Rhubarb Cake

I think it was Garrison Keillor who once quipped if you want to find a lonely person, you need only stand in the produce section of the grocery store and anyone who buys their own rhubarb or zucchini must not have many friends.  Both plants are prolific.  This year I harvested enough rhubarb for seven cakes.  (One recipe calls for three cups of chopped rhubarb).



I got this recipe from my mother, where she got it, I am not sure.  My mother-in-law tried to adapt the recipe substituting apples and threw the result out rather than serve it.  My guess, is apples contain much more moisture than rhubarb, so one would have to figure out how to cut the liquid in the batter for this modification to work.

Ingredients:

Cake:

• ½ cup butter or margarine
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 ½ cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3+ cups rhubarb, (about 7 stalks)
• 1 cup brown sugar

Icing:

• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup half-and-half
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease 9 × 13 pan.
Mix first 7 ingredients.
Add rhubarb.
Pour into pan
Sprinkle brown sugar over the top. (Recently, I added some cinnamon to the brown sugar and left off the icing. The changes were well-received.)
Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 45 minutes

 

Icing:
(This icing is optional.)

Mix Sugar and butter in a sauce pan until the sugar dissolves.
Add half-and-half.
Stir until thickened, (a long time)
Add vanilla
Spread over cake.