ROOTS & WINGS

21. ROOT: Rhubarb Cake

Ironic, eh, a cake with a sour-ish veg?

Also, you could call this food that I did avoid where I could for years, on either side of my mother's death in 2017... as it would trigger me.

I'm not badmouthing here, as my mother said herself that she was the kind of person that shall not be let loose on unsuspecting children. Accordingly, she did very effectively eff me up in the head (and sabotaged my treatment!), "passing on" her bipolar disorder (and some other mental special effects) to me. And I can tell you, rogue bipolar aimed at an unsuspecting and guardless kid is... scheiße. Let's leave it at that... or I'd have to raise the rating.

I've started "cracking" the "trigger-wall" across the years, for example with "11. Sauerkrautsuppe" , or "38. Nachos gratinées" , with which I didn't connect pleasant memories, which she liked by chance, though.

Mom being an after-War child in Germany had always been a Primadonnic Eater, hating fruit and veg her whole life as her family lived off the pickled version of either until she was about three. (That way you can deduce they were a "rich" family. House kaputt and raided, but a basement full of pickled food.)

When Mom ate fruit or veg, she "sneaked" them in – or got them sneaked in – in sweets. One of her faves was this cake. She could live off that forever if you'd leave her... and that since I can think.

But enough with that gloomy poop!

It only takes away from how YUMMY this actually is.

Recipe I got out of Luxembourgish Cook, Anne Faber's first baking book: Baking with Anne. (Since it's available in English you can maybe check it out / order it on Amazon, or so, as she has a few pretty yummy – and Luxembourgish traditional – foods in it.)

But enough with that stupid advertising, either – we gotta head to the kitchen, dudes. That baby doesn't bake itself!



Serves: 8-12 pieces Or one 24 cm / 9.5 in springform

Prep Time: +/– 1.5 hrs PLUS: cooling off in the pan

Degree of Difficulty: Easy




WE NEED


CAKE


120 gr / 4.25 oz. butter
100 gr / 3.5 oz. sugar
1 pck. = 8 gr = 0.3 oz. vanilla sugar
1 egg
180 gr / 6.5 oz. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt

350 gr / 12.5 oz. rhubarb That's about 4-6 stalks, size-dependent: the bigger the stalk, the fewer and vice versa.
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon. As always: CEYLON, as the cheaper CASSIA contains too much Cumarin that at regular use (HERE!) damages the liver



CUSTARD

20 gr / 0.75 oz. vanilla pudding powder See TIP
OPTIONAL: seeds from 1 vanilla bean I used another package of vanilla sugar. See .
200 ml / 6.75 US fl.oz. cream
2 eggs
2-3 tbsp sugar I used 2 tbsp, substituting the 3rd with above-mentioned vanilla sugar.


TIP: since I didn't want to use the pudding powder (hate pudding), I used 1 egg PLUS the amply mentioned vanilla sugar, as suggested by the cook.




WE DO


1. Wash the rhubarb and cut it into 5 mm / 1/5 in dices. While you do that, let the butter gain room temperature.


2. Beat butter + vanilla-/ sugar until creamy. Add the egg and mix until smooth. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder + salt, add it to the butter mix and whisk until you get an even batter.


3. Heat the oven to 170°C / 340°F fan. In the first 2-3 minutes, put in the springform/tin with a piece of butter (about 15 gr / 0.5 oz.), then take out and grease the springform/tin. Also dust the springform/tin with some flour – so it's easier to remove the cake from it later.


4. Distribute the cake batter over the base of the springform/tin and pat it down with lightly wetted fingers, as it's quite sticky. In a bowl, mix sugar + cinnamon and toss with the rhubarb. Spread it over the cake base and bake for 10 minutes.

5. For the CUSTARD, whisk together all ingredients in a jug.


6. Remove the rhubarb base from the oven and pour over the custard. Smooth it out, and more evenly re-spread the rhubarb as it'll be disturbed by the pouring over... and you want rhubarb in ALL pieces of the cake, right?

7. Bake for another 30-35 minutes until the custard has set and is lightly browned.


8. Let the cake cool in the tin – BEST overnight in the oven! – before removing. Be CAREFUL! Despite grease and flour, the cake stuck and I had to use a silicone spatula to "help it out" of the pan


9. Serve!



Guten Hunger!