With winter in London always being so grey and dark, I find myself looking forward to little things like the start of forced rhubarb season. It reminds me of my time spent living in Leeds (within the ‘Yorkshire rhubarb triangle’) and brings a pop of seasonal colour to my kitchen.
This cake is a riff on some recipes I’ve seen for ‘almond croissant’ cakes – usually a moist batter topped with lots of flaked almonds and icing sugar. I thought ‘why not take it a step further?’ and used chunks of actual frozen croissant dough (shop-bought!), dotted over the surface of the cake in a manner akin to streusel. This adds a flaky crunch and yeasty sweetness to the cake that makes it extra moreish.
Rhubarb Almond Croissant Cake
Ingredients
- 100 g salted butter softened
- 100 g caster sugar plus a litte extra for sprinkling
- 2 medium eggs
- ¼ to ½ tsp almond extract
- 90 g plain white flour
- 45 g ground almonds
- 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
- 200 g rhubarb cut into 2 to 3 cm lengths
- 2 frozen, unbaked croissants defrosted for 5 minutes
- 20 g flaked almonds
Instructions
- Grease and flour an 8-inch round baking tin. Preheat the oven to 180°C convection (350°F).
- Cream the softened butter and caster sugar together in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the eggs and almond extract.100 g salted butter, 100 g caster sugar, 2 medium eggs, ¼ to ½ tsp almond extract
- Mix together the flour, ground almonds and baking powder in a separate bowl. Add to the butter mixture and stir together just until no floury streaks remain.90 g plain white flour, 45 g ground almonds, 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
- Spread the cake batter into the prepared tin. Scatter over the rhubarb pieces and press them into the batter slightly. Sprinkle the top with a little extra caster sugar.200 g rhubarb
- Cut each slightly defrosted croissant into around 6 or 7 chunks (for a total of 12-14 chunks). Dot the chunks of dough over the rhubarb and then sprinkle with the flaked almonds.2 frozen, unbaked croissants, 20 g flaked almonds
- Bake for 25 minutes then loosely cover with a piece of foil and bake for a further 15-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
- You can buy unbaked, frozen croissants in most large UK supermarkets (try to get the all-butter ones if you can). They’re usually in the desserts freezer section!
- You could swap out the rhubarb for an equal weight of frozen blueberries or peeled, diced apples
- I’m using salted butter here as it helps amplify that buttery croissant flavour. If you only have unsalted butter, add 1/4 tsp fine table salt to the dry ingredients.
- I know some people don’t like almond flavouring/extract so feel free to leave it out if you’re not keen! You can always finely grate the zest of a lemon or orange into the butter/sugar mixture whilst making the batter for a different flavour.
- I found I needed to cover the cake with foil around halfway through the bake time to prevent the croissants from getting too dark
Sidebar – I’m kind of obsessed with these store-bought, ready-to-bake frozen croissants. I feel like there must be a tonne of creative ways to use them in homemade bakes – I’ve already made a kind of hack-y version of cinnamon cruffins (a.k.a. Gail’s cinnamon rolls) using them.
As with anything involving laminated pastry, this is best eaten the day it’s made so I recommend serving it for a gathering (maybe a Gal-entines day brunch!?). It’s delicious eaten warm and a spoonful of full-fat yogurt or creme fraiche on top won’t go amiss.
If you do have day-old leftovers, it’s a good idea to warm the cake up in the oven or an air-fryer at 180C for around 5 minutes before eating. This will help re-crisp the croissant layer on top!
