I am by no means a royalist, but any occasion that might require a cake is very welcome and so I made this rhubarb cake in celebration of HRH Queen Elizabeth’s 90^th birthday, decorating it in red, white and blue.

I have been eyeing the rhubarb in our local supermarket for a while, just wasn’t sure what to use it for. A cake, a dessert, a compote? In the end the cake option won out, as I found another easy non-fuss bake.

I love rhubarb. When I was a child we had it in our garden and it grew like nobody’s business, so I was a bit surprised to pay nearly £4 for just 400g (3 long stalks) in the shop. Sadly, there is no farm shop nearby and I have no garden, so I have to put up or shut up and bake something else.

But here it is – my Rhubarb Cake in all its glory.

(I wish I could send you the smell – it’s wonderful!)

Shopping list:

• 400g rhubarb, washed and cut into 2 cm long pieces
• 250g soft unsalted butter
• 150g sugar
• 1 packet or 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• zest from 1 unwaxed lemon or a packet of Dr. Oetker Finnesse Lemon
• a pinch of salt
• 5 medium eggs
• 375g flour
• 2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder
• 200g white chocolate
• 1 teaspoon of cooking oil
• freeze-dried strawberries
• blueberries

Pre-heat the oven to 180C, 160C if you have a fan oven.

Grease a baking tin.

Beat the butter with a hand mixer until is soft.

Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest and salt

Add one egg at a time and beat the mixture at the highest speed for half a minute each time.

Add the flour and baking powder and mix into the egg mixture at a low speed.

Fold in the rhubarb pieces.

Transfer the mixture to the baking tin and pop it into the pre-heated oven for 60 minutes.

Leave to cool in the form for 10 minutes before taking it out and leaving it on a cake rack to cool completely.

In the meantime break the white chocolate in to small pieces, add the oil and melt gently in a bowl over a pan with hot water.

Once the cake has cooled down, pour the chocolate on top.

Sprinkle with freeze-dried strawberry pieces and decorate with blueberries.

Enjoy!