Rhubarb loaf cake with rhubarb compote folded through and stalks on top
Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person · ♥ 14.6K likes · 524.5K views · 20 min video
Read about loaf, pound and bundt cakes in the BrightCulinary Book
Timestamp
Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 1 lb rhubarb
- 1 stick butter
- 2 whole eggs
- ½ tbsp butter
Brush the loaf pan all over with half a tablespoon of room temperature butter, lay in parchment cut to the length of the pan, press it into the bottom and up the sides, fold the overhang down and butter the parchment.
Greasing and lining the loaf pan
- 2 tbsp demerara sugar
Pour a couple tablespoons of demerara sugar into the pan and tap it around to coat it.
Coating the pan in demerara sugar
Pick out about four ounces of thinner rhubarb stalks that fit across the pan, splitting thick ones lengthwise into three or four pieces.
Coarsely chop the remaining twelve ounces of rhubarb, putting eight ounces into the saucepan and setting four ounces aside.
- 1 tbsp water
- ½ tsp baking soda
Cook the eight ounces of rhubarb with a tablespoon of water and nothing else, no sugar, until it breaks down completely to an applesauce texture with fine fibrous threads.
Cooking the rhubarb compote
Stir half a teaspoon of baking soda into the cooked compote; it foams and turns from dusty rose to grey. Let it cool completely.
Why baking soda: neutralizing the acid
- 1¾ cup all purpose flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
Whisk one and three quarter cups all purpose flour, two and a half teaspoons baking powder and three quarters of a teaspoon salt together in a bowl.
- 1¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1½ tsp orange zest
Put one and a quarter cups granulated sugar in a large bowl and work one and a half teaspoons of orange zest into it.
Butter, sugar and zest
Add the melted butter, close to room temperature, and the two room temperature eggs, and whisk vigorously to work in a little air and lighten it.
- ⅓ cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Whisk in a third of a cup of Greek yogurt, the cooled rhubarb compote and a teaspoon of vanilla.
Add the wet mixture into the dry, not the other way round, and whisk in concentric circles widening outward until just incorporated, then stop.
Switch to a spatula and fold to catch any pockets of flour on the bottom, then fold in the reserved four ounces of chopped rhubarb.
Lay the reserved rhubarb stalks on top in parallel stripes; do not press them down, they settle in as it bakes.
Topping with stalks and sugar
Bake at 350 for about 80 to 90 minutes, until the surface is dry rather than shiny and a cake tester in the middle comes out with no batter clinging to it; pink wet streaks are rhubarb, not batter.
Cool fully, then cut down between the cake and the pan on the short sides and lift it out by the parchment.
Cooling and unmoulding