Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Cake of the Week: Ginger Vanilla Pound Cake with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

Well this is awkward. It’s Tuesday. Cake of the Week time. And I want to blog about something delicious…but I don’t have any new recipes/pictures up my proverbial sleeves! Blogger-fail, I’m so sorry!


LLC and I are currently gchatting about how much we wish we had chocolate cake for breakfast. That, and the incredibly depressing fact that despite the superabundance of rhubarb recipes currently taking the interwebs by storm, there is literally NO rhubarb here in DC. (Does anyone know where all the rhubarb has gone?)


In a fit of rhubarb nostalgia, I perused some of my previous posts. Ginger Vanilla Pound Cake with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce. I totally forgot about this recipe, which means you probably did too, which means it’s ripe for a re-post! Here we go, let’s have a rhubarb party like it’s June 2010!


Rhubarb is a curious vegetable (actually, the US classifies it as a fruit for tax reasons. Weird!). The leaves of the rhubarb plant are toxic, but the stalks are edible. It's very tart, which is why it tends to be paired with sweet strawberries. What a fabulous combination, strawberries and rhubarb are match made in heaven, if you ask me!


Though strawberry rhubarb pie is a delicious classic, I'm not too fond of the crust-making process. But cake, now that's more my thing. I decided to go for a pound cake, and to spice things up a bit, I made it a ginger pound cake. Then I topped it with strawberry rhubarb sauce (technically it's a compote, but I've been told that "compote" is too close to "compost" and just doesn't do justice to the yummiliciousness that this boiled mixture really is).


This was my first rhubarb cooking adventure. Even though the rhubarb seems tough, it actually cooks pretty quickly. I guess it just depends on the texture you're going for. Mine ended up almost jam-ish, but in the future I think I'll cook it less so the rhubarb retains some bite. You could also cook half the rhubarb, and then add the other half later in the cooking process to get different textures in your finished sauce (and the same principles go for the strawberries).

Ginger Vanilla Pound Cake with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

(Printable recipe.)
For the cake:
  • 2/3 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups sifted flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 3 teaspoon vanilla
  1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
  2. Sift together the dry ingredients. Add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with milk and vanilla. Do not over-mix. 
  3. Pour batter into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 325° for about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.


For the Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce:
  • 1/2 lb strawberries
  • 1 lb rhubarb
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoon corn starch
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  1. Dice rhubarb and strawberries into similar sized 1/2 inch pieces. 
  2. Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer. 
  3. Simmer for 10-20 minutes (depending on what texture you want). 
  4. Remove from heat and cool at least 2 hours. Store sealed in the refrigerator.
(Printable recipe.)

If you live somewhere with rhubarb, please make this recipe for those of us who can't!!!