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Summertime is pretty much here and that means that the sweet smell of honeysuckles are in full bloom, cool glasses of fresh lemonade, ice-cream, and candlelit porches filled with laughter and friends, and but of course something sweet to top it all off! What should it be you say? Rhubarb! Rhubarb is a vegetable plant in which you can only eat the stems, as the leaves are quite toxic. The beautiful red stems are packed with nutrition and is a bit tart, so when added with a bit of sugar, you get the perfect filling for a scrumptious rhubarb dessert. Here is a great video recipe of cook Annabel Langbein of New Zealand. She is one of my favorites among many others and I thought this Rhubarb & Yoghurt Crumble Cake sounded absolutely divine and perfect for a summer get together with friends and family! For more recipes using rhubarb, check out this cookbook: Life’s Little Rhubarb Cookbook: 101 Rhubarb Recipes

Rhubarb & Yoghurt Crumble Cake

Prep 15 minutes
Cook 50-60 minutes
Ingredients:

140g butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp natural vanilla essence
3/4 cup plain yoghurt
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 stalks rhubarb, thinly sliced, or 190g berry fruits or other chopped fruits
Topping:

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds or chopped walnuts
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
60g butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180-C. Grease a 25cm spring-form or loose-bottomed cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Beat in yoghurt then add sifted dry ingredients and stir gently to just combine (mixture will be a thick consistency).

Spread into prepared tin and sprinkle over rhubarb.

Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over cake. Bake until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Stand 15 minutes before turning out. Allow to cool before cutting. Store in an airtight container.

Serves 8-10
Variations:

In summer I like to make this cake with stone fruit. Use 6-8 stoned plums or apricots cut in wedges in place of rhubarb. In autumn use feijoas or apples cut in chunks in place of rhubarb and flavour crumble topping with 1 tsp ginger in place of cinnamon.
Copyright Annabel Langbein Books 2000 – 2007

Cookbooks by Anna Langbein:

Cooking to Impress Without Stress,

Assemble: Sensational Food Made Easy,

Desserts.

These muffins are truly delicious! I prefer to use fresh blueberries over the canned ones, as they give a much fresher taste and really pops with flavor and juice. You could also try different variations by adding cranberries, chopped peaches, or some sweet red strawberries! My husband prefers the streussel topping to be left off, but this is the most wonderful part to me. Enjoy!

Ingredients
Non-stick vegetable oil spray
12 count muffin pan
3 ¼ C. All Purpose Flour
1 ¼ C. Sugar
¾ C. (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature
1 Tbsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Baking Soda
¼ tsp. Cinnamon
1 ½ C. Buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 C. Fresh or Frozen Blueberries(drained)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pans with non-stick spray. Hand stir or use your electric mixer to blend flour, sugar, butter, and salt in a large bowl until mixture resembles fine meal. Reserve ½ cup of mixture in small bowl and mix in 1 tsp.of vanilla and set to the side.

Add baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon to the flour mixture in the large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and the rest of your vanilla(1 tsp.). Gradually add egg mixture into flour mixture in your large bowl and blend together until smooth. Carefully fold in blueberries. Evenly pour batter into your muffin pans. Top muffins with streussel mixture. Bake until golden brown. Use a knife to test. Center should come out clean. Cool for 5 – 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire or slotted rack.