Rhubarb cake with crumble and meringue

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 1 ½ kg rhubarb
• 150 g sugar
• 400 g flour
• 20 g baking powder, approx. 1.5 sachets
• 200 g butter
• 200 g sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 3 packs of vanilla pudding powder
• 120 g sugar
• 1 liter rhubarb juice
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 eggs
• 200 g flour
• 125 g sugar
• 125 g butter
• 6 egg whites
• 125 g sugar
• 1 pinch of salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 40 minutes; Total time approx. 13 hours 25 minutes

For one baking tray

Wash and peel the rhubarb, and cut into pieces about 5 cm in size. Mix with the sugar and let stand covered overnight. 1-2 hours will also work. The longer you wait, the more juice you’ll get. The juice will be used to make the pudding later. Separate the eggs. In a mixing bowl, knead the flour, butter, egg yolks, baking powder, and sugar into a dough. Spread the dough on a greased baking sheet. For the pudding, mix the pudding powder with 15 tablespoons of water and the sugar. Make up the rhubarb juice (made by adding the sugar) with water to make 1 liter and bring to a boil. Stir in the mixed pudding powder and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir the butter into the hot pudding. When the pudding has cooled to lukewarm, stir in the eggs. Then spread the pudding evenly over the dough. Press the rhubarb pieces into the pudding. For the crumble, knead the flour, sugar, and butter together and sprinkle half the side of the baking sheet with it. Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C (top/bottom heat) for about 20 minutes on the middle rack. In the meantime, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks, gradually adding the sugar. Spread the meringue on the other half of the pre-baked rhubarb cake and bake for another 20 minutes. Let cool. Since I can’t decide between meringue and crumble, I came up with this variation. You can also make one of the two. Double the crumble amounts. The meringue is enough for one baking tray, but it won’t be as thick. Or you can skip the topping and just enjoy the rhubarb cake. In this case, 30-35 minutes of baking at 180°C (top/bottom heat) is sufficient.