Little Orange Sponge Puddings with Rhubarb Sauce

Now I'm not the biggest fan of rhubarb, I admit it. But this dessert was nice enough, and the 3 other people that ate it seemed to quite like it - especially soon-to-be-Mrs Pizzaman who can't get enough of rhubarb!! Although I can see that orange and rhubarb are a good mix, I guess I just have too sweet a tooth for the slightly bitter taste of the rhubarb.

Anyway, its fairly easy to make and doesn't take long.

Ingredients:
(Serves 6)
- 40g softened butter
- 3/4 cup castor sugar
- grated zest of 2 oranges
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons plain flour

Sauce:
- 4 stalks rhubarb, trimmed and cut into small chunks
- 1/4 cup soft brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange juice

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 180degreesCelcius. Lightly grease six 125ml ramekin dishes or tea cups and sprinkle a little castor sugar inside to coat the sides and base (I forgot the sprinkling of sugar step and it tasted fiiine without, so don't worry if you forget like me)

Step 2: Cream the butter and a third of the sufar until light and fluffy. Add the orange zest, salt and egg yolks and beat well.

Step 3: Mix in the orange juice, milk and sifted flour.

Step 4: In another bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form and then gradually beat in remaining sugar. (The original recipe calls for you to 'whisk' the eggs, but that seems a tad silly to me when we have wonderful appliances such as electric beaters at our call nowadays... if you disagree, please, by all means whisk away)

Step 5: Gently fold in the egg whites into the egg-yolk mixture

Step 6: Spoon into the prepared dishes and place in a bain-marie (for those not in the know (as I was when I first did this recipe) a bain marie is a larger oven-proof container that you fill with boiling water up to the halfway point on the ramekins). Bake for 35minutes or until puffed up. Place ramekins on a wire rack to cool.

Step 7: To make the rhubarb sauce, gently heat the rhubarb with the brown sugar and orange juice in a saucepan for 8-10 minutes. (You don't have to stay with it for 10minutes, I left it and gave it a stir a couple times). Cool to room temperature.

Step 8: Once puddings are cool, turn them out onto individual plates and serve with a spoonful of rhubarb sauce.