Let me say a few words about Martha Stewart.

Yes, she broke the law, yes, she is creepily perfect, and yes, she is icy, brusque, and makes  her tv show guests hilariously uncomfortable.  But she has never steered me wrong in the kitchen.  And for that, I love her.

Late spring and early summer is rhubarb season in these parts, and I have a thing for going on seasonal food binges.  I recently bought out the half the rhubarb section of Safeway and turned those sour red stalks into delicious baked goods.

My friend Tracy pointed me to this recipe, and as soon as I saw how much butter was in the cake, I knew it would be a winner.  (Too much butter to fail?  Kind of like too big to fail?  Er, anyway…)  The kicker is the addition of the crumb “topping”, which really ends up being at the bottom of the cake.  This basically boils down to little butter and sugar blobs being absorbed into a sour cream cake batter.  Excessive?  Maybe a little.  A good thing?  Without a doubt.

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Crumb topping:

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar

Cake:

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 pound rhubarb (~3-4 large stalks), sliced on a diagonal into 1/2″ thick pieces
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Make the topping by mashing together the melted butter, flour, sugar until big crumbs form. Add an extra tablespoon of butter if the mixture is too dry. Set aside.

3.   Toss rhubarb with 3/4 cup sugar.  Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). Dot with 4 tablespoons butter cut into pieces and top with rhubarb slices.  Try to arrange the pieces in an even layer/pretty pattern.

4. Whisk together flour and baking powder. Beat remaining stick butter and cup of sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream, until smooth. Spread evenly over rhubarb. Crumble topping evenly over batter.

5.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake, and invert onto a rack. Be careful not to leave the cake in the pan too long or the fruit starts to stick to pan.

© Alicia for Kitchen Wench, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, butter, cake, martha stewart living, rhubarb, upside-down cake

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Cake is kind of my white whale.  For the longest time, I just couldn’t get it right, despite being able to handle seemingly more complicated things (e.g., pie crust) without incident.  After a slew of failures early on in my baking career (bundt cakes that got stuck in the pan, layer cakes that resembled the leaning tower of Pisa, etc), I came to the sorry conclusion that I might just be better off buying a box mix.  But you can always tell when cake comes from a mix — it’s moist and has a nice texture, but it never tastes homemade.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my fair share of artificially-flavored things, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the taste of real butter or vanilla.

But this cake  is practically idiot-proof:  it is tender, moist, and light every time.  Just like a box cake, except it tastes about a million times better.  The secret is in the buttermilk.  I’ve never baked anything with buttermilk that didn’t turn out amazing.

The original recipe calls for raspberries, but you can use any berry you want.  The other change I made is the addition of almond extract.  Having made this cake several times now, I find that it’s a bit dull with just vanilla.  The almond brings out the sweetness and lightness of the cake and contrasts wonderfully with the berries.  If you don’t like almond flavor, some citrus zest would also work nicely.

This cake is best eaten warm, while the sugar on top is still crunchy, but also reheats well the next day.

Blackberry almond buttermilk cake

Adapted from Gourmet

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1 pint fresh blackberries

1.  Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. (A springform pan also works well here.)

2.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3.  Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla and almond. Add egg and beat well.

4.  At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.

5.  Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Arrange berries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

6.  Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack.

© Alicia for Kitchen Wench, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, blackberry, buttermilk, cake

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Every year, Lee’s mother mails him a birthday care package. Aside from presents, it always includes a box of angel food cake mix, as well as candles, balloons, and paper plates and napkins. It’s sort of quaint, because no matter how old he gets, the care package is exactly the same. This is not limited to birthdays. For the last two years, we have received plastic eggs, candy, easter grass, and an egg dying kit for Easter. This package is usually accompanied by a phone call explaining that Lee can open the box early if we want to dye the eggs the night before. I am 24 years old and have not dyed an Easter egg in over a decade.

While I don’t dye the eggs, I do make the cake. (I’m not really sure if the cake mix is really for him so much as me, since I can’t really imagine Lee making himself a cake.) In my early baking days, I attempted angel food cake from scratch, not realizing it was one of those fussy recipes that require precision and good technique.  My cake puffed up nicely in the oven, but quickly deflated into a lumpy mess once I took it out.

The mix, however, is completely idiot-proof. You add water and, through the magic of chemistry, the mixture foams to 3x its original volume. Then you pour it into the pan and bake it. Unlike many box cakes, which have an artificial taste, I think box angel food tastes pretty darn authentic. I like to add some extra vanilla and almond extract, so it tastes like a giant, almond-y marshmallow.

This year, I decided to mix it up with some cupcakes, which are oh-so-trendy right now. I wanted to make mine sparsely beautiful, like Nigella’s fairy cakes. Per her recipe, I whipped up some royal icing and spread it on the tops with the back of a spoon. But, unlike Nigella, I didn’t have any cute little sugar flowers or fondant cut outs to stick on top of my cupcakes. After digging through the pantry, all I came up with were some raw almonds and leftover Christmas sprinkles. So, I did the best I could, given the circumstances. I think they look decently cute, if not ideal.

© Alicia for Kitchen Wench, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, cake, cupcakes

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