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Rhubarb and strawberry buckle

Rhubarb and strawberry buckle

The buckle is a dense fruit-studded cake with a crumbly crunchy top. We’ve added rapadura sugar for its more-ish, complex caramel-molasses flavour. You can sweeten the crème fraîche with a little rapadura sugar too – it’s a heavenly combination. This cake is best eaten on the day of making.

Rhubarb and strawberry buckle

Serves 10
Cooking Time Prep time 30 mins, cook 1 hr 30 mins (plus freezing, cooling)
250 gm each   rhubarb and strawberries, coarsely chopped
110 gm (½ cup) each   caster sugar and rapadura sugar (see note)
160 gm   softened butter
2   eggs
220 gm   plain flour
40 gm   hazelnut meal
1 tsp   baking powder
½ tsp   bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp each   ground ginger and cinnamon
165 ml   buttermilk
To serve:   crème fraîche
Hazelnut topping
80 gm   rapadura sugar (see note)
40 gm   plain flour
40 gm   coarsely chopped hazelnuts
20 gm   butter, melted


1 Preheat oven to 170C. For hazelnut topping, combine ingredients in a bowl, then freeze until required (this stops the topping melting into the cake when it’s baked).
2 Combine rhubarb and strawberry in a bowl with 1 tbsp of each sugar and set aside.
3 Beat butter and remaining sugars in an electric mixer until light and fluffy (4-5 minutes), add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in dry ingredients then buttermilk. Stir in one-third of rhubarb mixture, spoon into a 24cm-diameter cake tin buttered and lined on the base with baking paper. Scatter over remaining rhubarb mixture and hazelnut topping, bake until a skewer inserted withdraws clean (1¼-1½ hours). Cool in tin for 30 minutes, then on a wire rack to room temperature. Serve with crème fraîche.

Note Rapadura sugar is available from select health-food shops and delicatessens. If unavailable, substitute dark brown sugar.

This recipe is from the June 2011 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

RECIPE Emma Knowles PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Dearnley STYLING Emma Knowles & David Morgan


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