I’ve gone all out with a seasonal bake this year by making a rhubarb, blood orange & ginger cake for Mother’s Day. I know it’s a couple of weeks off yet, but I’ve been thinking about this cake for ages and I was dying to try it out and see if it would work. It did BTW.
After last year’s Mother’s Day cake proved to be an outright winner in the baking category at Pinterest’s #BestofPinterest2016, with my raspberry & rose bundt cake, I feel I should be indulging myself every year by baking a cake that I would love to eat. This year’s choice may look quite simple in its presentation but it packs a huge amount of fruity, gingery flavour with a sticky almond crumb that makes it hard to stop at just one slice.
I served this cake with stunningly shocking pink roasted rhubarb, blood oranges and thick cream. If you can get hold of forced rhubarb, it is worth seeking out at a greengrocer. The colour is so striking, the stems are much more slender and delicate and it take very little time to cook through. I like it’s sharpness so I don’t overkill it with sugar. But, it is very expensive, much like asparagus and Jersey Royals – yet so worth it.
So when it comes to Mother’s Day, forget the cards, flowers, chintzy gifts and commercialised nonsense and bake this cake instead.
Here are some more Mother’s Day bakes for you from my fellow bloggers:
Blueberry Cake – Utterly Scrummy
Chocolate coffee cardamom layer cake- Domestic Gothess
Chamomile cake with Salted Honey Buttercream – Veggie Desserts
Chocolate Coconut Cannellini Cake – Tin & Thyme
Lemon & Blueberry Cupcakes – Feeding Boys
Rhubarb & marzipan cake – Fab Food 4 All
Warm gingerbread cake with lemon sauce – Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Chocolate coffee brownie cake – The Petite Cook
Lemon drizzle layer cake – Baking Queen
Chocolate salted caramel cake – Munchies & Munchkins

Rhubarb, Blood Orange & Ginger Cake for Mother’s Day
Ingredients
- 200 g golden caster sugar 175g for the cake & 25g for the rhubarb topping
- 175 g unsalted butter softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 blood orange zest of and juice of half
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 piece stem ginger in syrup chopped finely
- 125 g self raising flour sifted
- 50 g ground almonds
- 1 tsp baking powder sifted
- 1 stalk rhubarb chopped & coated in the remaining 25g of golden caster sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees
- Beat the butter & sugar together until light and creamy using a hand mixer/food mixer
- Add in the eggs and beat again until incorporated
- Next, add the stem ginger, ground ginger, zest and juice of the blood orange and beat into the cake mixture
- Finally fold in the ground almonds, sifted flour and baking powder
- Place the cake batter into a lined 7 inch cake tin and top with the chopped rhubarb which has been coated in the 25g of sugar. Use up all of the sugar by sprinkling it over the top surface of the cake
- Bake for 40 minutes until golden around the edges
- When it's completely cool, dust with icing sugar and serve with some roasted/poached rhubarb, blood oranges and lots of cream.
Recipe Notes
This cake is best served warm or at room temperature. As it has fruit in it, keep leftover cake refrigerated and take it out at least an hour before serving it or warm it up in the oven for 5 minutes before eating.
Congrats with your Pinterest award! Must admit, it’s been very hard to resist the glorious pink rhubarb stems shouting from the shop’s shelves this year. What a fab way of making use of them!
They are the most amazing colour and so good to enjoy at this time of year!
Oooh those flavours sound so amazing in this cake. Wish I had a slice right now!
Thanks Kate!
It’s a lovely treat, better if someone makes it for you!
Oooh Laura I’d love to have this served up to me on Mother’s Day – what a wonderful combination of flavours!!!!!
Loving the flavours here Laura which all go so well with rhubarb:-)
Pleased you enjoy them Camilla!
This flavour combination sounds amazing! And I love the gorgeous pink colour of that rhubarb – so striking. I’ll take three slices please 🙂
Great Becca, you are allowed lots of cake when you are pregnant!