Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake

This is one of my favorite Nigella recipes. Its just a simple little cake that makes me happy. It's great for dessert of course, but it also a good traveler in my lunch bag or along side my morning coffee. I love rhubarb, yogurt, vanilla and I'm also a big cornbread fan so I was very drawn to this recipe. It fuses three of my favorite flavors together with the crumbly texture of the cornmeal. So good, truly comfort food.

I live in Wisconsin so I do not have fresh rhubarb this time of year. This was made with one of my last bags of frozen Rhubarb from last year, it was still delicious, it smells wonderful while it's baking too.

When I saw the Weekend Cookbook Challenge theme was Nigella Lawson , I knew right away this is what I wanted to make. My dh gave me a yogurt maker for Christmas and I have been wanting to use my Yummy homemade yogurt in recipes, especially baking. I will talk more about my experiences so far with making yogurt in a later post. Happy Baking.

Stephanie :)

Weekend Cooking Challenge 25 is being hosted by FoodieChickie

Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake

from Nigella Lawson's

"How To Be A Domestic Goddess"

1 pound 2 ounces rhubarb

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp fine cornmeal (polenta)

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter (soft)

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp plain yogurt

9-inch springform pan, buttered and lined with parchment or wax paper

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Wash and dry the rhubarb if necessary (which I rarely find it to be) , and then trim, removing and stringy bits, and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Put into glass or china bowl and cover with 1/3 cup of the sugar, while you get on with the rest of the cake. Don't let the rhubarb stand for more than half an hour or the sugar will make to much liquid seep out.

Mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cornmeal together. With a fork, beat the eggs with the vanilla in a measuring cup or small bowl. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the rest of the sugar, then gradually add the egg and vanilla mixture, beating while you do so. Then add the flour-cornmeal mixture alternately with the yogurt. They just need to be combined: don't overmix.

Finally, add the rhubarb together with its sugary, pink juices, folding in to mix, and then pour the speckled batter into the prepared pan. Put in the preheated oven and bake for about 1 hour or until springy to the touch. You may need to cover it with foil after about 40 minutes so that the top doesn't scorch. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for a while before unmolding.

Serves 8-10

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits - Tuesdays with Dorie

Last week I discovered a Group called Tuesdays with Dorie , and I am very excited about joining in the fun. They are baking their way through the Book "Baking from my home to yours " By Dorie Greenspan. Everyone bakes one recipe a week (the same thing) and then posts about it on Tuesday. I ordered Dorie's book the next day and as soon as it came I started baking. The first thing I made was the Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits which were chosen as this weeks recipe by Ashley of eat me, delicious .



I loved the flavor of the biscuits, I tried them first with some apricot jam and then with just a little butter and honey. I prefer the honey-butter and I have been eating them for Breakfast this way the past few days. I got 13 biscuits out of the batch using a 2 1/2 inch cutter. I think next time I will roll the dough out a little thicker and aim for 8-10 biscuits that hopefully will rise a bit higher. I will definitely make these again, would love to try them with some Ham & Yams, Yum.



So , Tuesdays with Dorie have been baking together since the first week in January , which means I have missed eight weeks/recipes. After reading every ones blogs on all of the Delicious things they have made I chose to do some "Make-up Work" and bake a few more of the recipes I had missed.

First I made the Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake from week 7 (Feb. 12) that was chosen by Jamie of Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats and then while it was in the refrigerator cooling I moved on to the Almost Fudge Gateau from week 8(Feb. 19) chosen by Nikki of Crazy Delicious .

Here is my finished Cheesecake ~~

I do not think I had ever tried Apple Cheesecake before, but after tasting this baby I know there will be more Apple Cheesecake in our future. My dh makes crockpot Apple butter every Autumn and I look forward to trying this again with the Apple butter variation.

Here is my finished Gateau ~~




WOW , this is so rich an decadent ,

I had some extra Pecans left over from my biscuits that I sprinkled on top and added some whipped cream.

Making the Cheesecake and the Gateau on the same day has put all of us around here on a sugar overload, but I just couldn't help myself :)

First Post

The world of blogging is something that I have wanted to try for sometime now but I was at a loss as to what I would talk about , how would I start ,who would want to read it, etc...
Well... After I discovered all of the wonderful Baking Blogs out there I knew THIS was my kind of blogging. I look forward to participating in all of the Current Challenges and I hope to try my hand past Challenges that most of you have participated in . All of your posts are so inspiring and I love to see all the different interpretations of the same recipe.

I can't wait to get started !