Rhubarb Lemon Bundt Cake

by Lauren | Celiac Teen on May 18, 2010


There are two types of recipes that I absolutely love to make.  Recipes that take time to figure out the balance of flours to leaveners to everything else, and recipes from friends.  This is one of the latter ones.  The original recipe is from Hannah, who is not only one of the most talented photographers I know, but a dear friend.  I just made it gluten-free.  But you should really check out her site, Honey & Jam, as she’s always got something to make you swoon.

With rhubarb either at or nearing it’s peak all around, this is the perfect time of year to make this.  I was lucky enough to have some lovely neighbours with a great bounty of rhubarb that they weren’t using, which just made making this all the more fun.  (and yes, I brought some of this cake over to them to say thank you :D)  They enjoyed the cake just as much as we did.  It’s slightly tart, like rhubarb, with this lovely undertone of lemon to pull it all together.  It’s a good cake.  A really good cake.

The moistness is divine, especially with a coat of lemon sweetness on top.  With either a subtle vanilla or push of lemon on the inside, it’s a cake that just worked.  Those are my favourite.  This is one of my favourites.  Now, my cake is all gone, which means that it’s your turn.  Go raid your rhubarb patch and enjoy the rewards.

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Rhubarb Lemon Cake
Adapted from Rustic Fruit Desserts, via Honey & Jam. Adaptation by Lauren of Celiac Teen.
Ingredients

1/3 cup and 1/2 cup millet flour (4.55 oz)
1/2 cup tapioca starch/flour (2.40 oz)
1/2 cup sweet rice flour (2.55 oz)
1/3 cup minus 1 tbsp brown rice flour (1.50 oz)
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (softened)
1 3/4 cups sugar
zest of one lemon
3 eggs
1/2 tsp lemon extract (or vanilla if you don’t have any lemon)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 pound of rhubarb, trimmed and sliced thinly (about 3 cups)
1 tbsp brown rice flour
1 tbsp millet flour

2 cups icing sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp butter just about melted
milk or icing sugar, as needed

Steps
Spray or butter a 10 cup bundt pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk together the flours (everything besides those last two tablespoons), baking powder, salt and xanthan gum together.

In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter, sugar and lemon zest with an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure to scrape down the bowl between each addition. Stir in the lemon or vanilla extract. Alternating between flour and buttermilk, stir in a third of the flour, then half of the buttermilk and so on until everything is incorporated. You will start and finish with the flour additions. Scrape down the bowl as needed, the batter is quite thick.

Toss the sliced rhubarb in the tablespoons of brown rice and millet flours. Fold half of the rhubarb into the batter, and scrape it into your prepared bundt pan. Sprinkle the other half of rhubarb on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotate the pan, and continue to bake for 30 more minutes, or until the centre springs back when lightly touched. Let the cake cool, in its pan, on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Make the lemon glaze by whisking the icing sugar, lemon juice and butter together. You want the glaze to be thick, but still pourable. Depending on its thickness, you may need to add a small splash of milk or a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar.

Invert cake, top with lemon glaze and enjoy!

This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Friday Foodie Fix.

The colours.  The freshness.  You know it’s going to be good.

They’re like little rhubarb jewels.  1 mm wide jewels of heavenly tartness, covering a pillow of lemony cake.

Watch the cake pull all of the rhubarb’s moisture into itself.  Leaving you with ruby rhubarb.

And there is the pan.  It has a story all to itself.  A story that I don’t even know. It was my Nana’s before she passed.  Aren’t the colour and the designs just precious?  Words cannot describe how much I adore baking with equipment that has been in the family for decades.  Tell me about your family’s pieces.  I’d love to hear :).

Gasp!  Not a crumb out of place.  Well, there were about two that stuck to the pan, but they were in the middle, so you would never know, especially with the glaze!

Et voila!  Fantastic.  Delicious.  Go get some.

xoxo
Lauren

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{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }

Hannah May 18, 2010 at 5:56 pm

Absolutely beautiful, Lauren! Yours looks delicious.

Iris May 18, 2010 at 6:01 pm

That is the most beautiful looking cake! You are so talented!

Jeanine May 18, 2010 at 6:05 pm

Lauren, that looks fantastic! And I just so happen to have some rhubarb sitting in the fridge. 🙂

kickpleat May 18, 2010 at 6:07 pm

That bundt cake looks amazing and I’m loving that vintage pan. I’m sure there’s been a lot of love in that pan and it’s so great that it’s been passed down.

Nisrine@Dinners & Dreams May 18, 2010 at 6:08 pm

What a gorgeous cake. The pan is beautiful too.

Aubree Cherie May 18, 2010 at 6:09 pm

This looks almost too beautiful to eat! Well, lets be honest, I bet it tastes too amazing NOT to eat 🙂

~Aubree Cherie

Kdwood May 18, 2010 at 6:26 pm

Wow, it looks so yummy that I can’t wait to see if my rhubarb is up enough to pick so I can try your recipe =P

sandie May 18, 2010 at 10:21 pm

ahh… rhubarb season. It’s so fun looking around at peoples sites to see what they are coming up with. Great looking cake, Lauren.

gfe--gluten free easily May 19, 2010 at 12:56 pm

C’est magnifique! I was just thinking that your next project should be just a book of all your food photos. It wouldn’t have to have a single recipe in it. I’d buy it just as a “picture book.” And, such joy I’d feel looking at your photos again and again!

I love using my grandmother’s kichenware, too. I just came across her red and white handled hand mixer/egg beater and realized I needed to start using it again. 😉

Shirley

Meg May 19, 2010 at 2:32 pm

Pretty! Especially with the way the glaze drapes over it so elegantly. I really must find some rhubarb…I really want to try the rhubarb/lemon combination!

Linda May 19, 2010 at 5:11 pm

I just made a lemon bundt cake today! I love the addition of rhubarb to yours. Your pictures look lovely too.

Julie May 19, 2010 at 6:20 pm

Great photos! Love the pan. I am going to have to make me some of this cake.

Jenn May 20, 2010 at 6:01 am

Lauren this is simply gorgeous – it might just be enough to get me to like rhubarb!

Heidi Kelly May 20, 2010 at 9:02 am

Beautiful Lauren! Thanks for sharing your Nana’s Bundt pan, there is something so peaceful and comforting about using family heirloom cookware. I have a Foley Fork that belonged to my grandma and every time I use it, I feel her with me. 🙂

Nancy May 20, 2010 at 10:46 am

That looks absolutely delicious. My daughter loves lemon. I don’t think I’ve ever tried rhubarb before. What a great summertime recipe. Gorgeous pictures too.

Allie May 20, 2010 at 2:07 pm

hi! just found your site!! love your photography, this cake looks amazing – gorgeous! you’re more adventurous than I with all of the flours, but maybe i’ll give it a whirl instead of using my trusty Better Batter mix.

Alea May 20, 2010 at 6:37 pm

I love bundt cakes and this recipe looks like a winner. Your timing is perfect as I am harvesting my rhubarb this week.

Ian May 20, 2010 at 8:42 pm

Lauren,
Thanks very much for the Rhubarb Lemon Bundt Cake that you gave us, made from the rhubarb at our place. It was absolutely delicious!

Ari@ The Frugally Rich Life May 21, 2010 at 6:37 pm

Lauren! I don’t know why you aren’t on my reader….I’ll have to fix that! This cake looks divine! Lemon and rhubarb!? Genius! Wishing I had a piece in front of me…..but hey, we can’t have everything right? lol. Thanks for the recipe! I’ll have to try it one of these days! 🙂

kamran siddiqi May 22, 2010 at 7:07 am

You’re killing me with these amazing recipes!! You will not believe how many bookmarks I already have to your site. And I am adding yet another 😉

Great post, Lauren! The cake looks absolutely scrumptious!

Kaitlin May 24, 2010 at 4:40 pm

This looks sooooo good! I love rhubarb 🙂

Mary May 25, 2010 at 11:19 am

Hi Lauren,

I wanted to drop by and say hi, cause I made the Nanaimo bars again, and they were fantastic! My visiting cousin from the US said they were the best ever, and she kept the whole pan to herself! I’ll never buy graham crackers again, thanks to you!

I have also been dealing with a huge load of rhubarb, so have made quite a few things, three of them gluten free! This cake looks lovely, and I am going to see if I have enough good stuff left to make it.

Take care!

Alejandra May 25, 2010 at 12:31 pm

This looks so good! I’m also a little bit in love with your cute yellow bundt pan. Where did you get that?

Lauren | Celiac Teen May 25, 2010 at 4:17 pm

Alejandra, Thank you! The bundt pan was actually my grandma’s, who bought it in the sixties or seventies, so I’m not exactly sure where we got it! However, to find your own, I would suggest looking at garage sales and antique stores :).

Ellen Allard (I Am Gluten Free) May 30, 2010 at 9:27 pm

I’ve been baking without eggs, but this one just might make me use them again, at least for this recipe!

Courtney Lundsett May 30, 2010 at 10:22 pm

I made this last weekend and it was a huge hit! I’ve never had rhubarb and it isn’t very common in SoCal, but I made it with rasberries and it worked great. Also, for anyone trying to cut their sugar, I only used 1 cup and it was plenty sweet for us. Thanks for the great recipe!

Lauren | Celiac Teen May 30, 2010 at 10:42 pm

Courtney, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I’m sure raspberries would be delightful :). I should mention that rhubarb is quite tart, so that extra sugar is necessary in the rhubarb version to compensate. In fact, in each rhubarb version I’ve made, it’s been a touch tart (as opposed to sweet). With the raspberries though, you’ve got the right idea!

PF Anderson May 20, 2012 at 8:40 pm

Thanks so much for this! I used to cook a lot of bundt cakes, but hadn’t dared since going gluten free. The pans are hard enough to clean when the recipe works, and doesn’t fall inside the pan! I followed your recipe, but modified it a bit. I substituted for several of the flours, because I didn’t have the right ones at hand.

quinoa for the millet flour
cornstarch for the tapioca starch/flour
teff for the brown rice flour
sorghum for the last 2 TBSP of flour

I also substituted for the zest of one lemon with half of one sugar-preserved lemon, and then reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup. It came out great!

Bailey Whiteman May 22, 2012 at 6:36 pm

This looks beautiful and is something my mother, not a celiac, would love because of the rhubarb (and I’d make it for her birthday when my husband, a celiac, would be sharing in the celebration). A question: I know how to clabber soy milk to use in place of buttermilk, but do you have suggestions about what you (or your friends who have to be dairy free) use in place of butter? Should I try lard or margarine or shortening? Thanks for your thoughts. Can’t wait to try making this.

Lauren | Celiac Teen June 10, 2012 at 4:56 pm

Bailey, I’m not entirely sure. I’m obviously not dairy-free, and I’ve never made this cake without dairy, so I can’t ensure any results, but you could try a soy-based butter substitute or margarine. Good luck!

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