Eatdrink #65 May/June 2017

58 | May/June 2017
Lunar Rhubarb Cake
Serves 12
This cake, by Canadian food icon Elizabeth Baird,
is ridiculously simple and tasty. Because she’s the
pro, here’s Elizabeth’s take on it:
Rhubarb is the universal Canadian fruit,
growing as it does in Canada’s north, south,
east, and west. And yes, it is a vegetable, but in
most Canadian kitchens, it’s treated like a fruit.
Many years ago I was working on an article for
Canadian Living magazine with home economist
Sandy Hall. Wyn Hall, her mother-in-law, gave
us her recipe for Rhubarb Cake to include in the
article. It was a winner — a no-fail butter cake,
with chopped rhubarb in the batter and a sugarcinnamon
crumble topping that baked into a
crusty crater-like surface. As soon as Sandy and I
took it out of the oven, its moonscape top inspired
us to rename the cake “Lunar Rhubarb Cake.”
A number of these ingredients need to be at
room temperature when you make the cake, so
take them out of the refrigerator well before you
start baking.
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
CAKE
½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1½ cups (300 g) white sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
2 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (6 g) baking soda
½ tsp (1.5 g) salt
2 cups (500 mL) rhubarb, cut in ½-inch (1 cm)
pieces (about 4 large stalks; see note)
1 cup (250 mL) buttermilk, room temperature
TOPPING
1 cup (213 g) lightly packed brown sugar
2 tsp (4 g) ground cinnamon
¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter, cubed and at room
temperature
FOR SERVING
Vanilla ice cream
NOTE: You can increase the rhubarb by another
½ cup (about 70 g) if you like. The cake will work
with other fruits — apricots, plums, raspberries,
and wild blueberries — but rhubarb is the
best. If using frozen rhubarb, measure it while
still frozen and let thaw completely. Drain in a
colander, but do not press liquid out.