Rhubarb Strawberry Pudding Cake

I wanted to take more pictures of this cake.

I wanted to show you the pink/green/white loveliness of the spring rhubarb stalks I harvested during an evening rain shower, dirt still clinging to the ends. I wanted to show you the gorgeous pale yellow cake batter and the lickability of the spatula after cleaning out the batter bowl. I wanted to show you how I ate this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so half of this cake was eaten up within 24 hours of making it (mostly my doing, I'll admit).

But then there's this:


If you have kids, you may remember this stage. The leg-grabbing 'What are you doing? Pick me up! Hold me! I want to see too!' stage.


My sweetheart. When I'm trying to cook, get dishes cleaned up, and keep my home in a organizational order I call controlled chaos, sometimes the whole baby-on-leg thing forces mom to make compromises. This time, my compromise was the blog photos. Fewer pictures. Happy child. I thought you'd understand.

But for every moment of compromise, there's a moment like this of pure joy. Baby's first steps! So cute, I had to share.



Rhubarb Strawberry Pudding Cake
The original recipe from Gourmet Today called for 1/2 the ingredients baked in a 8x8 pan. If I'm going to bake, I'm going to make it worth my time, so I doubled it and threw it in a 13x9. Worked great, just remember to put a rimmed sheet pan on a lower rack while baking to catch any possible juice spill-over.

1/2 cup water
3 tsp. cornstarch
1 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar
4 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups chopped strawberries
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Butter 13x9 glass baking dish. Set aside.

Stir together water, cornstarch, and 1/2 cup sugar in a pot, then add rhubarb. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring often, for 3 mins. Remove from heat, stir in strawberries.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 1 cup sugar in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla. Whisk in flour mixture just until combined.

Reserve 1 cup fruit mixture and pour rest in baking dish. Pour batter over fruit, spreading it evenly. Spoon reserved fruit over batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 mins with a rimmed sheet pan on a lower rack to catch any juices that may spill over while baking. Serve warm.