Friday 15 August 2008

Morning baking: Rhubarb and Walnut loaf

Not much sewing and crafting been happening around here of late. There are some ideas happening, some sketches, but not much cutting of fabric, stitching up etc. Give me a week and I'll have some of that.

This morning I had a little bit of time on my hands so I decided to whip up a loaf of Rhubarb Nut Bread. Of course, because I simply can't help myself and because I couldn't be bothered going down to the shops to pick up the actual ingredients, I made some modifications to the recipe. The original recipe is for two loaves, so I halved the recipe to limit the amount of cake in the house (don't want to tempt any diabetics in the household!).

This cake proved to be exceptionally quick to make in terms of preparing the batter. The result was very pleasing: it's a moist cake with a rich honey flavour and the different textures of rhubarb and walnut work well together.

Beth's rhubarb and walnut loaf recipe

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
3/4 cup diced frozen rhubarb, thawed, drained
1/4 cup walnuts
60 ml honey
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tsp dairy-free margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 175ÂșC. Combine milk and lemon juice, set aside for 10 mins.
In a food processor, combine brown sugar, oil and egg. Add the milk, bicarbonate of soda and vanilla to the mix, process until combined.
Add the flour, one third at a time, until well combined.
Stir through the rhubarb and walnuts. Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan.
Combine the honey, cinnamon and margarine. Drizzle over the top of the cake mixture.
Bake for 45-50 mins.

7 comments:

Liesl said...

Looks absolutely delicious!

I'm going to try out your rhubarb recipe from the Octopus cake tomorrow, to make up as a Castle.

Quick question, if you get a chance ... you used 1/2 cup sugar in your recipe, but the one on Recipezaar mentions the full cup. Did you reduce the sugar to make it diabetic friendly?

(I'm cooking for one diabetic, one egg-allergic and one wheat-intolerant ... not so easy for a birthday cake!)

Alexis said...

Yum! I'll have to try that. I love love love rhubarb!

Beth said...

Hoppo Bumpo: Oopsies - Thanks for picking that up!! I used 1/2 cup of CSR "smart" sugar (the "diabetic" sugar which is sugar + artificial sweetener). With smart sugar you only need half as much as the recipe asks for. I'll go fix it up this afternoon.. about to head out the door now. Good luck with that, I look forward to seeing how it goes.

Gina said...

Looks and sounds delish..did you grow your own rhubarb too? Mine is in the garden somwhere..just have to unearth it amongst the grass and weeds!
Thanks for the recipe :D

Liesl said...

Thanks Beth! I realise that your recipe did say "Smart" sugar and I didn't quite click that it was a special blend. I ended up making the cake with 1/2 cup regular caster sugar and 500g frozen blueberries instead of the rhubarb (couldn't find it anywhere!). The castle was slightly structurally unsound due to my dodgy substitutions and measurements (so no pics!) but delicious all the same. And the people who couldn't usually eat cake because of dietary restrictions, seemed pretty happy with it.

Kate Moore said...

Is it the right time to grow rhubarb? I really like it but the rest of the family hate it. Sounds like you had a great weekend. Arnica for the bruising. I bruise a lot.

Beth said...

Hoppo bumpo: yes, I have had a few failures with both cooking and baking in recent weeks, where I too have made dodgy substitutions, not measured anything and worse, three times in the one week I managed to forget the key ingredient in my meals (e.g. making colcannon and forgetting the cabbage, making roast vegetables for the sole purpose of using up some baby beets, then forgetting to roast the beets etc)

katiecrackernuts: I'm not sure about growing rhubarb! Unfortunately our rhubarb plant died a couple of years ago and it hasn't been replaced since. I had some leftover in the freezer from a few weeks back when I was asked to bake a cake with rhubarb in it and I had to buy frozen rhubarb. I couldn't find any fresh at the time - the guy in the green grocer snorted at me when I asked!

I currently use a comfrey salve for bruises and it works amazingly (clears up bruises overnight) but I'm always up for new bruise remedies as I'm quite prone to brusing too. Where can I get my hands on some arnica?