Signs of Spring . . . finally


Little did I know that the sun would take much longer to arrive than I'd hoped.  We have broken all the records for rainfall and cool temperatures in the Northwest this spring.  Occasional sun breaks fool us into thinking spring is really here, but then it starts raining again, making us long for real spring . . . and by that I mean a season where pea seeds will actually sprout and come up.  We are at least a month behind on all the growing.

The rhubarb, however, is undaunted. I have a vigorous plant in the front yard and it was growing so densely that the stalks were beginning to twist and leaves were turning yellow.  This was my inspiration for a rhubarb buttermilk bundt cake.

As you know, bundt cake is the best.  Generally, you can eat it out of hand because, well, it's the non-fussy version of cake.  This one has a lemony glaze on top, putting it into the "slightly sticky" out-of-hand catagory.  But it's a bundt cake studded with tangy chunks of rhubarb, so the risk of sticky fingers is no deterrent.  It's been out of the oven for an hour and already two pieces are missing.

This cakes recipe is found in Rustic Fruit Desserts, a cookbook by Cory Schreiber and Julia Richardson.   (If Ten Speed Press gives me permission to print their recipe, I'll add it here. ) I cook out of this fruit-based cookbook all the time.  The rhubarb recipes are particularly great, including the rhubarb buckle with ginger crumble topping, which gets made for Easter each year at my house.  As for this cake, the tender crumb, the tang of rhubarb, and the lemony bite of the glaze make for the taste of spring.








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