Blueberry rhubarb cake and loveliness

I’m still dreaming about the farm. With two long weekends just gone (which means many, full working weeks ahead), I’m trying to re-live the loveliness of Orange by using up the last of the produce that I got from there.

Rhubarbs, passionfruit, cucumbers and lemons. All beautiful, all bursting with flavour. Obviously I couldn’t use them all up in one recipe, but I am working my way through them. I started with the passionfruit, and paired them with equally fresh, flavoursome ingredients in my Anzac Day cocktail. Next I preserved my lemons (recipe coming soon, I promise), then I started using up the rhubarb.

Glorious, vermilion rhubarb.

I used it in two ways. For this cake, I stuck it straight into the batter and let the oven do all the work. For the second recipe, I roasted them and broke them down into a syrup. More on that later in the week.

For now, the cake: a sweet, simple, buttery batter, complemented by the zing of rhubarb and blueberries.

Blueberry and rhubarb cake

Serves 10

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 80g butter
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 cup rhubarb, chopped
• 1 cup frozen blueberries

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin and preheat your oven to 180°C.

Beat together your butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add in the milk and egg and mix until smooth. Pour in the flour, one cup at a time and mix thoroughly. Add in your rhubarb and blueberries and mix evenly into the batter.

The batter should be thick enough to stop the rhubarb and blueberries from sinking to the bottom.

Pour your batter into the prepared tin and pop it into the oven for 40-45 minutes. The cake is done when a skewer, inserted into the middle, comes out clean.

This delicious afternoon tea treat is perfect on its own, because the flavours of the rhubarb and blueberries shine in the simple batter. If you want to complement it with  a topping of some description, however, opt for pouring cream or custard.

Or just a nice big glass of milk.

Enjoy!