Gotta love that 'barb!

I arrived at work the other day to find that Steve (aforementioned banana cake guru) had kindly supplied me with some rhubarb from his garden. Since there's no specific rhubarb recipe in the Edmonds book, I decided to use it for a fruit sponge (p210)

When I got home and began to wash and chop the rhubarb, I found that there was actually a surprisingly large amount of rhubarb in the bundle. In fact, all the chopped up bits barely fit in the pot! Luckily there was just enough room for the rhubarb, some brown sugar and a few spices. I put it on a low heat and went to complete that day's blog entry.

When I returned to the kitchen, the rhubarb had transformed into that familiar soft stringy pulp. While I reheated some of my weird stew for dinner, I mixed up the sponge batter to put on top. It's simple really - cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence, then beat in eggs and add sifted dry ingredients. In a very short time, the sponge topping was spooned onto the rhubarb and placed in the oven.

40 minutes later, I pulled out a perfect-looking sponge with traces of rhubarb peeking out around the edges. When I spooned out a portion, I found it was still pretty gooey in the centre, but I put the lid back on and the trapped heat had cooked the rest by the time I looked at it again.

I'd considered making some custard to go with it, but in the end I couldn't be bothered. It would have gone nicely with the sponge, but it really wasn't necessary - the rhubarb sponge was very nice on its own.


I thought the leftovers would go soggy overnight, but actually it reheated quite nicely the next day, with only the slightest sogginess. The sponge was beginning to dry out though - this would have been a good time to try the custard, come to think of it!


So all in all, a pretty good recipe really - another option for a tasty fruit-based dessert if you're getting sick of the usual crumble.