Rhubarb Dream Cake

My Mum is well aware that we have surplus rhubarbs and whenever she comes across a recipe with rhubarbs, she sends it over. The latest crop is called "Rabarberdröm", which translates to rhubarb dream. I made this for a family barbecue at brother-in-law Roger's place for Father's Day. It didn't turn out pretty, but was very yummy.

Ingredients

Cake sponge
2.5 tsp baking powder
2 dl plain flour
100 g soft, unsalted butter
2 dl granulated sugar
5 large egg yolks
1 dl semi-skimmed milk

Almond meringue
5 large egg whites
2 dl granulated sugar
1 dl blanched almond flakes

Compote
250 g rhubarbs
250 g strawberries
2 dl granulated sugar
4.75 tsp vegegel

Decoration
3 dl whipping cream
large, pretty strawberries
lemon balm leaves
blanched almond flakes

Method

1. Butter and flour two cake tins of 20 cm diameter. Alternatively butter and line with baking paper.
2. In a bowl, sift together the baking powder and flour.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric whisk to a light and fluffy consistency.
4. Add the yolks and incorporate well, then add the remaining ingredients and whisk to a smooth batter.
5. Distribute the batter between the two cake tins, level and set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 150 °C.
6. Clean the whisks thoroughly, place the egg whites in a clean glass or metal bowl and whisk to soft peaks.
7. Add the sugar, a little at a time while whisking to stiff peaks.
8. Spread the meringue over the cake batter and sprinkle almond flakes on top.
9. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, the meringue should have a nice golden brown colour.
10. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool down completely in the tins.
11. Wash and cut the rhubarbs and strawberries for the compote. Place in a saucepan on high heat and bring to the boil while stirring.
12. Once some liquid has been released, add the sugar and the vegegel, stir in thoroughly and let simmer according to the instructions for vegegel.
13. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down completely.
14. When you're ready to put together, whip the cream to stiff peaks.
15. Carefully take out one of the sponges from the cake tin and place on a plate.
16. Spread half of the whipped cream and more than half of the compote over.
17. Place the second sponge on top, followed by the remaining cream and compote.
18. Wash the pretty strawberries, cut if very large, and decorate the cake, along with lemon balm leaves and more almond flakes.
19. Serve immediately.

Instead of mixing regular sugar and vegegel, jam sugar or preserving sugar can be used - it already contains a jelling agent, so should work similarly. The amounts for the compote result in a lot of it, not everything needs to be used and also, the sponges and the compote can be made a day in advance and stored in room temperature.

I only have one spring form for cakes and an adjustable cake ring, so I used that. However, I hadn't thought things through very well, so couldn't quite fit both in the oven at the same time and ended up tilting the spring form slightly. This transferred to the finished sponge and so when I built the cake, it barely stayed upright.

I also suspect the oven temperature might need to go down a little, the meringue ballooned, but luckily it sank down again.

Still it was very intriguing to bake a sponge with a meringue on top and in one go, I've not come across this before. It makes for an extremely sweet, light and moist cake.