Rhubarb, Pistachio and Salted Caramel Layer Cake

Claudia Brick — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 08:50:07 +0000

Rhubarb, salted caramel and pistachio cake – brown butter and yoghurt cake, roast rhubarb, salted caramel buttercream and pistachio crumble topping. Jump to Recipe

HOME! Finally finished up the semester on Tuesday and arrived back in Auckland last night. Looking forward to the mental break of having five weeks free from concentrating on textbooks and physiology, and channeling that energy into this blog instead. That started today with this cake.

This rhubarb, salted caramel and pistachio layer cake. The cake is flavoured with the nuttiness of brown butter, and given density. moisture and tang by greek yogurt. On top of each layer sits a thick layer of tart cream cheese caramel icing and the sweet-sour marriage of tender roasted rhubarb, the crunch of salty pistachio crumb and gorgeous drips of salted caramel. Worth a little extra effort just for the prettiness and decadence of the end result – towering, rustic, oozing icing and caramel, and practically calling out to be eaten.

In fact, my youngest brother just told me that it is the best cake I have ever made – the best cake he has ever eaten, even. That is high praise, coming from a 12 year old chocoholic.

I had been daydreaming of making an elaborate, completely over the top and hedonistic cake like this since somewhere in the last few weeks of the semester. Going and getting a piece of brownie or muffin from a cafe, as nice as it might be, just doesn’t feel the same as actually constructing something yourself – thinking of perfect flavour combinations, getting inspiration from blogs and cookbooks, deciding on a final recipe, making final tweaks during the cooking process, assembling all the components, and ending up with a unique, impressive and delicious creation. A big part of it is seeing the pleasure on the faces of all those who eat it, each mouthful savoured, and finishing content, with full and satisfied stomachs.

Don’t be scared off by the different components of this cake – on their own, none are particularly challenging. The cake itself is very simple – but do take the time to brown the butter. It endows it with a subtle nutty fragrance that works well with the pistachio crumb and more intensely flavoured other elements. The salted caramel is also straight forward, and to make the frosting you just mix some of your caramel into cream cheese. The rhubarb you just cut up and roast for 10 minutes in the oven, and the crumb is a 15 minute job from start to finish. You can also make some of the components a day in advance, if that makes it easier (more notes on this at the bottom of the recipe).

A few of the photos don’t have the pistachio crumb on the very top layer, because I (stupidly, in hindsight), wasn’t sure whether the crumb would work – and thought it already pretty enough. In fact, the crumb was the ideal finishing touch, adding texture, colour and salty pistachio-ness, and we actually ended up putting even MORE crumble on each piece on serving (as well as more left over caramel and rhubarb – you can never go wrong with that!).

Rhubarb, Pistachio and Salted Caramel Layer Cake

Inspired by this cake from Rasperri Cupcakes blog, and this construction from Alice Arndell.

Course Dessert

Prep Time 2 hours

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 3 hours

Author Claudia Brick

Ingredients

Brown Butter and Yoghurt Cake

300 g butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
330 g /1.5 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
360 g flour (about 2 3/4 cups)
4 tsp baking powder
1 cup plain , unsweetened yogurt

Roasted Rhubarb

500 grams rhubarb , chopped into 2 cm pieces
2 tbsp sugar

Salted Caramel:

1/2 cup water
1½ cups caster sugar (330g)
90 g unsalted butter , cubed
¾ cup cream + 1 tbsp
½ -1 tsp table salt (according to your tastes)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Caramel Icing:

500 g Philadelphia cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup of salted caramel above

Pistachio crumb

1/2 cup pistachio
40 g caster sugar
40 g flour
30 g butter , cold

Instructions

Brown Butter and Yogurt Cake

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter until melted. Continue cooking at a boil, stirring often, until the milk solids turn brown and the butter starts to smell nutty. This will take 5-10 minutes, and happens quickly near the end so watch carefully to ensure the butter doesn’t burn.
Remove fro, he heat immediately and pour into a bowl (including all the brown flecks). Stir in the vanilla (it will bubble up), then place in the freezer until it is about half solid (about half an hour).
Preheat oven to 175° and grease and line 3 x 20cm round cake tins (if you only have one, you can use the same tin and put the remaining batter in the fridge while you wait for each layer to cook).
Cream the chilled brown butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, ensuring each is incorporated fully.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.
Fold a third of the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until just combined. Fold in half the yoghurt, then remaining flour, and finally the rest of the yoghurt.
Divide batter evenly between the three tins and flatten the tops. Bake about 20minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and the top springs back to touch. Be careful not to overbake.
Cool in tins.

Rhubarb

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the rhubarb out on the baking paper and sprinkle the sugar over the top. Bake for 15 minutes or until tender (a fork speared through should meet no resistance). This baking time may vary depending on the thickness of your rhubarb
When cool, if your rhubarb is thick (like mine was), slice the pieces in half lengthways.

Salted Caramel

Heat the butter and cream in a small saucepan over a low heat until the butter is melted and the mixture is combined. Remove from the heat.
Place the sugar and water in a large pot over a high heat. Cook until the mixture reaches a dark amber colour (~175°C/350°F on a candy thermomenter), swirling the pot to allow the sugar to cook evenly. When it has reached this point (usually around 10 minutes), remove from the heat and whisk in the cream mixture - be careful here, as it boils up vigorously with a lot of steam, so you may want to wear an oven mitt or similar to protect your hand.
When fully combined, return to the heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, to thicken it slightly. If you feel like the caramel is as dark as you want it early than this, remove from the heat.
Stir in the table salt and vanilla essence. Leave to cool

Cream Cheese Caramel Icing

Beat the cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Add 3/4 cup of the salted caramel and mix until combined.

Pistachio crumb

In a food processor, blitz the pistachios until roughly chopped (it doesn’t matter if there are pieces of varying sizes (you can use a knife, it will just take longer).
Put the chopped pistachios in a small bowl and stir in the sugar and flour. Add the cubed butter and rub in with your fingers to make a coarse crumb.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Spread out the crumb on the baking paper and bake for 10 minutes or until starting to turn slightly golden around the edges. If it is baking unevenly, give it a stir and leave in a for a few minutes. It will become more crunchy after you take it out of the oven as well.

Assembly

If the cakes have domed, slice off the top of the dome to flatten them.
Put the bottom layer on your cake stand or serving plate and top with a third of the cream cheese frosting, a third of the rhubarb, and a drizzle of salted caramel. Sprinkle over a couple of tablespoons of pistachio crumb. Repeat with the remaining layers.
If you are going to be moving the cake around a bit, you may find it helpful to cut a few wooden skewers to the height of the cake and spear them through the three layers to keep them all sitting evenly together.
Keep at room temperature until serving. Best eaten the same day. Keep left overs in the fridge in an airtight container.

Notes

It is best made and eaten the same day, but you can make each component a day in advance and store separately until ready to assemble. Store the cakes wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature. The rhubarb, caramel and cream cheese frosting will keep in airtight containers in the fridge for a couple of days. To use the caramel, heat briefly in a small pot or microwave until runny enough to drizzle over the cake, and you may need to beat the frosting again quickly to get it to a spreadable consistency.

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