Lemon Buttermilk Rhubarb Cake

 

I spend way too much time looking at recipe blogs.  Maybe that’s why it’s referred to as food porn, since it’s so addictive.  I found a great way to quickly save those recipes I find interesting – using an add-on for Firefox to copy to Evernote (I discussed this a little bit here). If I don’t save, I’ll never find them again.  And the great thing about Evernote is that it makes it easy to search for recipes or ingredients (it’s not limited to recipes – you can save any kind of note!)

Anyway… back to food.  This weekend, I was going to make a blueberry bar recipe so I’d have some snacks to take to work.  I went downstairs to get a package of frozen blueberries, when I discovered not only did I find frozen rhubarb from 2010 … but I had a couple of packages from 2009!  Time to use that up.  Unfortunately, our vacuum sealer must not have been working quite right (we’ve used them so much, we’re on our third one!) because the 2009 rhubarb had air in the packages and smelled like freezer burn.  But by the time I realized this, I was already on a mission and went back to the freezer to get the 2010 stash.  Yes, I know I could have used fresh from this year, but I need to learn to use up our supplies.

The recipe I found was from the honey & jam website.  I was intrigued by the comment they made “Strawberry may be rhubarbs perfect mate, but lemon is a close second.”  Hmmm … I don’t think I’ve ever tried rhubarb and lemon before.  I really like both, so it sounded like a recipe worth trying.

Very moist, delicious cake.  Dave loved the fact that this just had a simple icing on it so it wasn’t overloaded with sweetness.

I had a little issue getting the cake out of the pan (I know better than to just use spray, but I did it anyway), so the pictures on the honey & jam website are much better than mine.  But don’t let that deter you.  I’d highly recommend giving this cake a go!

 

Lemon Buttermilk Rhubarb Bundt Cake
from honey & jam

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon lemon oil (i used lemon extract)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and very thinly sliced (3 cups prepped)

Lemon Glaze
2 cups confectioners sugar, more as needed
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon nearly melted butter

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter a 10-cup Bundt pan.
To make the cake, sift the 2 1/2 cups flour, the baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Using a handheld mixer with beaters or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition, then 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 mixture and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. The batter will be very thick.

Toss the rhubarb with the 2 tablespoons of flour and fold half into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the remaining rhubarb on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, then rotate the pan and cook for an additional 30 minutes, or until the center springs back when lightly touched. Cool the cake in its pan on the wire rack for 30 minutes before inverting and removing the pan.

To make the lemon glaze, whisk the confectioners sugar, lemon juice and butter together. The mixture should be thick. If it’s not, whisk in another tablespoon or two of the sugar. Spread the glaze over the cake as soon as you remove it from the pan.