Rhubarb, ginger and walnut bread

I went to stay with my mum this week and visited her new allotment.  It's a lovely place and made me jealous of her green fingers.  One day I'd love to have a proper fruit and veg patch in our garden, but I've never been able to keep plants alive for very long - and when we planted flowers last summer Doug the Pug took great pleasure in biting the flower heads off every single one within minutes of us finishing planting them!  Anyway, I came home armed with a bag of fresh rhubarb pulled from her allotment, and this was the result - a lovely moist rhubarb, ginger and walnut loaf cake, made with stewed rhubarb and glazed and iced with its juices.  Delicious!

Ingredients

For the stewed rhubarb

1lb rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks

6oz sugar

1 tbsp water

For the cake batter

2 eggs

7oz caster sugar

4oz butter, melted

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

7oz self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

2 oz ground walnuts

1 cup/ 8 fl. oz stewed rhubarb, strained and juice reserved

For the icing

8 oz icing sugar
½ tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp boiling water

3 tbsp reserved juiced from stewed rhubarb

To decorate

1 oz crystallised ginger, diced

Method

1. To make the stewed rhubarb, place the chopped rhubarb, sugar and water into a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat for 15 mins, stirring occasionally.
2. Strain through a sieve over a medium bowl – reserve the juice to make the the icing later.
3. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Melt the butter and use a little of it to grease and line a 9 x 5-inch loaf tin.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar, then add the (cooled) melted butter and vanilla, and beat well.
5. Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt and ground ginger, add the ground walnuts and mix well.
6. Stir in the stewed rhubarb.
7. Pour into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Meanwhile, make the icing: sift half the icing sugar and a little ground ginger into a large mixing bowl, add the butter and a teaspoon of boiling water and beat together with a wooden spoon.
9. Add the reserved juiced from the stewed rhubarb, a spoonful at a time, to the icing and beat until smooth and thick.  Sift in the remaining icing sugar as you go until you reach the desired consistency.
10. Remove from the oven and while the cake is still in the tin, poke holes in the top of the cake with a skewer.  Spoon the remaining juice reserved from the rhubarb over the cake, and let cool for 10 minutes before transferring out of the tin to a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Once the cake has cooled completely, use a palette knife to spread with the icing.
12. Decorate with crystallised ginger.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.