A few weeks ago we were invited to a friends house for lunch, and I was asked to bring a dessert. Andy had asked if I could make my Rhubarb Custard Bars, so I picked up the ingredients to make it and intended to do so.
And then something happened… I’m not totally recalling what it was, but the day I was to make the dessert, I had one of those days in the kitchen that didn’t go well. Or something. By the time it was time to make the dessert, I was tired of cooking, and I decided I just wanted to do a simple cake or something- but I still wanted to use the rhubarb I had on hand.
Out of the blue, I thought of the Gooey Apple Sheet Cake I make in the fall when the apples are fresh from the orchard, and I wondered how that would work with rhubarb. As I thought about the flavor profile, I decided it would work rather nicely, and I thought I had all the ingredients on hand.
So I started mixing up the cake batter and chopping the rhubarb, and THEN I read the rest of the recipe and looked at the ingredients. I was missing the copious amount of powdered sugar required to make the topping part of the cake. I paused. My batter was mostly together, and I was kind of at the point of no return. Andy walked in at that moment, sensed there was trouble and asked if I needed him to pick something up. I really didn’t want to wait the few minutes it would take him to run to the store, so I did the only thing I could do. I improvised. Instead of 3 cups of powdered sugar, I simply used 1 cup of regular old granulated sugar.
It worked beautifully. The cake was delicious with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream, and our friends loved it. The tart rhubarb and the sweet cake melded together beautifully, and the topping layer ended up like more of a layer of cheesecake than anything else- it was very good, and I wouldn’t hesitate to make this cake again. Here is the rhubarb version that I made- I’m beginning to think that just about any fruit could swap out in this cake. Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture, having taken it to a friend’s house and all, but I did get this quick shot so you can see the layers nicely.
