
I bought rhubarb specifically to make a rhubarb cake I saw in Martha Stewart Living magazine. Pistachio-Rhubarb Yogurt Cake. Martha’s magazine is a guilty pleasure of mine – though it seems everything about the magazine is geared towards women. But that’s alright. I skip right past the make-up tips and arts and crafts stuff and look at her recipes. They always feature creative yet approachable seasonal ingredients. I’ll admit it’s not a magazine I’d read on a plane, but I still subscribe and I still skulk to the mailbox each month to retrieve it. Do you think I could get it delivered in a plain brown wrapper?
I feel the same way about rhubarb. It’s so pretty it blushes. Fruit that blushes is not what I’d call manly fruit. But (like Martha’s magazine) it’s frivolous first impression belies its practical place in our seasonal fruit bowl. Which means there’s an obvious disconnect here. That’s partly because rhubarb isn’t a fruit it’s a vegetable. A vegetable that’s best-known as a dessert. Rhubarb may be botanically a vegetable, but it is legally a fruit, as ruled by the U.S. Customs Court in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1947. Whichever way you want to classify it, rhubarb bridges the seasonal gap between winter citrus and summer stone fruit nicely. It’s perfectly suited to a no muss, no fuss in-between-season rhubarb cake.
However there’s another contradiction: On its own the sour stalks of rhubarb are no one’s favorite fruit. Rhubarb may wear a flamboyant crimson frock, but it can be so tart it verges on astringent. However, its flavor mellows when roasted with sugar. That’s exactly where this rhubarb cake starts.
Rhubarb Cake
In fact, whenever I’m faced with a bunch of rhubarb I immediately toss it with butter and sugar and stick it in a 400 degree oven. A bright-pink batch of roasted rhubarb can add a sweet and sour twang to almost anything. Spoon it on ice cream, set a bowl next to a pork loin, layer it in a silky parfait or make this manly rhubarb cake. Yes, rhubarb cake can be manly. Men invented cake. And fire. And weapons of mass destruction. I think I read that in Martha Stewart Living magazine. GREG



So simple but looks amazingly good!
I am on the rhubarb hunt. Where did you find such gorgeously red rhubarb?
Hollywood Farmers Market.
OK, Greg, this is a hoot! I want you to know that I probably read Martha’s magazine on the plane. I also want you to know that it keeps strangers from talking to me… The rhubarb cake looks great. If I hadn’t just used all my rhubarb to make chutney, I’d be making this tonight!
I was at the checkout counter of the supermarket the other day talking to one of my favorite checkers, and he was telling me of a customer he had who had just bought a ton of rhubarb and salt. This clerk is always real interested in unusual food purchases — he’s queried me loads of times about what I was buying, and still thanks me for introducing him to Hatch chilies — so he told me he asked the person why he was buying so much rhubarb. It seems that in this person’s home country (I think it was Uzbekistan, but I’m not sure if I remember that rightly), eating RAW rhubarb with salt is a popular dish. Yikes! Talk about pucker. I’m not that brave. Which is why I’d want that magazine in a plain brown wrapper, too. Anyway, this cake looks great — thanks.
I have memories of chewing on raw rhubarb dipped in sugar as a kid. It was kind of the old-fashioned sour gummy worms idea. But salt? GREG
It’s so pretty it blushes. I always think about the strawberry rhubarb at Knotts Berry farm. Ever try that.
I haven’t bought a magazine in ages, mainly because I get so annoyed with all the ads and very few stories. I’m on the fence about the on-line magazines but that’s because I don’t have a tablet (yet) just my relatively large iPhone 6 and my Macbook Pro but the Macbook is not easy to read in bed.
I’m surprised that you left the rhubarb as stalks, was it easy to cut through? Sometimes I find them a little wood and catch when you want to cut through them. I love that you roasted them first, it must have smelled wonderful! I saw rhubarb at the green grocer a few weeks ago, I wonder if it’s still in season here.
The rhubarb was quite soft. In fact, I had trouble laying some of the roasted stalks on top of the cake batter as several fell apart while transferring. GREG
Greg my rhubarb that was sitting on the top of the cake fell into the cake I took a peek halfway through and I don’t see it
it will taste fine… GREG
It’s been a while since I’ve had rhubarb, and this recipe is very interesting. Complex and manly!
I like a lot of Martha Stewart’s recipes and am often perplexed as to why they get such poor ratings online. Your cake looks delicious, btw.
You crack me up=but this rhubarb cake makes me drool.
Martha’s recipes are reliable, well-written, and painstakingly tested. Many of the receipes from her magazine have become favorites of mine. This rhubarb cake, however, isn’t one I’m familiar with. I noticed orange blossom water in the directions. I’m sort of a passive fan of rhubarb, but I’m became a lot more interested in this cake as I read about the combination of ingredients — pistachios, yogurt, and orange blossom water. How much orange blossom water do you use?
1 1/4 teasp. GREG
Go ahead and enjoy your Martha Stewart Living, it is a great magazine. I love the flavor and texture of rhubarb.
Dying to find decent rhubarb here in San Diego. I love to make rhubarb-ginger chutney, rhubarb crisp — whatever. My rhubarb-loving husband flips for the stuff.