Rhubarb & Almond Cake with a side of Michel Roux Jnr

It's been a very busy few months, with charity and TV taking up all my time, which sounds glamorous but in fact has just been very, very hard work. Something for Syria came to life at the end of February. A night that began as an idea at Christmas to raise some money for the people of Aleppo and escalated into a full on massive do at Wylam Brewery that raised over £30,000; thirty thousand pounds! It still makes me quite emotional. It just shows what you can do when a few of you put your heads together and call on the kind and talented people of the North East...

Just when it felt calm and I could get back to the work and life I had totally ignored running up to the event I got a call from Boomerang Productions; I was going to be on tv... Cook House appeared last week as part of a new series on Channel 4 called Hidden Restaurants with Michel Roux Jnr. The crew spent 10 hours filming at Cook House last summer; who knew there was so much to film in such a tiny space! I was incredibly nervous, thankfully that didn't seem to show through too much.

So one August morning Michel Roux arrived at the door, off we went to the Ouseburn Farm and picked some lovely fresh vegetables and herbs then cooked together at back at Cook House! I lost all sense of what to say, how to move and talk at the same time, how to chop... but thankfully they were a very encouraging and friendly bunch and were also very good at editing! That Michel was a pro, super professional, a really nice guy. Since it has aired Cook House has been inundated with new customers, which is wonderful, and incredibly hard work! I'm definitely going to need a holiday at some point!

In other news the rhubarb is up! So I thought you might like a simple but delicious cake recipe! Heat the oven to 160˚C. Then melt 150g of butter in a pan, once melted set it aside to cool slightly. Combine 225g of self raising flour, 225g of caster sugar and a teaspoon of baking powder in a bowl. Then beat 2 eggs and 1/4 teaspoon of almond essence together in another small bowl.

Prepare the fruit, for this I used 2 sticks of rhubarb cut on the diagonal and tossed in a bit of sugar to take the edge off them. This cake also works well with apples, raspberries, pears, plums... anything fruity you can throw at it I think!

Line a regular cake tin with greaseproof paper, I cut mine into a circle and tuck it in rather than faffing on with different pieces, it also makes it easy to lift out at the end and deals nicely with my slightly leaking cake tin.

Finally combine the flour mix, butter and egg mix. Bring it together with a spatula, it is quite a thick batter like mix when it's done, mix it until it is smooth. Then add 3/4 of the mix to the cake tin and spread it out. You will think it seems like not very much but don't worry. Then lay the rhubarb over the mix in an even layer. Add the final 1/4 of the mix to the centre of the cake on top of the rhubarb. Quickly pop it in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.

It is delicious, one of my favourite cakes, not overly sweet, but buttery and crumbly. The outside of the cake forms a delicious buttery crust and it is soft and fruity in the middle, lovely with a dollop of cream!