Rhubarb, Apple and Orange Cake

The middle Saturday in September. It was time to recover from twelve straight days at work, albeit the middle two of those days had involved some excellent networking in leafy park next to a school where my parents first met.

I had recently acquired Rhubarb and Bramley Apples from an allotment in the County Town where I once practised my trade. I decided to turn this delicious fresh produce into a cake. The ingredients of this cake were as follows:

15 ounces of Self-Raising Flour.
9 ounces of Brown Sugar.
4 ounces of Unsalted Butter.
2 beaten Eggs.
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence.
Half a pint of unsweetened Soya Milk.
Juice of 1 Orange.
1 stalk of Rhubarb.
2 Bramley Apples.

On the player was Frank Zappa's excellent live effort "Fillmore East: June 1971" which features excellent live versions of three songs from his best known record "Hot Rats" as well as a cover of the cheesy 1960s hit by The Turtles "Happy Together". The cover is given credibility by the two lead singers of this band being a part of Zappa's band at the time.

I started by stirring together in my mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon, the Flour, Sugar and Butter. Once they were combined I added Rhubarb, after it had been sliced thinly, and the Bramley Apples, after I'd cubed them and removed the cores.

After fruit had been mixed into the dry ingredients the Eggs, Milk, Orange Juice and Vanilla Essence were added and stirred in until the mixture resembled a thick paste that was dominated by the fruit.

I had earlier greased with Unsalted Butter a twenty centimetre wide and ten centimetre deep cake tin and I proceeded to pour the mixture into it and spread it about evenly throughout the tin. Then I put it in the oven at Gas Mark 4 and cooked it for seventy minutes.

I knew the cake was cooked when I used the old trick of putting a sharp object through the top of it to see if any of the mixture stuck to it. As it didn't I realised that the cake was ready.

Rhubarb is more closely associated with crumble normally. However here it was perfectly appropriate and the flavour of contrasted well with the sweetness of the Orange Juice and Vanilla Essence. These two sweet ingredients helped to ensure that the normally sour taste of the Bramley Apples was enhanced and made to be flavoursome.

Taking a slice- a cross section of this cake with a piece removed.