Rosemary is one of my favourite herbs, but you have to use it carefully as it can taste a bit soapy when overdone. Here, it is tempered with sugar and orange, so the effect with this cake is quite subtle.

I love anything with rhubarb, but because it’s naturally quite tart, it does require a lot of sugar to balance out the flavour. As I’m type 1 diabetic, I replaced the sugar with xylitol which worked really well in this cake.

Beware if you have a dog though, as xylitol is toxic to dogs. Since we got our toy poodle I no longer use xylitol, which is a shame since I found it  by far the best sweetener, but is not worth the risk for me to have it in the house.

If you have a dog free home and are looking for a good sweetener, I would totally recommend it as it’s naturally occurring, you can use it in the same quantities as sugar in recipes and it doesn’t have an awful chemical aftertaste.

Delicious Magazine

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g xylitol
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 medium free-range eggs, beaten
• Grated zest 2 oranges
• 200g ground almonds
• 50g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 8 amaretti biscuits, broken into small chunks
• 1-2 sticks rhubarb, trimmed, cut into 6cm pieces, then halved lengthways (or sliced into thirds if thick) – to give 12-16 lengths

For the glaze

• Juice 1 orange
• 1 fresh rosemary sprig
• 20g granulated sugar
• Squeeze lemon juice (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. Put the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, then the eggs, one by one, beating well between additions until they’re incorporated. Don’t worry if the mixture looks curdled – it will come back together as it bakes.
2. Once the eggs are incorporated, gently fold or stir in the orange zest, ground almonds, flour and baking powder, then the amaretti chunks. Pour the mixture into the cake tin, level the top, then gently push in the rhubarb pieces in a spoke pattern, leaving them two-thirds uncovered (they’ll sink a little in the oven).
3. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35-40 minutes until the top is golden and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean (cover the cake with foil once it turns golden). Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift out (still on the base) onto a wire rack.
4. For the glaze, put the orange juice, rosemary sprig and granulated sugar in a heavy-based pan, bring to a simmer and bubble rapidly for 4-5 minutes to reduce slightly. Taste and add the lemon juice if you want the sharpness. Once the cake has cooled, pour over the syrup, letting it sink in before adding a bit more. Sprinkle with the granulated sugar, then serve with crème fraîche or cream, whipped with a little icing sugar and a splash of amaretto, brandy or rum.