I looked up rhubarb on wikipedia to get the low down. I was very interested to read this: "Rhubarb is usually considered to be a vegetable; however, in the U.S., a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the U.S. as a fruit, it was to be counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties. A side effect was a reduction on imported rhubarb tariffs, as tariffs were higher for vegetables than fruits." Sorry, was that nerdy of me to find interesting?
I saw this recipe in a post from Smitten Kitchen. It caught my eye because she talked about how she took Martha's recipe, cut the cake portion in half, upped the amount of rhubarb, and threw more crumb on top.
YES. This is my kind of a recipe.
I'm often tempted to modify/alter recipes that I find, but this time I went along with her recipe as posted. No regrets! The cake portion of this recipe is so light and sweet, and there aren't inches of it to bite through to get to the rhubarb.
Rhubarb Snacking Cake (makes a 9x13 cake)
Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb. rhubarb, cut into 1/2" lengths on the diagonal
1 1/3 cup sugar, divided
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temp.
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/3 cup sour cream
Crumb Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Coat the bottom and sides of a 9x13" baking pan with cooking spray. Then line the bottom with parchment paper, leaving two ends extending up the two sides to create a sling.
In a medium bowl, stir together rhubarb, lemon juice, and 2/3 cups of sugar and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter, remaining 2/3 cups sugar, and lemon zest with an electric mixer or stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ground ginger. Add one-third of this mixture to the batter, mixing until just combined. Then add half of the sour cream, the second third of the flour mixture, the remaining sour cream, and then the remaining flour mixture — mix in between each addition until just combined.
Spread the batter across the bottom of the prepared baking pan and use a spatula to spread the batter into an even, thin layer. Pour the rhubarb mixture over the batter, spreading into an even layer.
Stir together the crumb mixture, first whisking the flour, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon together and then stirring in the melted butter with a fork. With clean hands, scatter the crumb mixture evenly over the rhubarb layer.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. The cake is done when a tester comes out clean. The cake should be golden on top. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
Cut the two exposed sides of the cake free from the pan and use the parchment "sling" to lift the cake out of the pan. Cut into squares. Cake keeps at room temp for a few days — or toss it in the fridge covered in plastic if it makes you feel good!
Click here for a printable recipe!
Y-U-M! And who wouldn't love a recipe with the word "Snacking" in the title! :) xo
ReplyDeleteAgreed! It's like built-in instructions! :)
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