Rhubarb and Strawberry Buckle

Have you ever seen the movie Season of the Witch? It's shit. Really awful. Lot's of grimy long hair and muddy witches locked in cages paired with unnecessary sword fights in the snow. (Am I making it sound good? Don't be fooled). It's also the second Nicholas Cage film we've watched in as many days. Ah weekends, how easy you are to while away with bad TV while it rains outside.

Luckily there was also cake around these parts last weekend, good cake too. GREAT CAKE, in fact. Cake with rhubarb, and more of those strawberries I've been hamming on about lately, and a crunchy, craggy, crumble top. I think I may have finally cracked our new oven's bipolar personality. It runs around 15-20 degrees hot, or sometimes cold, whatever it feels like that particular day, which ISN'T HELPING ANYONE TRYING TO WIN AT BAKING.

If there is one cake you're looking to make this season, let it be this one. It's got chopped hazelnuts AND hazelnut meal in it, and dark brown sugar which makes it taste a bit like caramel Nutella, but with fruit. That doesn't really make sense now, but it will when you make this. Which will be this weekend, won't it... The only thing that will be buckling is your knees when you try it (har har har).

Also: If you find a spare three minutes today and you feel like nominating Stovetop in the Saveur Magazine Best Food Blog awards I will send big virtual hugs your way).

All you need to do is nominate http://www.stovetoprevolution.blogspot.com for best cooking blog over at http://www.saveur.com/food-blog-awards (or any other category), it will only take a tiny two minutes, and then a giant hoard of good karma will most likely drop into your life in the next 7 days. You’re the best, thank you.


Rhubarb and Strawberry Buckle
Only slightly adapted from a recipe by the always delicious Emma Knowles at Gourmet Traveller 

Cake
250g each rhubarb and strawberries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup each dark brown sugar and caster sugar
160g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
220g plain flour
40g hazelnut meal (I just roasted some hazelnuts, removed their skins by rubbing them with the tea towel and ground them up in a food processor)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2 tsp each ground ginger and cinnamon
2/3 cup buttermilk 

Hazelnut Topping
80g dark brown sugar
40g plain flour
40g hazelnuts, coarsely chopped (skins removed using method above)
20g unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.

Combine all the Hazelnut Topping ingredients in a bowl and stir. Freeze this until you're ready to bake the cake (this will stop it melting into the cake when it's baked)

Mix the chopped rhubarb and strawberries in a bowl with 1 teaspoon of both sugars and set aside.

Beat the softened butter and remaining brown and caster sugars until light and fluffy (4-5 minutes, don't skimp on this bit).
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition (scrape down the sides of the bowl to properly mix). Stir in the dry ingredients in two batches and then add the buttermilk.

Fold in one third of the rhubarb and strawberry mixture and spoon into a 24cm-diameter cake tin that has been buttered and lined on the base with baking paper.

Scatter over the remaining rhubarb and strawberries, then top with the hazelnut topping. Bake for about an hour and 15-30 minutes or until a skewer withdraws clean from the centre of the cake. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then on a wire rack. Best eaten on the day it's baked.