I've baked probably about dozen rhubarb cakes and tarts over the last few weeks, and I still haven't had enough. Rhubarb is the first local "fruit" (I know it's actually a vegetable, but it classifies as fruit for the cooking purposes, a bit like quinoa counts as a grain, even if it is not) to arrive on the market stalls, and after a long winter season of mediocre imported fruit flown if from the other side of the world, it feels like a blessing. I'm proud to say that I managed to resist buying the imported pink forced rhubarb stalks that arrived about a fortnight earlier - and the sweeter the home-grown rhubarb tasted (if one can use that word in relation to rhubarb :))
Here's one simple tray bake recipe, made special by generous amounts of cinnamon and cardamom, and the lack of eggs. It's soft, tender and tasty. Choose the pinkest rhubarb you can find, and you're guaranteed one Pretty in Pink cake (note that I never peel my rhubarb stalks. Cannot see the point, unless they're very large and stringy, in which case it's better to avoid them anyway).
Serve with icing sugar or vanilla custard. Keeps fresh for a few days because of the buttermilk content.
Spiced Rhubarb Cake
(Kevadine rabarbri-plaadikook)
500 ml kefir or buttermilk (2 cups)
50 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
200 g sugar (1 cup)
300 g plain/all-purpose flour (2 cups)
100 ml potato starch/cornflour (just under 1/2 cup)
0.5 Tbsp bicarbonate of soda
0.5 Tbsp freshly ground cardamom
0.5 Tbsp ground cinnamon
Topping:
400 g rhubarb, sliced thickly
7 Tbsp muscovado sugar
Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F. Line and/or grease a baking tray (ca 25-30 x 34 cm)*.
Combine the kefir/buttermilk and melted butter.
Combine the flour, potato starch, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and cardamom. Fold in the buttermilk mixture.
Pour or spoon the batter into the baking tray, scatter rhubarb on top and sprinkle with sugar.
Place immediately into the oven (the baking soda starts reacting with the buttermilk as soon as they come into contact) and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the cake is golden brown on top.
* I cooked mine in a baking tray sized 25x34 cm, but you could easily use a large tray. Reduce the baking time accordingly.
Other rhubarb cake recipes @ Nami-Nami:
Rhubarb Sponge Cake with Almonds
My favourite rhubarb muffins
Rhubarb and coconut tart
Gluten-free Rhubarb Crumble
Creamy Rhubarb Pie
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