Rhubarb cupcakes

I rarely fancy cakes, but when there are nice seasonal berries, apples or rhubarb around, I always feel like baking, especially traditional cakes from my home country Finland. That seasonal produce always looks so tempting. So now I wanted to make rhubarb cupcakes when I got some beautiful seasonal rhubarb stalks. It's also getting late in the rhubarb season, so didn't want to miss out.

Unfortunately I wasn't concentrating very well when I cooked these cupcakes, and made them a bit too hastily. Therefore the result wasn't the prettiest, but actually they were quite tasty and especially my partner liked them a lot.

I followed this Finnish recipe by Valio, which is actually for a rhubarb pie. Maybe that's where the mistake lies trying to divide the dough into cupcake sizes. I have translated the recipe below, if you still fancy rhubarb cupcakes, or maybe better try it with the pie straight away. The picture in the original recipe looks just fine.

Ingredients

Dough

1 egg

1,5 dl sugar

¾ dl soft margarine

2 dl milk

4 dl wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

Filling

6-7 dl rhubarb pieces / 4 rhubarb stalks

2 dl sugar

Method

Cook the chopped rhubarb with the sugar until it's jam like texture. Add water, if needed. Let it cool.

Whisk the egg and sugar. Add the soft margarine, milk and flour with the baking powder by mixing fast.

Pour the dough into cupcake cases or cake tin.

Pour the rhubarb mix on the top.

Bake at 175 C for about 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Rose cocktail

This summer heat forced me to make a cocktail that is low on alcohol content (you can also make this fully free of alcohol, if you prefer), as I needed desperate cooling down after the trip to the shops. It's extremely humid today and there might be thunderstorms later on.

I wanted to combine some flavours of the summer in this drink. I have admired the Fentimans lemonades and tonics on the shop shelves with the nice dog logo, and now I finally bought the rose lemonade and used it for this cocktail.

This is all you need for a quick refreshment:

500 ml sweet pear cider

275 ml rose lemonade

1 tbsp rhubarb cordial

Ice cubes

Rose petals

Mix the drink in a large jug and add the ice cubes and rose petals – done! 

Squeeze in one lime's juice for additional punch.

Keep cool!

Your VegHog

Finnish style rhubarb pie

I got the first local Hampshire rhubarb of the year, and started dreaming of this Finnish style rhubarb pie. I'm feeling a bit patriotic as the Finnish ice-hockey team is playing tonight for the world championship! Dream aside and I started baking, as what can be a better time for baking a fresh pie than early Sunday morning? No healthy breakfast for me today...

What makes this pie Finnish style, is the combination of rhubarb and quark on the pie. Many Finnish summer pies combine fruits or berries with quark, and I just love that style. It's sometimes difficult to find quark in the British supermarkets, but it's a really common dairy product in Finland and you can make wondrous desserts and cakes with it. Here is how I made this easy and quick pie.

Ingredients

For the base:

150 g butter

100 ml sugar

200 ml wheat flour

100 ml potato flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

For the filling:

5 small rhubarb stems

1 egg

2 tbsp quark

100 ml sugar

3 tsp vanilla sugar

Method

Start by making the base, and grease a pie tin (mine is Ø 25 cm). Beat the melted butter and sugar into foam with a hand mixer, then add the egg. Mix the wheat and potato flours with the baking powder and add them to the butter, sugar and egg mix while stirring. Once you have a smooth dough, spread it into the pie tin.

Then continue with the filling by peeling the rhubarb stems and cutting them into small pieces. Mix the egg, quark, sugar, vanilla sugar and rhubarb and spread the mix evenly on the base dough.

Bake the pie at 185C for about 30 minutes until it's fully baked and golden brown.

Enjoy your nice Sunday coffee and pie moments!

Your VegHog

Rhubarb chutney

Now I truly must be becoming British as I have made my first ever chutney! I was inspired to this by some rhubarb I received from a nearby garden and wanted to make something new out of rhubarb.

This chutney is very easy and quick to make. I think I'm going to make more of this and other chutneys in the future.

400g rhubarb

1 onion

100ml Aspall cyder vinegar

200g sugar

Ginger powder

Peel and chop the rhubarb into small pieces. Also chop the onion.

Heat the chopped onion, vinegar, sugar and ginger powder in a pan and boil for about 5 minutes. Add the rhubarb and let simmer for about 20 minutes. The chutney should reach a thicker consistency. I first was reluctant adding so much sugar, but it really is needed and the end result is tasty.

I ate this chutney with some cider battered smoked cheddar and zucchini oven fries out of homegrown small zucchinis. It went really well with the smoky taste.

You can find my smoky cheese recipe here and the zucchini fries here.

Your VegHog

Rhubarb pie

A sweet pie will now be made just to celebrate the middle of the pie week. Although this pie is not so overly sweet it's interesting anyway. I like the bitterness of rhubarb in a sweet pie and I also use rhubarb way too seldom, so it's nice to bake with it for a change.

This is more a Finnish style rhubarb pie. Finnish summer pies typically have a quark filling with some fruit or berries.

Ingredients

For the base:

150g Butter

1 Egg

1dl Sugar

2dl Wheat flour

1dl Potato flour

1tsp Baking powder

For the filling:

2 Rhubarb stems

1 Egg

2 tbsp Quark

1dl Sugar

2-3tsp Vanilla sugar

Start by making the base. Foam the butter and sugar with a hand mixer, then add the egg. Mix the wheat and potato flours with the baking powder and add it to the butter, sugar and egg mix while stirring. Once you have a smooth dough spread it into a greased pie tin.

Preparations for the filling: Peel the rhubarb and cut it into small pieces. Mix the quark, sugar, eggs and rhubarb and spread them evenly on the base dough.

Bake at 200C for about 20-30 minutes until the pie receives some colour.

Serve with nice coffee and enjoy!

Your VegHog