Anyone who engages in the art of making food at home beyond the simple needs of sustenance knows that there is a great difference between cooking and baking. Both skills engage us in the present moment and allow for creativity and experimentation. They also invite the creator and those they share the food with into an experience. For most home cooks, cooking offers flexibility and a chance to use up what’s left in the fridge or pantry in a snap, or gives the platform to try new ingredients. When it comes to baking, we all know that it’s science and technique that matters, and for some reason that scares people off, unfortunately.
To gain confidence as a home cook or baker, I’d like to encourage people to aim to develop a repertoire of not only tried and tested recipes, but to focus on improving skills as well. Attaining skills—yes, even those with fancy-sounding names whose execution often makes or breaks the final result in baking—separates good cooks from great ones. Improving your abilities as a home baker gives you the flexibility to play like a home cook does. Understanding what it means to “whip the butter and sugar until light and fluffy,” or understanding why a really reliable recipe is listed in grams or by mass, and even knowing the hot spots in your oven make a huge difference in building confidence as a home baker. If you’re reading a recipe and you don’t understand a technique or skill, just look it up on YouTube! To master a few recipes and understand the skills that make each recipe so good is the foundation upon which being a more playful and experimental baker is built.
A case in point: this cake recipe! I first came across this recipe when I wanted to make a blueberry upside down cake. The skills needed to make a great upside down cake are measuring ingredients properly and understanding what whipping the butter and sugar to the appropriate texture does to the texture of the final bake. The beauty of mastering an upside down cake though, is that if done correctly, you do not need to dress it or frost it since that the bottom becomes the top when served. The effort to results ratio is very much in favor of the results and I can get down with that! As I’ve mastered this recipe, I was struck by the fact that I’ve never cooked with rhubarb before, and neither had my wife or our friends. I said to myself, “I can use that blueberry lemon upside down cake and tweak it for rhubarb!” By mastering the skills, I was able to play with the ingredients and make a fantastic, quick, and easy dessert that highlights an underutilized spring crop.
Lemon Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 1 9-inch Cake Pan 1x
Ingredients
For the Rhubarb Topping:
- 6 stalks of rhubarb – cut into 2 inch long sections
- 2 Tbsp. butter – cut into slivers
- 3 Tbsp. raw sugar
For the Cake:
- DIY Cake Release – described above
- 1 ¾ flour (225 g.) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¾ tsp. baking powder.
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 c. granulated sugar
- ½ c. brown sugar – lightly packed
- 2 large eggs – room temperature
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 2 tbsp. vanilla
- ¾ c. whole milk – room temperature
Instructions
- Make you own cake release by mixing 1 tsp. each of shortening, vegetable oil, and flour together into a paste. Use this to ensure your cake does not stick to the sides of the spring form pan but brushing it on the sides prior to adding the batter.
- Prepare the springform pan by cutting a circle of parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan.
- Add sliced butter and raw sugar on the parchment paper. With the springform pan assembled, begin arranging the cut rhubarb in any design or pattern you want. I make a herringbone pattern with the 2 inch lengths I cut, but checkered would be beautiful as well. Rather than 2 inch long pieces, do 1 inch cuts and alternate pieces that are more red with those that have more green, closer to the base of the stalk. Note, you should dice up any remaining rhubarb to add into the cake batter.
- To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350`
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a bowl, beat butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. This will take between 3 and 4 minutes. You should see a color and texture change, which is important to give the lift you’re looking for in the final bake. Once the butter and sugar are whipped, add in the room temperature eggs, one at a time. Next add in the vanilla and zest of two lemons, beat until combined.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the sugar and butter mixture, beating until just combined on medium low speed. Pour the milk in and mix until fully incorporated. Add the remaining dry ingredients and any left over diced rhubarb and mix until just combined.
- Pour the cake batter over the rhubarb and smooth with a spatula. Prior to baking, spin the springform pan a few times. The centrifugal force will pull the batter out of the middle and keep the cake from baking into a dome.
- Bake for one hour, or until the cake is nicely browned and has an internal temperature of between 200 and 210 degrees fahrenheit. Let the cake sit for 15 minutes in the springform pan before removing the sides and flipping onto your serving dish. Enjoy!
Keywords: Rhubarb, Dessert