Friday, May 11, 2012

The Rhubarb Thing

Rhubarb is a pretty addictive thing. I'm kind of glad it's only available in spring. Otherwise I'd probably eat (or bake) myself to death. I once got a really easy recipe for a Rhubarb cake which seems to be the perfect gourmet killer. (Thank you, mom!). The only annoying thing about it is if you don't have much time and your knife is not sharp as hell, preparing the rhubarb is equally annoying as getting caught in spiderwebs and having to get rid of them. those fibres (talking about the rhubarb again) stick to your knife, your fingers, your hands and just won't get off! 


The rest is easy. I'll post the recipe, whose origins are not known to me, as my mum got the recipe for a friend of hers and you know how it is with mums. they gather and exchange about everything.


So here it goes. You need: 
500g of frehsly cut rhubarb
3 eggs
200g of sugar
1 pack vanilla sugar
100g butter
200g flour
1/2 pack baking powder


Heat the oven to about 180°C (hot air).


Mix it all somehow and done. Too vague? *sigh* okay. You will also need one of those:
Mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and butter really hard until you get a fluffy bright-yellow mass that tastes delicious (advice: don't taste it; you might want to eat the whole batter).
Stift together the flour and the baking powder and mix it with the batter to create a bigger mass of delicious dough. 

Then, there's two tricks to use:

First: before you mess with the rhubarb pieces, put some flour on them, it will keep the pieces from sinking in during the baking. 
Second: butter and flour the form before pouring the dough in, it will save you from having to piece the cake together again after trying to get it out of it. 

Then mix the rhubarb with the dough and pour it into the form. Bake for about 40 minutes, check, and most of the time you'll need another 10 minutes. I use a little knife and stab the cake (you never know, it could jump out if you weren't careful) in the middle and the more of it's guts are sticking on the blade, the stickier the cake will be. I don't wait until the lame is clean, but it shouldn't be all doughy. 


Caution: Don't lick the blade unless you're experienced with dangerous weapons. (Or if you're a politician. Then it's totally ok if you cut your tongue off.)


After baking get the cake out of the form and let it cool down a little. 


Bon appetit! :)


P.S. you can also bake this cake with all kinds of berries or cherries (not only because it rhymes.) But if you take cherries, remember that unless berries, they have a pretty solid core. Good news is nobody can sue you if they lose teeth when eating your cherry cake as they have to expect something like that when eating it (like fish with bones or olive pits and so on). But if you value your friends, make sure you get rid of the pits first. 

2 comments:

  1. From wiki: "Rhubarb leaves contain poisonous substances, including oxalic acid which is a nephrotoxic and corrosive acid that is present in many plants. The LD50 (median lethal dose) for pure oxalic acid in rats is about 375 mg/kg body weight,[17] or about 25 grams for a 65 kg (~140 lb) human. (Other sources give a much higher oral LDLo (lowest published lethal dose) of 600 mg/kg.[18]) While the oxalic acid content of rhubarb leaves can vary, a typical value is about 0.5%,[19] so a rather unlikely 5 kg of the extremely sour leaves would have to be consumed to reach an LD50 of oxalic acid. Cooking the leaves with soda can make them more poisonous by producing soluble oxalates.[20] However, the leaves are believed to contain also an additional, unidentified toxin,[21] which might be an anthraquinone glycoside (also known as senna glycosides).[22]

    In the petioles, the amount of oxalic acid is much lower, only about 2-2.5% of the total acidity which is dominated by malic acid.[23] This means that the raw stalks may not be hazardous, although the tart taste of raw stalks is so strong as to be unpalatable to many."


    ...so now you know how to properly kill yourself eating too much of it ;)

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