Finally rhubarb season has rolled around again (yey!), so it's time to get stocked up and get baking. I can never turn down a good old fashioned rhubarb crumble with a huge dollop of custard. Sadly rhubarb has a bit of a bad reputation - many find it a little too sour to be enjoyable and others love it for that reason alone, plus it's a really good source of fibre and vitamins (score!). So to offer something a little different, I thought i'd start the rhubarb baking season with a cake, because everyone loves cake right?!
Like the banana cake recipe, this cake is taken from the 1990 Hometown Collection (I told you it was becoming a favorite) with this particular recipe credited from the Exclusively Rhubarb Cookbook - a charity cookbook from Coventry, Connecticut. Again it's a pretty straight forward recipe and doesn't call for anything you probably don't already have (bar the rhubarb).
So, to the recipe!
You'll need;
- 1/2 cup of butter (softened)
- 1 1/2 cups of white sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of milk
- 3 cups of finely chopped rhubarb - this works out at being about 6 average sized stalks
- Sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling
Cream your butter and after a good mixing, add into your white sugar gradually, finishing off with adding in the egg and mixing well. Seperately add the flour, soda and salt. Alternating with the milk (I should probably add the recipe called for buttermilk but I never have that so go with whatever you have) add the dry mix into the mix. Finally add in the chopped up rhubarb.
Pour the mix into a greased and lined 13 x 9 x 2" baking tray and sprinkle over the cinnamon and sugar - as much or as little as you'd like. Pop the tray into a preheated oven (350F) for 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clear.
The result is a lovely moist, surprisingly sweet but with a delightful taste of rhubarb and the cinnamon with sugar topping leaves a crisp warm winter taste in your mouth. The rhubarb does keep the cake a little soggy even after being cooked so it won't last too long but it freezes perfectly so your batch can be happily divided up and saved.
Mmm, the cake looks amazing! I am not normally a massive rhubarb lover, like you said I am one of those who finds it too sour. But I don't mind it in cakes (and sometimes crumbles) as I guess the sugar cancels out the sourness!
ReplyDeletex
Yeah the sugar is a big help in lower how tart it tastes but enough so you know what you're eating!
DeleteThat looks yummy. My mum has always grown rhubarb in the garden to I remember lots of tasty rhubarb crumbles and custard growing up. There was nothing better than a crumble with rhubarb that had been picked from the garden the same day and I absolutely loved it. It's been a while since I've had any though. That's probably because I haven't lived at home for about two and a half years though!
ReplyDeleteDebi x
Mmm crumbles - how I love a good crumble (apples, rhubarbs, raspberries, brambles - always so good!) especially with a load of custard all over! It certainly helps to have your own plant of it, it's never the easiest thing to come across!
DeleteI've been looking for rhubarb everywhere here and just can't seem to find it but it should be in season. The cake looks so yummy! My mum is a massive lover of rhubarb so I might have to make it for her x
ReplyDeleteMain rhubarb season is apparently (I was a little wrong) in the north hemisphere April to May although it's often produced/available from Christmas through Easter these days. I hope your manage to find some!
DeleteOMG this looks so so good! My Grandma used to have a great bit rhubarb ... erm .. I want to say bush? Or maybe it's more a plant ??!) at the bottom of her garden and she used to make the most amazing puddings with it. I don't think rhubarb is used in things enough, I love it! x
ReplyDeleteI'd call it a plant - although I remember it looking more like a bush with the size of the leaves! My parents have always had a plant(?) as long as they'd had an allotment and it's certainly going to be one of the first things I get around to buying when we have a garden so I can grow my own (finding one to buy might be an issue!)
DeleteI've never been a big rhubarb lover but I'm not even sure why. I think it's one more f those food that you due side you don't Luke but can't remember why... No idea. I love picking it and it's such a great colour so maybe I should give it a chance. With cinnamon too. Mmmm.
ReplyDeleteI learnt to like mushrooms so maybe I can learn to like rhubarb, its not like it has a weird texture like mushrooms either.
You know what suxks about Belgium? No custard. Uncivilised I tell you!
America doesn't have proper custard either :(
DeleteYou can get like a Jell-o brand version which is powdered but it's far from the same. Luckily you can get tins of it like they have in the UK down the British section if you fancy paying $4+ a tin. Luckily my last food parcel from the UK had some Birds packages of custard, it's a little on the runny thin side but it'll do!
this sounds delicious! I do love a good rhubarb dish x
ReplyDeleteyummy! I love rhubarb but have never baked with it before! My mom just makes it into a compote and I eat it as is!
ReplyDeleteOh, that looks delicious! You have put me in the mood for baking!
ReplyDeleteLiz @ Shortbread & Ginger
It looks delicious! I usually make rhubarb jam, but next time I will buy some I might just make a cake instead.
ReplyDeleteAndreea | http://catsfika.blogspot.ro/
Now i'm intrigued by rhubarb jam!
DeleteRhubarb seems to grow like weeds near me, so its such a shame that I just don't like it!
ReplyDeleteMy dad loves and grows it though and is a dab hand in the kitchen so I'll point him to your recipe, will make a chanve grom his usual rhubarb crumble!