Celebrating World Baking Day in style

We're celebrating World Baking Day 2018 with a delicious recipe for rhubarb and vanilla cake from The Green Apron.

Since it’s World Baking Day – a day designed to spread the joy of baking all over the globe, we thought we’d share with you a delicious recipe designed by The Green Apron the much-admired Essex cookery school, and close friend of Westbury. The cookery school itself was built by Westbury and was created to give the owner the much-needed, open planned kitchen they have always desired. If it looks familiar, it’s because it has featured in many top-selling lifestyle magazines, even making it to the front cover of the May edition of The English Home.

Ingredients for Rhubarb and Vanilla Cake

175g soft butter

175g caster sugar + plus 5 tablespoons for the rhubarb

3 large eggs

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

175g self raising flour

1-2 tablespoons milk

350g rhubarb, washed, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm / 1 inch lengths

Icing sugar to dust

Method

1. First place the rhubarb in a bowl with the 5 tablespoons of sugar and toss to coat.  Set aside for 15 to 20 minutes until the rhubarb juices start to run.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180° C (160° C fan) / Gas Mark 4.
3. Butter and line a 20cm spring-form or loose bottomed cake tin with grease proof paper.
4. In a separate bowl beat the butter well with an electric whisk until very soft.
5. Add the sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla to the bowl and whisk again until the mixture just comes together.  Add enough milk so the batter forms a dropping consistency  and drops easily off the spoon when you tap it on the side of the bowl.
6. Pour the batter into the cake tin and scatter all the rhubarb on top.  It will look like too much at first but the rhubarb pieces will sink into the batter as it cooks.
7. Place in the oven and cook for 50 minutes.  Make sure the cake is cooked through by gently pressing the top, it should feel firm and bounce back.  If in doubt, press a skewer into the cake and it should come out clean. If not put back into the oven for another 5 minutes and check again.
8. Once the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.  After 5 minutes remove the cake from the tin.
9. Serve warm dusted with icing sugar accompanied with cream for dessert or cold as a cake.

The Green Apron also has an amazing biscotti recipe that we just can’t get enough off over at Westbury – perfect for serving in the orangery with a cup of coffee. You can find the recipe at the Green Apron website.