I had a few friends over for brunch the other day and everybody fell in love with this cake. It isn't a pretty cake but oh my the taste is amazing. If you don't like rhubarb, you could replace it with blueberries, I tried it and it works really well, just add 100g of fresh BB and the zest of an orange, I replaced the demerara with sugar nibs too.
50g brown sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
120g ground almonds
70g self-raising flour
170g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp almond extract
170g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
2 heaped tbsp demerara sugar
pinch of cinnamon
You will also need a 900g (2lb) loaf tin, the inside buttered and the base and ends lined with a strip of buttered baking parchment.
Preheat the oven to 160c
Start by preparing the rhubarb, cut into thumb sized pieces and place into a large pan with a splash of orange juice and brown sugar, cook over a *high heat for about 3 minutes, take off the heat and put to one side to cool completely.
Tip the flour, ground almonds, butter, sugar, almond extract and eggs into a bowl and either using a freestanding mixer or an electric hand-whisk beat until really light and creamy.
Spoon the half cake mixture into the prepared tin, spoon in two thirds of the drained rhubarb (reserve the juice to serve with the cake) cover with the remaining cake batter spread level, dot with the remaining rhubarb pieces.
Mix together the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the cake batter in an even layer.
Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about one hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes away cleanly. If it starts to darken to quickly cover with foil.
Cool the cake in the tin for about 5 minutes and then carefully lift it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
*It's really important not to over cook the rhubarb as you want it to hold its shape.
