Rhubarb Cake

In our family, we have one particular recipe for rhubarb cake that everyone loves for different reasons. We women love how easy it is to make and bake, and the men simply love to eat it!

This recipe was given to our mom, mtgoblin, by a friend of the family years ago to use up an over-abundance of rhubarb growing in the backyard. There's only so much chutney and crumble one can take, after all. Calistakaufman, being the rhubarb-loving fiend that she is, adopted the recipe as her own, and much to everyone's delight, made batches upon batches of rhubarb cake throughout the summer growing season.

Ten years ago, when our family moved to another neighborhood, a chunk of the rhubarb plant moved with us to our new location, and thus, the summer tradition of baking up luscious rhubarb cakes continued. Now, both calista and I have homes of our own, and continue to bake rhubarb cake, the difference being that calista is now teaching Tiny Hands, and I am forever experimenting with variations on the recipe.

Here we share this beloved family recipe with you and hope that you might share it with your family, too.

Step 1 What you'll need:

Cake: 
- 1/2 c. butter (originally, we always used margarine, which works well, but butter makes everything taste better)
 - 1 1/2 c. brown sugar
 - 1 c. buttermilk or sour milk (see step 2 for details)
 - 1 tsp. vanilla extract
 - 1 egg, beaten
 - 2 c. flour
 - 1 tsp. baking soda
 - 1 1/2 c. chopped rhubarb

Topping:
 - 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
 - 1 tsp. cinnamon

As for baking pans, this recipe is classically baked in two 8-inch round baking pans, but I've been successful with both muffin and mini muffin tins. The batter makes either 24 muffins or 48 mini-muffins.