This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a simple brown sugar cake made a little fancy with some caramelized rhubarb on top (Rhubarb Upside Down Brown Sugar Cake, pp 24-25).
Luckily for me, the first rhubarb just started showing up in the farmers’ markets and the other week I was able to get my hands on some (by going to the market early!). I was a little disappointed that it was not bright ruby red stems all the way – for me the gree stalks simply look too much like celery!
And of course, once I had removed the stringy exterior, all that lovely red had gone đ
This recipe is a simple one – basically caramelize some rhubarb and place it in the bottom of your cake pan, pour the cake mix on top. I had heard from some others who made the cake before me that the cake rose to the top of a shallower cake pan so I used my deeper springform pan to make sure that didn’t happen. Unfortunately for me, my springform pan leaked a little of the caramel (I had placed a baking tray underneath, thankfully!) and my rhubarb didn’t cover the entire base of the pan (it is 10″, not 9″ as the recipe called for) and my cake did not even rise that much so I ended up with a flatter cake with uneven rhubarb on top.
Dorie says to use a jam or jelly glaze to patch up the top of your cake which is exactly what I did:
I used Confiture d’Ăglantine d’Alsace Ă la Rose from Christine Ferber.
It did a nice job of patching in the parts of the cake not covered in caramelized rhubarb!
My version is definitely a little flatter than the picture on p 25 of Baking Chez Moi but I actually think it worked out ok…
I brought this into my staff room on Monday morning and it was much appreciated. We all liked that it wasn’t too sweet – the rhubarb brings a nice tartness to the cake and the glaze, because it’s not too thick, gives it the amount of sweetness it needs. Perfect with your morning cuppa đ
Get the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Rhubarb Upside Down Brown Sugar Cake here or on p 24-25 of Baking Chez Moi.
Tuesdays with Dorie participants don’t publish the recipes on our blogs, so you’re encouraged to purchase Baking Chez Moi for yourself which you can do on Amazon or Amazon Canada or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us, baking our way through the book!
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Your cake looks amazing! The topping looks so lovely and glistening and inviting!
I’ve never owned a springform that didn’t leak but I’d dearly like to find one. As a huge fan of rhubarb, I would have loved the higher ratio of it to cake.
Yes next time I would use more fruit for sure!
Mardi, your rhubarb cake turned out well, glad you had a success. The recipe was good, I just
don’t know what went wrong with mine.
Beautiful! I’ll be sharing mine on Friday as I had a group post scheduled for today. Bill doesn’t like rhubarb (imagine that!) so I was happy for an excuse to bake this đ
I think your cake looks lovely! đ
I enjoyed a piece with my morning coffee too. It really was the perfect balance of tart and sweet.
looks like your cake turned out well. I had a fairly flat cake as well.
This looks delicious, Mardi. You also had me at that Christine Ferber jam from Alsace. I bet the flavours of rose hip and rose are taste-hugging friends with that rhubarb!
Yes those flavours worked really well together.
What a nice looking cake! My rhubarb was red all the way through and looked a little dark after being caramelized so I’m liking your mix of red and green.
Good to know đ
Your cake looks ver nice with the red ang green mixed in together, mine turned a little too dark because the rhubarb was all red! I guess the grass is always greener in the other side. đ
Your cake looks lovely. I shared mine with my office as well and everyone enjoyed it.
Your cake turned out great Mardi – happy that the rhubarb appeared just in time. My caramel leaked too – I was a little sad about that (the good part!!), but the cake was lovely and it didn’t matter in the end.
Glad that you were able to get rhubarb even though it wasn’t bright red. I was wondering about the need to peel it. I only peeled half as the red was gone and I did not like that. Have you cooked rhubarb without peeling before?
I have but only when it’s cut very small…. Otherwise it’s stringy and I don’t like that…
I think the shimmering, jammy fruit on top looks beautiful! And I agree that is was a perfect morning treat.
It looks so good! My rhubarb isn’t very red, either. I want to start another patch with a variety like Canada Red, which is red all the way through and all the way up the stalk.
I need to remember to always look for the pink kind when it is going to be on show like this!
Love the nice golden color of your cake!