Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Sunday, June 01, 2008
From My Kitchen To Yours: Rhubarb Cake, Rhubarb Torte, Rhubarb Dump Dessert
A couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed entering the Tomah Health Care Center Sweetest Contest. There were many entries and lots of competition for prizes. I submitted a recipe for a Strawberry-Chocolate Brownie Trifle and enjoyed taste testing many of the other desserts in the contest. Pam Buchda and her volunteers do a wonderful job providing activities for the residents, and many of them were delighted to try all the sweets. I wouldn’t have wanted to be one of the judges as everything was scrumptious. I thought I stayed until the end, but was surprised when Pam contacted me the next day to tell me I had won People’s Choice in the “Other” category. After so many sweets, suggestions were offered to the staff that maybe the next session should be a “salad” contest.
This weekend I took the grandkids up to LaVerne Cramer’s to the Hospice rummage sale and was chatting with Janice Kalms - about what else but recipes. I asked if she had any rhubarb recipes, and she promised to get me this recipe for rhubarb cake that she originally got from the late Edna Conway.
Rhubarb Cake
1/2 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tsp. soda dissolved in 1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour + 1 tbsp.
3 cups rhubarb, cut fine
1/2 cup colored sprinkles
Cream shortening; add sugar and mix. Add soda and buttermilk. Mix alternately with flour, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in candy sprinkles.
Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup chopped nutmeats
1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix and put on before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
And Pat Christensen has provided me with lots of recipes she used in compiling a 00 Miracle Racing cookbook. Her rhubarb torte recipe follows:
Rhubarb Torte
1 cup flour
2 tbsp. sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter
Mix the above together until crumbly and put in 8x10” pan. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes.
FILLING:
2-1/4 cups chopped rhubarb
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup Half & Half
2 tbsp. flour
3 egg yolks
Vanilla
Combine all ingredients and cook until thick. Pour over bottom crust.
TOPPING:
3 egg whites
6 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
Beat egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar. Spread on top of cooked rhubarb mixture. Brown in 325 degree oven until golden brown.
I didn’t used to like rhubarb at all, but with all the variations nowadays, it’s become one of my favorites. So bear with me as I share one more that I got last year from Mary Larkin. It’s very tasty and so easy:
Rhubarb Dump Dessert
3 cups rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1 small pkg. raspberry Jell-O
1 box yellow butter cake mix
1 stick melted butter
1/2 cup water
Layer in above order in a 9x13 pan and bake 35-40 minutes.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.