Yoghurt Tops

It was Friday, I had a day off work, the weather was bright and I took the opportunity to step out of character from the day job and take dog a long, relaxing walk. It was also a day to cook. I had managed to lay my hands on some Rhubarb a few days earlier and put it to good use by instead, as might normally be the case sticking it in a crumble I added it into a cake.

The type of cake I decided to cook is what is often known as a Rhubarb and Yoghurt Cake. The first step was to thoroughly wash five sticks of Rhubarb, top and tail the Rhubarb and then cut it into small one centimetre long slices. The trick to getting good quality Rhubarb pieces to put into the cake is if any of the stringy magenta skin is hanging off the flesh as you cut it you need to pull it off and discard it. When removed the skin of the Rhubarb looks like long pieces of ribbon or red tape and like the Thatcher Administration alleged they would do in 1980s you need to get rid of as much red tape as possible.

When the slices of Rhubarb are ready they can be poured into a mixing bowl with eleven ounces of self-raising flour and five ounces of caster sugar. As I stirred the ingredients carefully together the opening bars of Tom Sawyer from arguably Rush's best album Moving Pictures stomped out of the stereo into the kitchen.

Once these dry ingredients were combined I added two beaten eggs, two teaspoons of vanilla essence, four and a half ounces of margarine and four and a half ounces of plain Greek Yoghurt. Using a metal tablespoon I mixed these items with the dry ingredients; it was tough going at first but gradually I was able to form them into a thick, sweet paste filled with pieces of Rhubarb.

When the paste became sufficiently easy to push the spoon through I realised it was ready. I dolloped the mixture gradually into a ten centimetre deep and twenty centimetre wide cake tin that I had greased with margarine and dusted with flour. I made sure the surface of the mixture in the tin was leveled off and flat by using a butter knife to spread it out.

I cooked the cake at 170 degrees (180 degrees for non-fan ovens) for one hour. I used two key tests to ensure it was ready; first I put a meat skewer through the middle of the cake and pulled it out to find that it was clean and secondly I pressed my hand onto the cake and it sprung back at me like a mattress after getting up off it.

Side on view- cooling down on a wire rack prior to serving. 

Taking a slice- ready to eat once a bit of Yoghurt is added. 

After I had let the cake cool on a wire rack I removed it from the tin and served it with some of the remaining Greek Yoghurt not previously used in the cake. The vanilla gave the cake a strong, sweet taste as did the sugar, however for those who like to diet or haven't a very sweet tooth this cake is still for you as the yoghurt is both low fat and stops it from becoming over rich. If you fancy using Rhubarb in something other than crumble this is the place to start.