Rhubarb Snacking Cake

8 - 10

Season: Spring

Smitten Kitchen / Sarah B of Produce

The crumb topping is the best, and you can play that up a bit - add some ginger, maybe even some cardamom.

This is also just a great thing to slice up and bring somewhere. You can just set it out, so potlucks, meetings, thank-you snacks for nurses, P-Patch cleanups, bake sales, etc. are all great recipients. It's absolutely amazing warmed up with ice cream, although I find I don't have the patience to wait that long (unless I am having two pieces, of course).

This is a recipe I use from one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. I've made it in a glass pie dish with no problems (even without the handy parchment paper sling), and I've added straverries and raspberries to it as well! Rhubarb should be around in early spring, for us that's usually the beginning of April, although there are no guarantees - sometimes it comes a bit later.

Just remember that rhubarb leaves are poisonous and should be discarded!

- Sarah B, Produce Department

Ingredients:

Cake

• 1 1/4 pound rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch lengths on the diagonal
• 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/3 cup sour cream

Crumb

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Make the cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Coat the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking pan with butter or a nonstick cooking spray, then line the bottom with parchment paper, extending the lengths up two sides. (It will look like a sling).
2. Stir together rhubarb, lemon juice and 2/3 cup sugar and set aside.
3. Beat butter, remaining sugar, and lemon zest with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at time, scraping down the sides after each addition.
5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon table salt and ground ginger together in a small bowl. Add one-third of this mixture to the batter, mixing until just combined. Continue, adding half the sour cream, the second third of the flour mixture, the remaining sour cream, and then the remaining flour mixture, mixing between each addition until just combined.
6. Dollop batter over prepared pan, then use a spatula to spread the cake into an even, thin layer.
7. Pour the rhubarb mixture over the cake, spreading it into an even layer.
8. Stir together the crumb mixture, first whisking the flour, brown sugar, table salt and cinnamon together, then stirring in the melted butter with a spoon or fork. Scatter evenly over rhubarb layer.
9. Bake cake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. The cake is done when a tester comes out free of the wet cake batter below. It will be golden on top. Cool completely in the pan on a rack.
10. Cut the two exposed sides of the cake free of the pan, if needed, then use the parchment “sling” to remove the cake from the pan. Cut into 2-inch squares.

The cake keeps at room temperature for a few days, but I didn’t mind it at all from the fridge, where I kept it covered tightly.

Vegan version

Just sub out things for traditional vegan variants: Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, Ener-G Egg Replacer, Tofutti Sour Cream. Every time I’ve made this cake vegan, it was the same as the times I’ve made this non-vegan. Serve it with Bluebird’s Vegan Horchata Ice Cream.

Original post and more gorgeous photos at smittenkitchen.com.

Keywords: rhubarb, dessert, baking