Sharp rhubarb, sweet orange and a hint of warming spice – this is a cake to curl up with on a rainy afternoon
Rhubarb*, orange, pistachio & cardamom cake
150g light brown sugar
250ml sunflower oil, plus a little extra for greasing
3 eggs
1 tbsp orange flower water (optional)
Zest of 1 orange
Seeds from 12 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 tsp ground ginger
300g self-raising flour
350g rhubarb, cut into 1cm pieces
80g pistachios, finely chopped, plus extra for the topping (optional)
For the icing:
250g mascarpone or cream cheese, at room temperature
50g icing sugar, sifted
Zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp lemon juice
1. Grease a deep 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, oil and eggs.
2. Stir in the orange flower water, zest, cardamom seeds and ginger. Fold in the flour. Stir in the rhubarb and pistachios.
3. Pour into the tin and even it out. Bake at 180°C for 1-1 1/4 hours on the middle shelf, until a skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on it as it cooks and cover loosely with foil if it’s turning too brown.
4. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
5. To make the icing, beat together the mascarpone, icing sugar, orange zest and lemon juice.
6. Spread over the top and sides of the cake once it has cooled completely.
7. Sprinkle over some chopped pistachios, if using.
Find more yummy ideas in issue 16 of The Simple Things, which is on sale now.