Line the bottom of a 24 cm (9 inch) springform pan with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and salt and mix until light and fluffy. Mix in the lemon zest.

In a separate bowl, whisk the the flour with the baking powder. Add to the butter mixture and fold in sparingly. Gently fold in the rhubarb.

Smooth into the prepared pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until the top springs back when pressed and the sides of the cake pull away from the pan.

• The batter is quite stiff, but with all the liquid released from the rhubarb, it bakes up quite tender.

• I haven’t tried it yet, but I assume the base cake batter would work wonderfully well with similar fruits—maybe berries?