One of the unanticipated side effects of my trip to Canada is that I learned to like rhubarb.

I've always hated rhubarb. With an intense passion. Rhubarb is the only food I have approved of being thrown out unconsumed - especially because then it would never fulfill it's food destiny (that is, to be eaten)

However, there is hope that we all may one day be saved, and on my two week holiday to Canada, I was. When I arrived it seemed that rhubarb season was in full swing, and that everybody I was staying with was presenting it to me in some form or another - jam, coffee cake, pies... so, I thought "what the hey" and (especially because I have a large batch of it in my allotment) I thought I'd throw in the towel and join the fun (if you can't lick 'em join, 'em, so they say).

On my first Sunday there, Hallah (being unaware of my intense dislike for rhubarb which had become slightly less intense since eating Andrea's rhubarb-strawberry jam the day before) put my in charge of making the strawberry rhubarb coffee cake for her sister's wedding brunch.

So, I tackled it. I smelled it, touched it, washed it, cut it, stewed it, spread it and baked it into a cake.

And loved it!

Here is said recipe that I plan on making this weekend... (copied and pasted verbatim from Hallah's blog - thanks kiddo!)

rhubarb~strawberry coffee cake

• 28-May-08 at 9:14 AM
• 2 comments

From Better Homes and Gardens
(and no, Jeff, there is no coffee in a coffee cake!)

FRUIT FILLING
3/4 c cut-up rhubarb
3/4 c cut-up strawberries
1/4 c water

In small saucepan, bring these 3 to a boil, reduce heat, simmer covered for 5 minutes or until fruit is tender.

1/4 cup sugar
2 T cornstarch

Combine and stir into fruit mixture over med heat until thickened and bubbly. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350*

DRY MIXTURE
1 1/2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda

Combine above 4 into medium mixing bowl.
Cut in 1/4 c butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Make a well in the middle and set aside.

WET MIXTURE
1 beaten egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c butter milk
(if you don't have butter milk, make sour milk. Put 1 T lemon juice or vinegar in a glass measuring cup. Add enough milk to make one cup. Stir. Let mixture set 5 minutes before using. *NOTE* this makes 1 cup of sour milk and this recipe only calls for 1/2 c)

In another bowl, combine these 3.
Add wet mixture to dry mixture all at once.
Using a wooden spoon, stir until just moistened (will be lumpy).
Spread half of this batter in an ungreased 8x8x2 pan.
Spread fruit filling over this.
Drop remaining batter over the filling in small mounds.

TOPPING
1/4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
Mix in a small bowl.
Cut in 2 T butter until crumby.
Sprinkle over coffee cake.

Bake 40-45 min or until golden.
Cool slightly; serve warm.

Hallah suggests that it is best served the day it's made, but I don't think there was any left the following day to test that theory!

Although, Hallah, I must confess...I don't remember putting the cornstarch in, did you?

Anyways, I have since embraced the rhubarb patch on my allotment, shown below:


A triumphant post- Picking the rhubarb pose (the "bending down picking the rhubarb" shot ended up with more clevage exposure than I think is decent for a family blog...)