This is one of the best uses of rhubarb in a cake. When I took the first slice I was amazed at how good this cake tasted: moist, rich, almost creamy with the tang of rhubarb in the filling and its overall sweetness tempered by the lemon glaze that coats the cake.
I found the recipe in “Rustic Fruit Desserts” by Cory Schreiber. I use it more often than not for seasonal fruit desserts and other sweets depending on the time of year. Cory Schreiber owns a very popular bakery, Baker and Spice in Portland, Oregon. If only we had such a bakery in our neck of the woods. The closest is Scratch Baking, whose baked goods have similar characteristics as the other Portland bakery.
Rhubarb Bundt with lemon glaze
The recipe is simplicity personified. Use local rhubarb, which is in high season now. I prefer the stalks that are deep red, though the color does not necessarily mean other varieties are less good. The best that I’ve had so far are from Jordan’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth, and Spring Brook Farm in Cumberland.
Choose the correct size Bundt pan. Many Bundt cakes fail because you’ve used the wrong size. And recipe writers can be sloppy in their directions without offering precise pan size. The important factor is the cup size of the pan. Forget about how many inches across the pan is.
Nrdic ware 10-cup (9 inches across) Bundt pan
Depth and other factors will determine cup size. I used the Nordic ware 10-cup Bundt for this cake as instructed in Schreiber’s recipe.. Similarly you can use a tube pan with stationary bottom as long as it’s 10 cup capacity. The best way to measure is by filling the pan with enough water to measure the amount of cup size you need. A 10-cup pan should hold 10 cups of water measured to the very top of the pan up to the brim.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon room temperature butter to grease the pan
- 2 1/2 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil (see note)
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 pound rhubarb trimmed and very thinly sliced (3 cups or about 12 ounces prepped) and mix with 2 tablespoons extra flour.
- 2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar (measured after sifting)
- Juice of l lemon
- 1 tablespoon soft unsalted butter
Instructions
- Cake Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-cup Bundt pan and lightly flour, tapping out the excess or use baking spray.
- To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a medium size bowl. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the lemon oil.
- Stir in the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the buttermilk in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour. You can mix in the flour using the lowest speed on a stand mixer.
- The batter will be very thick.
- Toss the rhubarb with the extra 2 tablespoons flour and fold half of the rhubarb into the batter. Pour or spoon the batter into the prepared pan and put the remaining rhubarb on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until the top of the cake is firm and the center springs back when lightly touched.
- Cool the cake on a wire rack for 30 minutes before inverting and removing from the pan. You can run a butter knife around the perimeter of the cake to make sure nothing is stuck. When in inverting, I like to shake the pan from side to side to insure that it won't stick. Though with nonstick good quality pans that are well greased you shouldn't have an issue.
- Lemon glaze Whisk the confectioner's sugar, lemon juice and butter together. The mixture should be thick. If not add more confectioner's sugar by tablespoon or two. Spread the glaze over the cake as soon as you remove it from the pan.
Notes
You can buy lemon oil for baking (at great expense) at King Arthur or Amazon but you will find it locally at Michael's at the Christmas Tree Plaza at 490 Payne Road in Scarborough at under $5. It's in their baking aisle, which has an extensive collection of baking supplies like flavored oils and extracts. I thank my friend and consummate baker Joanna DiPhilippo for this tip.
You need to slice a lot of rhubarb. If you have the adjustable blade slicer of a food processor, set it to half-inch thick and feed the stalks of rhubarb into the tube. It's much easier and you get uniform slices. Slicing by hand is fine, but this is much easier and quicker.
