May 27, 2017 Winter just ended for us in the pacific northwest. It was literally 10º and raining 7 days/week up until last weekend. But that’s in the past. Now we are spoiled with sunshine and you’ll find me existing indoors only for sleep, naps (wait, that’s also sleep) and … well, not much else. Rhubarb is my kryptonite. It’s the first freshness of the season, an ecstatically-welcomed vibrancy at the market among last year’s sad potatoes and a million bunches of kale. Its tartness is like a wake-up slap to our winter-stew-numbed tastebuds. When I was a kid, we lived on a budget. That meant we simply did not buy produce out of season. In a quiet town on the 1990s Canadian Atlantic, imported-from-Mexico fruit was both extremely expensive and very weary looking after its long trip. In our home, there was never a strawberry in January. A peach in March was unthinkable. So I really learned to appreciate (obsess over?) the rhythms of our gustatory seasons and look forward to (ok, obsess over) the appearance of things like fiddleheads and berries. When the first rhubarb appeared at our grocery store (probably in June, our growing season starts later there because brrr) my mom would stew the ruby stalks down to a pink compote and we’d pile it on hot, buttered whole-wheat toast for breakfast. I can still taste the first sweet-tart bite. I added ginger to this cake because I really like the flavour with rhubarb (orange goes really beautifully, too). I really love this Ginger Rhubarb Cake in the archives. It’s a moist, fluffy cake with a bit of virtue actually as yogurt replaces most of the butter (while adding another subtle layer of tang). Happy weekending! Go buy some rhubarb if you haven’t already. This cake totally doubles as breakfast. xo
