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Rhubarb cake with green macha

The cake can be frozen whole or in slices. Macha tea is a green powder that looks beautiful sprinkled over cakes. Alternatively grind the fresh green leaves of a herb like lemon verbena or with a little caster sugar to produce a bright green powder to sprinkle over the finished cake.

Makes 8 - 10 slices

Ingredients

125g soft unsalted butter/sunflower margarine, at room temperature

125g caster sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten and at room temperature

100g buckwheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

50g ground almonds

2 tsp vanilla essence

4 tbsp Greek yogurt

2 tsp poppy seeds

1/4 tsp Macha green tea powder

150g / 5oz young pink rhubarb, chopped into 2cm / 1in pieces

2 tbsp maple syrup or runny honey

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Line a 20 - 22 cm cake tin with non-stick baking parchment and brush lightly with oil.

Beat the butter/sunflower margarine and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg - beating it into the mixture until well incorporated.

Sieve the flour and the baking powder together and fold these into the butter, sugar and egg mixture together with the ground almonds. Add the vanilla essence to the Greek yogurt and gradually fold this into the cake mixture together with the poppy seeds. Finally stir about a third of the chopped rhubarb into the cake mixture.

Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and arrange the rest of the cut rhubarb around the top of the cake. Bake the cake in the oven for between 40 - 50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the tin and allow it to cool on a rack. use a fine meshed sieve to sprinkle the Macha tea over the cake. Serve cake sliced with a dribble of maple syrup or honey to make it gleam.