In my kitchen

East Yorkshire Sugar Cakes. The name is deceptive – they are more like a shortbread biscuit. The original recipe dating back 200 years only came to light in late 2007 in the Beverley archives when it fell out of an old accounts ledger and no one had ever heard of such cakes. I was contacted by the BBC to see what we thought of the old recipe. I set to and made the original recipe but I found it was very strong for today’s tastes with a large quantity of ground cloves and mace, so I have adapted it. I hope you enjoy it.

You will need

Serves: 4

Burnt cream mix: 350ml double cream; 125ml milk; 5 egg yolks; 75g caster sugar ; 2tbsp grated root ginger ; 4 sticks of rhubarb 150g caster sugar

East Yorkshire Sugar cakes: 1lb 8oz plain flour; 8oz caster sugar; 1lb butter (melted); 1oz mixed spice; 1oz ground nutmeg; ½ tsp ground cloves.

Method

Put all the sugar cake ingredients into a bowl and mix together.

Lay cling film on a board and roll into sausages.

Wrap in the cling film and put into fridge to set.

Slice and bake at 180C for approximately 10 minutes.

To stew the rhubarb, chop the sticks of rhubarb into three cm lengths, place in a baking tray, sprinkle over the sugar and a little water, cover with foil and bake in the oven at 180C for about 10-12 minutes until just cooked. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tray. This way, the rhubarb will keep its shape.

For the burnt cream, mix the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl, boil the milk and cream in a pan with the ginger remove and leave the ginger to infuse the flavour for a few minutes then strain through a sieve over the egg mix and pour into individual oven proof dishes.

Place the dishes in an oven tray with some water to come a third of the way up the dishes and bake in the oven at 160C for half an hour to 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and set in the fridge.

Glaze the top of the creams with some caster sugar and a blow torch if you have one.

Serve with the sugar cakes and some of the rhubarb which is best just warmed slightly.

Christine Austin recommends: Pour a shot of The King’s Ginger (Latitude, Leeds £20.99) with this delicious pudding, and sip it gently to appreciate its warm spicy tones. Alternatively, try the naturally sweet wine of Vin de Constance 2005 from South Africa with a hint of gingery spice on the palate. (£30 Majestic). With ripe clear risp acidity and a natural touch of ginger pinThis has citrus peel, a touch of pineapple, ginger and juicy melon fruit with luscious sweetness and length.