Once upon a solar system, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a lush and fertile planet. On this planet inhabited peaceful beings with hair like celery and fingers like parsnips. These vegetable-looking life-forms had the best of intentions but like so many civilized cultures, they got carried away with utilizing their lush planet’s resources and ran out of room for their waste. Being a vegetable-like creature is difficult, especially when your hair is like celery because it grows and grows and needs to be cut frequently. Over-run with celery-like hair clippings, the peaceful beings saw no other option for their waste than to jettison it into outer space. After light years of roaming the dark, cold universe, one of the hair clipping-filled capsules fell to a similarly lush planet (a third rock from the sun kind of planet), struck the ground and was embedded into its soil. From this, the seeds of hair clippings began to flourish and out of those seeds grew a red and green stalk, very similar to celery indeed. The dwellers of this planet thought the stalks strange, but in their resourceful nature, they used them in their cooking. And that is how rhubarb came to be on planet Earth. 
Okay, so it’s a little far-fetched. But if you’ve taken a good hard look at rhubarb, you’ve probably said to yourself, “by golly if that don’t look like the hair of an extraterrestrial, I don’t know what doesl!” And in case you were wondering if this girl’s out of her mind, your question’s been answered. But that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 
I’ll admit, I’ve been intimidated by rhubarb up until about 48 hours ago. I’ve worried that if I set it down on the counter and leave it unattended, it will re-arrange my kitchen and drop things on the floor while my back is turned. As you can tell, I didn’t grow up on a family rhubarb pie recipe. No rhubarb crumble or mimosas (is that even a thing?), no cakes or bars, so the plant has been altogether foreign to me with the exception of a brief encounter with rhubarb pie from Denny’s about 14 years ago. 
If like me, you think that rhubarb has mind control capabilities, let me assure you, it is far less dangerous when it’s all hacked up. 
And now that I’ve had the stalks on my counter and was delighted to find my kitchen exactly as I had left it when leaving them unattended, I have grown confidence in the whacky plant. And so I made a cake out of it. And then strawberry rhubarb lemonade. And now I’d be willing to throw punches at the grocery store over picking the best rhubarb stalks. Have you had strawberry rhubarb lemonade? My relationship with lemonade will never be the same again. E’er. 
Do those lemons look a little sad? That’s because I zested the crap out of them for the cake before I used them as a garnish. That’s using your resources! This cake is gluten-free using corn flour (note: flour, not meal) and brown rice flour. There’s a lemony zestiness to it, topped with hunks of rhubarb and strawberries all stuck in. It’s the uniquest cake I ever did make, amen son. If you wanted to get reeeeeeal fancy shmancy, you could make a lemon glaze for it or sprinkle it with powdered sugar. There’s a relatively small amount of sugar in it, which can be replaced with honey so I daresay this is a cake that’s fit for breakfast. And queens. And extraterrestrials. It’s the bee’s knees. Recipe adapted from Cannelle et Vanille‘s Pink peppercorn-kissed rhubarb and berry cake.
Strawberry Rhubarb Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cups large stalk rhubarb about 1.5 chopped
- 1.5 cups ripe strawberries sliced
- 1 cup corn four*
- 1 cup brown rice flour
- ½ cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk* full-fat
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Prepare an 8” round cake pan by lightly oiling it or lining it with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, baking powder and ground ginger (dry mixture).
- In a separate small bowl, mix the lemon zest and ½ cup of the coconut sugar together to release the zest oils. Once fragrant, whisk the lemon juice, eggs, coconut milk and olive oil in with the coconut sugar and zest (wet mixture).
- Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry mixture and stir together until combined.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan and sprinkle the rhubarb and strawberries on top, pressing them lightly into the batter. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar on top.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until cake tests clean (mine was still a little mushy around the fruit at 50 minutes, so I baked it a full 60 minutes).
- Allow cake to cool and then turn it out onto a cutting board. Slice wedges and enjoy
- Refrigerate leftovers in a sealable container or bag.
Nutrition
G’day! Funny how I JUST bought rhubarb today, TRUE!
Your photo and recipe looks delightful too!
Cheers!
Joanne
What’s On The List?
http://www.whatsonthelist.net
True story. I plan on going out in the rain this morning and taking a chance of getting my hair wet (read: curls) so that I can hopefully find some rhubarb to make us a pie for tomorrow night. I LOVE RHUBARB. Stephie has an awesome rhubarb pie recipe that you should try. This looks delicious. So, I think I’ll get enough for two desserts. After all, there are two of us, right?
Good luck in the rain! I wish I could share some of the sunshine we’ve been getting…ball it up and toss it your way 😉 I’d definitely try Stephie’s rhubarb pie recipe…need more recipes to get me acclimated to rhubarb! Hope you have an excellent weekend!
You have a good weekend, too! We’re celebrating our anniversary (#26) at a fancy-schmancy restaurant (for central IL, anyway). Send that sunshine our way, please! P.S. Loved the story about how rhubarb came to be on earth. 🙂
haaa! Love your rhubarb story. It sounds pretty realistic, probably true 😉
I’m loving everything going on here. The lemonade and cake both look jammin, and I love your offhanded comment for a rhubarb mimosa. If it’s not a think, I’m making it one tomorrow morning!
YUM! I am loving this julia!! Look so good and perfect for summer!
Oh man, I’m glad you got your hands on some rhubarb! Love that stuff! I recently posted a strawberry rhubarb prosecco cocktail, so yea rhubarb mimosa’s are totally a thing 😉
Done and done, let’s make some rhubarb mimosas!! 🙂
Reading my madre’s comments, clearly you know that I grew up looooving rhubarb! Which is funny because boy I hate celery, so the fact that I love something that kind of looks like it is a little odd. If I don’t find me some rhubarb soon, I’m gonna go a little bats**t crazy.
This cake looks just divine.
haha! this had me cracking up Julia! lovely recipe as always 🙂
This cakes looks beautiful and I bet it tasted amazing too 🙂
I made the cake tonight. Amazing!!
Ira, I’m so glad you made it and enjoyed it! It didn’t last very long in my house. 🙂 Hope you have a great weekend!
I still have yet to try making anything with rhubarb. This cake looks wonderful and perfectly moist. Great recipe!
You make me feel much better, I first tried rhubarb a few years ago and have loved it ever since. The cake looks lovely! By the way, you have me extremely curious about rhubarb mimosas, I need to find one.
Yummy!! I tried rhubarb only last year. And I love it! I would love to try out this cake. This cake looks delicious and a lot easier than pie. 🙂
Beautiful! I am still intimidated by rhubarb, but your cake turned out lovely…so I’m just going to have put fears aside and give this a try! Thank you so much for sharing, sweet friend!
Gorgeous pictures! They make me happy! My best friend is always talking about rhubarb…. I have yet to cook with it…. guess I need to get on the bandwagon!
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