Favorite Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb Spice Cake on yesterday’s pot-luck table

Since the redesign of our Web site launches today, we’re still in the spirit of cake around here. So, I’m posting the recipe for my all-time favorite cake.  And when I say “all-time,” I also mean for-a-long-time, as in, since high school. Now maybe it’s a Montana-thing (that’s where I grew up,) but our end-of-the-season sports banquets used to be pot-lucks! Most moms probably did the pot-luck-dish-prep for their teens, but in our house, I used these events as another excuse to make my favorite Rhubarb Spice Cake.

In high school, I exactly followed the simple recipe which was written in my grandmother’s curvy script on a sticky, spotted recipe card. But over the years, I’ve adapted the recipe to the following version by decreasing the fat and sugar and adding the nuttiness of whole wheat flour. The cake is extremely transportable and is delicious for brunch, my kids’ afternoon snack or a perfect spring-time dessert. I made it yesterday for a Memorial Day pot-luck and it got rave reviews.

Rhubarb Spice Cake

Also known in some old community cookbooks as King Midas Cake – probably because the cinnamon sugar topping turns into a crackly sweet crust

4 cups rhubarb, chopped

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 ½ cups sugar (can be cut to 2 cups if you plan to serve with sweetened whipped cream)

¾ cup shortening (or if you’re not transporting cake, use ¼ cup healthier canola oil plus ½ cup shortening; using more oil tends to make the cake super moist and less transportable)

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups fat-free sour milk (2 tablespoons white vinegar plus enough milk to make 2 c, mixed together)

Topping: 2 tablespoons sugar plus ½ teaspoon cinnamon, mixed

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9×13-inch cake pan with cooking spray; sprinkle rhubarb over bottom of pan and set aside.

Whisk together flours, salt, nutmeg and baking soda. In a large bowl, cream together sugar, shortening, eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture alternately with sour milk. Pour batter evenly over rhubarb. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar topping over batter.

Bake for about 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Crackly cinnamon sugar topping