Battling the bunnies. It’s an endless fight this time of year. A particularly persistent little guy is tearing up new impatiens in the shade garden. Every night he digs up a dozen plants, every morning I carefully restore them to the dirt. Something’s nibbling at the hostas as well. And the shasta daisies. And ...
The other day, my neighbor Mr. McGregor (okay, that’s not his real name) was perplexed to see dirt flying out of a grassy rise behind the house. He approached cautiously to find the muscular hind legs of a bunny digging to China the long way, sideways.
Ah, the joys of summer.
One of summer’s true treasures is rhubarb. This year’s crop is abundant and seems particularly sweet. I’ve frozen a few quarts for next winter but couldn’t miss this lovely upside-down cake, a perfect example of what my mom called “a good dessert when supper’s a little skimpy”.
It’s also a good example of how serving size, fat and sugar can be cut without loss of satisfaction or taste. In fact, testers here actually preferred my lower-fat, less-sweet version to the original. I agree: the anise’s light sweetness is more apparent when it doesn’t compete with so much sugar.
To freeze rhubarb for later, wash well and cut in half-inch pieces. Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer and freeze. When frozen, transfer to a freezer container.
RHUBARB UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
Baking time: 45 minutes
10 servings
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1-1/2 pounds rhubarb, fresh or frozen, chopped (about 3 cups)
- 1 teaspoon anise seed
- 1-1/2 cups flour
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon anise extract (or vanilla)
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
Melt 2 tablespoons butter and brown sugar over medium heat in a well-seasoned, nine-inch cast-iron skillet. Stir to combine, then simmer 2 – 3 minutes, being careful not to burn. Remove from heat and arrange rhubarb evenly over top without disturbing the butter-sugar mixture.
Meanwhile, stir together anise seed, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream ½ cup softened butter and sugar. Add anise extract. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, taking care to not overmix. Spoon batter over rhubarb without disturbing the fruit. Bake at 350F until golden, about 45 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve warm.
This recipe has been 'Alanna-sized' with reductions in fat and sugar and increases in the low-calorie and fiber-rich rhubarb.
More Rhubarb Recipes
Since rhubarb is technically a vegetable, my food blog A Veggie Venture also features great rhubarb recipes.
Recent Favorites from A Veggie Venture
~ New Potatoes & Green Beans, called "best ever" by two kids, including a picky eater ~
~ Lettuce Soup, way better than it sounds, uses up leftover lettuce ~
~ Buttermilk Salad Dressing, easy, zero Weight Watchers points! ~
~ Cobb Salad, the classic salad recipe, a reader says that she worries whether a salad will be 'enough' for supper but the Cobb salad was filling and satisfying ~
If you like Kitchen Parade's recipes, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, visit A Veggie Venture, my food blog, home to the Alphabet of Vegetables where there's a vegetable in every recipe and vegetables in every course.
I've long been a fan of the exclusive network 9rules and am proud to announce that 9rules has selected Kitchen Parade as a new member! There are just a handful of 9rules food sites. Congratulations to the other new members featuring recipes, Misadventures in Italy and Delicious Asian Food. We're proud to join Start Cooking, a great site for inexperienced cooks and Real Epicurean which, like Kitchen Parade, is dedicated to scratch cooking with whole ingredients.
Many thanks to my friend Genie of Inadvertent Gardener, a fellow 9rules member, for sharing a virtual high-five after receiving the news.
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Your Comments:
And...another virtual high-five on 9Rules -- congratulations! I'm so glad you're in, and just favorited you in my 9Rules profile. 'Cause, well, you're one of my faves.
I didn't intentionally leave out salt but since I've been making this for so many years, I don't know the recipe's provenance and it's sure possible that I omitted an ingredient when copying it over a few times. That said, I always cook straight from my own columns (not prior recipe cards, etc) so that I'm cooking from exactly what readers cook from.
Glad you like the cobbler, me too!
PS If you're following responses to this post, you might wonder why there's been no response for a few days. For some reason, Blogger hasn't posted your comment so I posted it manually.
Readers are reporting different volumes on the rhubarb jam, too. I wonder if different varieties of rhubarb are quite different. I'm quite sure I've made this with at least two different kinds, however. Hard to say.
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your results!