Mary Berry Rhubarb Sponge Recipes

RHUBARB AND VANILLA SPONGE PUDDING

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Slit the vanilla pod open lengthways and scrape out the seeds with the tip of a knife into a mixing bowl (save the pod for later). Add 185g of the sugar and mix them with your fingertips, then stir in the plain flour. Wipe the rhubarb stalks clean, cut into 5cm pieces, then add to the bowl and toss to coat. Leave for 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until all the pieces of fruit are coated in sticky sugar/flour mix.
• Spoon the fruit over the base of a shallow 2 litre baking dish (the shallower the dish, the quicker the sponge will cook). It will look like quite a lot of fruit, but don't worry - it collapses during cooking. Cut the reserved vanilla pod into 4 pieces and poke them in amongst the rhubarb. Cover and bake for 15 minutes.
• For the sponge topping, beat the butter and remaining 115g sugar in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon (or an electric mixer) for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the self-raising flour with the second egg. Beat in the vanilla extract. Sift over the rest of the flour and a pinch of salt, then gently fold in along with the milk using a metal spoon, trying to keep the mixture as light as possible.
• Remove the dish of rhubarb from the oven, discard the vanilla pod pieces and drop small spoonfuls of the sponge mixture roughly over the top of the fruit. Don't worry about a few gaps; these will fill in as the sponge rises and cooks.
• Bake for about 35 minutes until the sponge is cooked through and crisp and brown on top. Remove the dish from the oven and leave to sit for 10 minutes. Dust the top with a little icing sugar and serve hot with cream or custard.

MARY BERRY'S EASY VICTORIA SANDWICH

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins. Use a piece of baking paper to rub a little butter around the inside of the tins until the sides and base are lightly coated, then line the bottom with a circle of baking paper.
• Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugar, flour, baking powder and butter. Mix together until well combined with an electric hand mixer (you can also use a wooden spoon), but be careful not to over mix. Put a damp cloth under your bowl when you're mixing to stop it moving around. The finished mixture should fall off a spoon easily.
• Divide the mixture evenly between the tins: this doesn't need to be exact, but you can weigh the filled tins if you want to check. Use a spatula to remove all of the mixture from the bowl and gently smooth the surface of the cakes.
• Bake the cakes on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes. Check them after 20 minutes. The cakes are done when they're golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins. Press them gently to check - they should be springy to the touch. Set aside to cool in their tins for 5 minutes. Run a palette or rounded butter knife around the inside edge of the tins and carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack.
• To assemble the cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and spread it with plenty of jam. If you want to, you can spread over whipped cream too. Top with the second cake, top-side up. Sprinkle over the caster sugar.

EASY RHUBARB CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease a 23cm/9in springform cake tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.
• Put the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla or almond extract, almonds, flour and baking powder in a food mixer or food processor. Beat until smooth and thick.
• Spoon the cake batter into the prepared tin. Top with the rhubarb, pressing it down gently. Sprinkle with the reserved 3 tablespoons of sugar.
• Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cover with foil if the cake starts to overbrown before it is cooked in the centre.
• Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or cold.