Rhubarb Coconut Cake

I almost did not blog about this cake, for the very banal reason that all pictures of it came out boring and unappetizing. But as I was eating the last piece (3 days after baking it and it was still moist and delicious) I decided that I had to put this recipe up. It´s one of the very best things I ever made with rhubarb and that´s saying something, considering how much I love the stuff (I could eat plain rhubarb compote and be a happy girl).

There´s something about the combination of rhubarb and coconut that just works really well - the sweet nuttyness and and the sharp astringent sourness are simply a perfect match. The joghurt in this cake helps to keep it moist even a couple of days after baking.

The recipe is an adaptation of Nigella Lawsons recipe for Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake in How to be a Domestic Goddess - basically substituting coconut for cornmeal. If you love rhubarb, make this cake - and if you think you don´t, make it as well - a couple of my co-workers who were raving about the cake looked very surprised when I told them the main ingredient.


Rhubarb Coconut Cake
450 grams rhubarb(trimmed weight)
300 grams sugar
200 grams flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
splash of vanilla extract
100 grams grated dried coconut
2 large eggs
125 grams softened butter
250 grams yoghurt
a 23 or 24 cm springform cake tin (I used a square tin) buttered and lined with baking paper

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Chop up the rhubarb into fairly small pieces and toss these in a bowl with 100 grams of the sugar. let stand for half an hour while you mix the rest of the ingredients. Nigella says not to let the rhubarb stand for more than 30 minutes or it will get too soggy.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, bicarb, salt, the coconut). Beat the eggs with the vanilla in a small bowl. In another bowl, cream the butter with the rest of the sugar. Add the eggs to this and then the flour mixture, and finally the yoghurt. Stir gently and don´t overmix.

Finally add the rhubarb 8and the sugar and fold it in. Pour the mixture into the the prepared tin and bake the cake for an hour. Cover with foil after 40 minutes or so if the top gets too brown.

My cake was ready in 50 minutes.