Rhubarb and Vanilla Cake

I have experimented with other Authors recipes of Rhubarb in a cake, made several and not successful at all. 

But this cake is a winner in our household and a Rhubarb Cake HAS finally made it into my own recipe book.
Baking and tasting this cake has changed our thoughts about Rhubarb in a cake. Only took us a few years.

Over the past 5 years, since inheriting Rhubarb on our plot; I have tried and followed so many recipes from books and online; word for word, following accurate measurements, methods and cooking times but just do not turn out how they are presented in the pictures! 

Oh my frustrations!

So this year, I scrapped them all and put pen to paper and put together my measurements, method and have come up with my version of what I think should be in every spoonful of a Rhubarb Cake from the first bite to the last!

• Prep a 23cm rectangular baking tin: line and butter the parchment paper and sprinkle with half of the Demerara sugar (coat all sides). Use a little more if required.
• Add Lemon juice to the chopped Rhubarb, mix well and set aside. 

• Make a Sponge mix: Beat Butter and sugar, add egg at a time, add vanilla, fold in flour. 
• Add the lemon infused Rhubarb pieces to the mixture and fold in carefully. Make sure every piece of Rhubarb is coated in the cake mix.
• Gently pour and spread the mixture into the prepared tin.

• Top with the remaining Demerara sugar.

• Bake for 30-40 minutes @ 180˙C 
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

• Dusting with icing sugar will hide the Demerara sugar. That is the surprise! A moist cake is what you see but from the first bite to the last you get a pleasant sweet crunch.
• (Note: the 2 pieces in the middle were the last to go, those only have ‘2 sides’ of crunch where as the ‘rest have 3’).
• You could serve it with Custard, Ice Cream or even Crème Fraîche but we all preferred it on its own.