Rhubarb!!

Recently, I had to clear some rhubarb from my garden as it was overshadowing my basil and well....we know how important my basil is to me!! I grew up thinking (in the garden section of my mind) that one shouldn't harvest rhubarb after July 1st because it needed to take some of the goodness back into the plant as it died....or something like that. I believe it was something that my mom told me.....and probably one of those sayings that should go under the heading of "Old Wives Tales".  My rhubarb has been VERY prolific this year....I have gotten at least three very large-scale cuttings from this plant and even now it is still growing. However, I digress....this post is about what I DID with the rhubarb that I recently cut.

Well....stored the stalks in the fridge wrapped in a damp tea towel until I solved the problem of what to do with them .  I went online and typed in Rhubarb recipes and came up with a website called The Rhubarb Compendium .....it is a veritable encyclopedia of rhubarb recipes.  I was mostly interested in a type of rhubarb cake and I have tried out two recipes that I gleaned from this website.
The first one is called Ravishing Rhubarb Cake and is a simple carrot cake type of texture....made in a 9x13 pan.
I didn't ice it at all, but I'm sure one could with cream cheese icing or powdered sugar as the recipe suggests.....anyways...here it is...sorry no pics on this one.....
Oh...and I also used the last piece of this (or at least part of it) broken up on top of my blueberry, yogurt (yes..Krema French Vanilla Greek Style!) and granola brekkers and it was an amazing addition to the mix. Yum!!

RAVISHING RHUBARB CAKE

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
11/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup applesauce or plain nonfat yogurt
3 cups uncooked rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Powdered sugar

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Beat eggs, salt, sugar and vanilla in large bowl. Stir in flour, soda and cinnamon. Add applesauce, rhubarb and nuts; stir until well blended.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool; dust with powdered sugar. Yields 20 servings.
Per serving: 130 calories; 2.8 g fat (0.3 g saturated fat, 19 percent calories from fat); 32 mg cholesterol; 78 mg sodium.

The next recipe is a gem.....totally. Quick, easy and totally deeelish!!


RHUBARB CUSTARD CAKE

Ingredients:

Two-layer yellow cake mix
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup granulated sugar
1 pint whipping cream (2 cups)

Procedure:

Prepare batter for cake mix according to package directions; turn into greased and floured 9x13" pan. Dump the chopped rhubarb on top of the cake batter. Sprinkle the sugar on top of the rhubarb. Pour the whipping cream (unwhipped) over the sugar. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched.
Cream, sugar, and rhubarb sink to bottom, forming a custard layer. Makes 1-18 (depending on how you cut it!!) dee-vine servings.

Now I am not one to use cake mixes a lot....or whipping cream for that matter....but this just appealed to free spirit in me....the one that says  "Oh go ahead....you know you want it!!"  A couple of things though.....first of all...don't use one of those "Moist Deluxe" cake mixes....just a plain jane white or yellow cake mix.....and I made this twice in the last week or so and the second time I only had 1 cup of whipping cream and so I added a cup of sweetened condensed milk to it and cut the sugar to 1/2 cup. It was just as good or even a tad better. Now I have pictures of this....but it's been mostly devoured from the pan ...and believe me, my piece was half of that which is shown on the plate.....really....yes it was....at least the first piece!!

The only thing I can say after this is.....Enjoy!!

Slainte!