The Art of Creating the Perfect Almond Rhubarb Cake

As a senior food editor at Bon Appetit magazine, I'm excited to share with you one of my favorite recipes that has been featured in our April 2015 issue: the almond rhubarb cake. This beautiful Easter-inspired dessert is not only delicious but also relatively easy to make, which is a major bonus for any busy home cook.

One of the reasons why I love this cake is because it's made with just a few ingredients, which is a rarity in the world of baking. However, don't let the simplicity of the recipe fool you - the result is truly impressive. The addition of rhubarb to the batter adds a sweet and tangy flavor that complements the richness of the almonds perfectly.

To begin making this cake, I start by prepping the rhubarb. I reserve some of the rhubarb for laying on top of the cake, which will give it a beautiful dramatic crackly look. The remaining rhubarb is chopped up and added to the batter, ensuring that every bite contains a generous amount of tart rhubarb goodness. When developing recipes, I often find myself wondering how to make this cake different from the usual suspects. That's when I turned to using a rectangular cake pan, which not only adds visual interest but also mimics the shape of the rhubarb.

For those who may be new to baking with tar pans, let me assure you that it does require a bit more prep work. The key is to make sure that the pan is well-buttered and sugared, as this will not only help the cake release from the pan but also give it a lovely crunchy crackly bottom and sides. I swear by using my hands to butter and sugar the pan - there's something therapeutic about getting in there with your fingers and making sure everything is nice and coated.

Once the batter is ready, I process all of the ingredients together in the food processor, including the almonds, flour, baking soda, and salt. The result is a beautiful almond flour that adds depth and texture to the cake. To ensure that everything comes together smoothly, I let the mixture sit for a couple of seconds longer - just long enough to get rid of any lumps.

With all of my prep work complete, it's time to mix and bake this stunning cake. I begin by creaming together 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of butter in the food processor until it becomes light and fluffy. This is one of those steps that requires patience - you want to beat it for a good 3-5 minutes until it reaches the perfect consistency. I find that this step is crucial, as over-mixing can lead to a dense cake.

Next, I scrape in a vanilla bean (or two, or three...I like to have extras on hand) and continue beating until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy. If you're feeling extra adventurous, you can also make your own vanilla extract by sticking the beans in a bottle of vodka or whiskey - just something I like to do from time to time.

With my dry ingredients combined, I add 1 cup of yogurt (full-fat Greek yogurt, please!) and mix until everything is fully incorporated. This is where things start to get really fun - you can fold in your chopped rhubarb and watch as it distributes evenly throughout the batter.

As I prepare for the final act, I take a moment to admire my handiwork. The cake batter is thick and indulgent, with just the right amount of sweetness from the sugar and butter. And let's not forget that beautiful pink color from the rhubarb - it's like a party in there!

Now it's time to bake this masterpiece for 70-80 minutes, or until the edges are puffed and golden brown. As I wait for it to finish baking, I take a moment to appreciate the process of creating something truly special. Decorating the cake is almost as much fun as eating it - I love adding extra sugar on top to give it that beautiful crackly texture.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, my almond rhubarb cake emerges from the oven, looking stunning and delicious. The edges are golden brown, with a crispy crackly surface that's just begging to be broken into. And let me tell you - this cake is perfect for serving with anything: whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or simply on its own. Happy Easter!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys I'm Alison Roman senior food editor at Bona petite magazine and today instead of making something with someone else I'm just going to make it myself in our April 2015 issue we made a beautiful Easter branch menu and on that menu is an almond rhubarb cake it's one of the favorite things that I've ever made and here's why it's actually only a few ingredients which for a cake is kind of a big deal it comes together really quickly and it features rhubarb which is so underrated and especially when baked into a cake gets so delicious rhubarb do want me to just keep talking so the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to prep the rhubarb I'm going to reserve some of the rhubarb for laying on top of the cake which is going to give it its nice dramatic crackly look but the remaining rhubarb I'm going to chop up so we can fold into the batter so that way you get rhubarb in pretty much every bite when you're developing recipes and you work a bon of a tea like I do you're making a lot of cakes every year and so sometimes you think how can I make this cake different so we used a rectangular cake pan which you can find at any baking store we like the rectangle for this cake because it's sort of mimix the shape of the rhubarb but you can definitely bake this in a round removable tar pan as well I just use my hands because why not the thing with baking cakes and tar pans they do tend to stick a little bit more so you want to make sure that they're really well buttered and really well sugared and this does two things and it helps it release when it's baked but it also gives it like a really nice crunchy crackly bottom and sides which as everybody knows is the best part of a cake if it gets on your cutting board that's okay that's what your cutting board's for then we can go on and make the batter in the food processor goes the almonds and the flour also the baking soda wait I'm going to make sure that this is baking soda real quick sorry off camera recipe uh Consulting I'm going to add my baking powder and salt so I'm going to process this in all together and what it's going to do is kind of make like an almond flour I feel like a few lumps so I'm going to let it go a couple seconds longer all of our prep work for the cake is done we have our cake pan prepared we've got our almonds gr into our flour our rhubarb is cut so now all we have to do is mix it bake it and then eat it so I've got my 3/4 cup of sugar my 1 cup of butter and then I'm going to scrape a vanilla bean into here while I beat it with my sugar my knife or sharper this would be easier I just prefer it to vanilla extract plus you get those really nice flexs and when you're done with your vanilla bean as an aside because they can be really pricey I like to stick them in a bottle of vodka or whiskey or something like that and make your own vanilla extract and I'm going to add my eggs which are room temperature and I'm going to beat this until it's super light and fluffy this is like kind of one of those steps where you're like they say 3 to 5 minutes but do they really mean it yeah we really mean it and you'll see it start to change the sugar and the butter will kind of just become like this one fluffy almost look like a whipped cream or something don't say that sorry that's not true at all it's not going to look like whipped cream at all when you're adding your dry ingredients you can over mix it when you add your flour you want to like barely mix it and then on low because flour in the face is it's not a good look right before my dry ingredients are totally combined I'm going to add my yogurt and I'm using a full fat Greek yogurt Go full fat or go home okay I think we have a cake batter this is pretty exciting okay so I'm going to fold in my chopped rubarb you can make this cake with strawberries but just know that because they are a little bit juicy ier the cake might turn out a little jamier still really good but the reason I like this cake is because rubarb is so tart you have like a really nice contrast of creamy buttery fatty and like bright acidic rhubarb you can kind of like eat the whole thing without going into a sugar coma unless that's your thing so it looks kind of like a party in there already so I'm going to this is a really thick cake batter and you're like how am I going to get this evenly into the edges but because there's so much butter in it it'll uh sort itself out in the oven and this is the really fun part you can kind of decorate it however you want and you don't really have to press it in because it'll sink as it bakes I'm gonna add more sugar on top and this is going to give you a really beautiful cracked crystally feeling on top which is so festive and so so fun and now we're going to bake it for 70 to 80 minutes there she is beautiful you'll see like the edges got kind of puffy and the sugar is like you know crackly and crystally and coming up around the rhubarb and all you're seeing are those beautiful pink stocks on top no matter what you serve it with it will be awesome and totally delicious Happy Easter\n"