Rhubarb & Ginger Jam Cake

Ingredients
215 g Dark brown sugar
85 g Butter
2 Eggs large
1 tsp Vanilla extract
3 tbsp Natural Yoghurt
195 g Plain flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground ginger
1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
170g Rhubarb & Ginger Jam
Icing sugar for dusting

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas Mark 4, and grease and line a 8" cake tin
2. Cream together the dark brown sugar and the butter
3. Whisk in the eggs, vanilla extract and yoghurt
4. Mix in the cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, plain flour and baking powder
5. Pour the batter into the cake tin, add blobs of the jam all over the top and use a knife to gently swirl the mixture around.
6. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean and it is golden brown all over, remove from the tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack
7. When cool, dust all over with icing sugar, I recommend serving with double cream or custard!

Status

Not tried yet - but have a lot of rhubarb and ginger jam to do something with!

Toffee Apple Pudding

Ingredients
85g butter , melted
140g self-raising flour
100g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
200ml milk
1 egg , beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Bramley apples (or other cooking) apples, peeled, cored and sliced

For the Topping:

140g dark brown sugar

250ml boiling water
50g pecans, roughly chopped

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Grease a 2-litre/3½-pint ovenproof dish lightly with butter.

2. Tip the flour, sugar and baking powder, along with a pinch of salt, into a large bowl. 

3. Mix together the milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract and stir into the dry ingredients until you get a smooth batter. 

4. Arrange the apples in the dish, spoon the batter on top and smooth with a knife until the apples are covered.
5. For the topping, pour 250ml boiling water over the sugar and stir together until smooth. 

6. Pour the liquid over the pudding mixture (Be Brave!), then scatter over the pecans. 

7. Bake for about 40 mins until the pudding has risen and is golden. 

8. Use a big spoon to serve the pudding, making sure you get some of the gooey caramel sauce covering the bottom of the dish. Serve with pouring cream, warm custard or vanilla ice cream.

Status

Made this a couple of times - always get very nervous at the topping stage - but it does work, and is absolutely heavenly.  Like it served with greek yoghurt.

Have also made a rhubarb version - uses about 550g chopped rhubarb - same sponge recipe, but with 2 tsp ginger instead of the vanilla extract - for the topping half white half brown sugar, but only 150ml boiling water (to allow for the rhubarb juice).  Works well.