It's like heaven, or at least very close!
There are countless rhubarb pie recipes, of course.
Everyone favours a different one and probably considers their version to be the best. And that's a good thing. Because that's how you get a different treat from each baking friend during rhubarb season.
Here I'd like to share one of my two favourite recipes with you: a moist, fluffy rhubarb cake with a Swiss meringue on top. Outrageously good!
The following recipe is designed for a 24 cm Ø springform pan.
However, you can extend it as much as you like for even more cake fun.
Ingredients for the dough:
- 230 gr flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp ground vanilla
- 200 gr melted butter
- 200 gr sugar
- 4 large eggs
Ingredients for the rhubarb topping:
- approx. 400 gr rhubarb (cut into 2cm cubes)
- 5 tbsp sugar
Ingredients for the Swiss meringue:
- 150 ml egg white (from approx. 4 large eggs)
- 250 gr sugar
- Food colouring optional
Preparation:
First prepare the rhubarb. Bring approx. 2 litres of water to the boil in a pot.
As soon as the water boils, add the rhubarb with the 3 tbsp sugar to the pot and blanch for 4 minutes. Then drain the rhubarb thoroughly in a sieve. Then place the rhubarb in a shallow dish while it is still warm.
and mix with the remaining 2 tbsp sugar. Allow the mixture to cool further.
Now get started on the cake mixture. First butter your springform pan and heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
Now melt the butter and let it cool down a bit. In the meantime, beat the eggs with the sugar until pale yellow. As soon as the mixture is properly whipped (almost like beaten egg whites), slowly add the warm butter.
Finally, add the flour in batches (mix with a pinch of salt and the baking soda).
Please mix the dough only until all ingredients are well mixed. Otherwise it will collapse and lose its airiness.
Pour the batter into the pre-greased springform pan and sprinkle with the rhubarb pieces (make sure that hardly any liquid is added).
Bake the cake for approx. 50 -55 min. After 45 min, start the cooking test (shish kebab).
Leave the finished cake to cool on a cooling rack.
Now it's time for the meringue:
Mix the egg whites with the sugar in a stainless steel bowl (or the metal bowl of your food processor - I'm a self-confessed Kitchen Aid fan, by the way).
Fill a suitable saucepan with a little water, bring to the boil and place the bowl with the egg white and sugar mixture on top (as if you were melting chocolate). Stir the mixture steadily with a spatula and let it get really warm, almost hot, for about 5 minutes. Once the sugar has melted completely, you can add food colouring to the mixture. I used a little raspberry red here.
Immediately whisk the "warm-hot" mixture vigorously. This takes about 4-6 minutes, after which the meringue is really stiff and ready to be used.
Pour it into a piping bag, or simply spatula it generously onto the cake.
The Swiss meringue does not need to go back into the oven. It is ready to eat immediately because the egg has been heated properly. This way you have a very creamy, dimensionally stable meringue that doesn't crumble ; -).
Fun facts: This meringue can also be dried in the oven as meringue piles. Bake at 110°C convection oven for 1-2 hours, depending on the size.
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