Variations on a Rhubarb theme

Last year we planted a new rhubarb plant and I have been waiting patiently for this years stems to be big enough to harvest.  They are such a beautiful colour and there is something very satisfying about just popping out to the garden for your ingredients.  The rhubarb is now ready to eat so I tried out a few variations on rhubarb recipes this weekend until I found one I was happy with.  Rhubarb is such a tart fruit and I began by pushing the 'low sugar' element of my recipe too far.  We liked the cake pictured below the best, as the rhubarb and orange combination seemed to work well.  It was even warm enough to sit outside to eat it with a cup of tea.  

Rhubarb crumble and orange loaf (Low sugar and gluten free)

 

 Ingredients - makes 1 small 1lb (450g) loaf

• 100g rhubarb, sliced into half a centimetre pieces (or thereabouts)
• juice of 1 small orange (grate the zest first for use in the sponge)

For the crumble topping

• 15g gluten free plain flour (I used Doves Farm)
• 15g ground almonds
• 15g gluten free oats
• 15g butter / margarine (I used a lower fat spreadable butter)
• 3g Truvia sweetener

For the sponge

• 50g softened butter / margarine (I used a lower fat spreadable butter)
• 60g gluten free self-raising flour (I used Doves Farm)
• 25g ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder
• 15g Truvia sweetener
• 1 egg, beaten
• finely grated zest of 1 small orange
• 2 tbsp orange juice (from the drained rhubarb - see method)

1. Grate the zest of your orange onto a plate and set aside.
2. Place your chopped rhubarb into a small bowl and pour over the freshly squeezed orange juice.  Leave to soak, stirring occasionally, whilst you prepare the rest of the cake.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas 4.  Lightly grease and base line a 1lb (450g) loaf tin.
4. To make the crumble topping place flour, ground almonds and oats into a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sweetener and set aside.
5. Next measure all the sponge ingredients into a large bowl.  You will need to drain the rhubarb at this stage to get your 2 tbsp of orange juice.  Beat the sponge ingredients together until well mixed (I used an electric hand mixer for this).  Spoon into your prepared tin and level the surface.
6. Scatter the drained rhubarb pieces over the top of the sponge mix and finally sprinkle over the crumble.
7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes until risen and golden brown.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out carefully on to a cooling rack. 

I cut our cake into 6 slices and my very rough estimate of carbohydrates per slice is 15g.