Speaking of rhubarb, I think we people broadly fall into two groups. The ones who love rhubarb and the ones who are unfamiliar with rhubarb. I belonged to the second category until a couple of years ago but now I am very much in the first one. I love Rhubarb! I am always drawn to it’s beautiful colour…specifically the pink stains it leaves on baked goods and of course it’s juicy, tart flavor. When balanced out with right amount of sweetness in a recipe, it can do wonders to the dish. Fortunately, I have had success every time I’ve cooked/baked with it so I was able to dream up a three layered rhubarb cake.
The rhubarb cake by itself is not too sweet so it makes a great pairing with buttercream. The rosemary snugly fits into the recipe lending a subtle earthy touch which is quite refreshing. When I went to my favourite fruit market looking for inspiration, I was torn between rhubarb and pomegranate. I wanted to bake cakes with both. Fresh produce markets always seem to have that effect on me. Then instead I combined the two. If you like both Rhubarb and Pomegranate, this cake is recommended. If you are a fan of one of them, then this is a must-try because you never know, you may fall in love with the other one as well. It might seem like an unusual combination but trust me, they pair well here. Colour, texture and taste!
The rhubarb cake is dense (but not heavy) like a typical sour cream cake. You will surely taste the rhubarb and the rosemary but the pomegranate flavour is not too strong. The fresh pomegranate on top does give the cake a nice crunchy bite whilst making it look like a pomegranate cake. Frost the cake the way you like. The frosting is again a Swiss meringue buttercream which is what I generally use for my cakes…light, fluffy and not overly sweet.
I’ve had a really busy week and have barely been able to keep up to my posting frequency. I hope this cake makes up for my absence:-)
So tell me dear friends, do you fall into one of those groups? Do you think there could be a third group..not liking rhubarb?
Rhubarb Cake With Pomegranate And Rosemary Buttercream
Serves 10-12
Three-Layered Rhubarb Cake
90 g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
11/2 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
450 g 400 g
Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Lightly grease 3, 19 cm round pans and line the bases with baking paper.
Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in sifted dry ingredients and cream in two batches. Fold in rhubarb. Divide mixture among prepared pans.
Bake for about 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cakes come out clean. Remove cakes from pans after 10 minutes and cool on wire rack.
Pomegranate And Rosemary Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1/4 cup fresh pomegranate juice (made by running the seeds through a food processor and straining)
1 sprig rosemary
4 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
300 g unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2 drops, pink food coloring (optional)
Over medium heat in a saucepan, simmer the pomegranate juice along with the sprig of rosemary until it is thick and reduced to approx 2 tablespoons. Remove the rosemary sprig and keep the juice aside to cool down completely.
Place the egg whites and sugar in a large bowl that is placed over a saucepan of simmering water (over low heat), and whisk continuously, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the bottom of the bowl is warm to touch
Remove the bowl from the heat and whip on high speed until meringue holds stiff peaks and looks glossy. The bowl should have completely cooled by now.
Add the butter, 2 tablespoon at a time, until thick and fluffy. If it begins to look curdled, continue to whip until it comes back together, before adding in remaining butter.
When the buttercream has come together, add the reduced pomegranate-rosemary juice and mix in till smooth and well blended. Add the pink food coloring (if using) and mix till you get the desired shade.
To assemble : Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or plate. With a large round nozzle, pipe buttercream kisses all over the cake. Place the second layer and repeat. Repeat with the third layer leaving room in the centre to place fresh pomegranate seeds. Decorate with fresh sprigs of rosemary.
What a beautiful cake! I absolutely love your blog 🙂
Aww..thank you so much Erin:-)
The rosemary in this is such a fabulous addition! Definitely need to try this flavour combo!
Thanks Katrina! The rosemary butter cream turned out better than my expectations. i hope you try it:-)
I thought it was so interesting that of the 2 groups of people you listed, one was those who are unfamiliar (that would be me!) and it wasn’t ‘those who don’t like’. Very telling! : ) I have just never gotten on the rhubarb bandwagon though I know there must be something to it given the amount of coverage it gets during its season. I totally trust you…and I hope that maybe I’ll be in that first group of rhubarb people one day. And this cake is another showstopper. Keep working your pastry magic in the kitchen!
I sincerely believe Rhubarb is one of those things one wouldn’t dislike. It SOOO GOOD! I hope you try it sometime. Thanks lovely:-)
You my dear are the queen of flavorful cakes. Such an intriguing cake for sure. I know rhubarb but haven’t worked with it a lot, I wonder why?..
I thought you would’ve used the puree, but I see the chunks, even better. The recipe sounds simple too. Great looking cake, impressive photography. As usual well done.
xoxo
Rhubarb is actually pretty easy to incorporate into a recipe though it seems like the opposite. I hope you will like it too. Thanks so much my dear:-)
I am in the first group: always love rhubard with a small bowl of sugar to eat raw. And it is wonderful to bake with. Just a gorgeous cake and really like the touch of rosemary … and butter cream and pomegranate 🙂
Wow Evelyne! Never thought of that. I must try this raw version with sugar. I love it enough to try that. Thanks for the wonderful idea my dear:-)
I really would love to see pictures of your house. Your cakes are so gorgeous, I can only imagine that your house must be over the top!
Ha ha Abbe! My house is far from being gorgeous. My kitchen is more of a test kitchen and part of my living room has been turned into a studio. Thank you so much for the sweet words:-)
That looks awesome! I love rhubarb, personally, especially in desserts like this. The contrast of the dense cake and fluffy frosting sounds like heaven to me 🙂
Totally June. The contrasting texture is what I am always after. Thanks my dear:-)
I am definitely one of the people who just love rhubarb! Your cake is stunning! So beautifully decorated and it sounds delicious, too. Yum! Happy Thursday.
Thank you so much Genevieve! I hope you are having a great weekend:-)
This cake, like all of your others, is so beautiful. I love the rhubarb and rosemary combination. My parents always had rhubarb in their garden when I was growing-up. I remember my father made a wonderful strawberry-rhubarb pie, but I can’t possible tell you what else they used rhubarb for. Could it have been grown just for his pie? Anyway, I wish I could reach through the screen and have a piece of your cake. I’ll just have to make it! 😉 -Kim
That sounds absolutely wonderful Kim. Rhubarb from your own garden..wow! And rhubarb I think is the lovliest in pie. Your father sounds like an amazing baker. Thank you so much, my friend:-)
You make such beautiful cakes and pictures! Well done, it sounds delicious and unique in terms of flavors.
Aww…thank you Oana! I so love your cakes and pictures as well:-)
OMG Sonali, this cake is so pretty…I like the hint of rosemary in the buttercream…nice combination of rhubarb and pomegranate…
Thanks for sharing another awesome recipe…hope you are having a fantastic week 🙂
The rosemary was certainly a pleasant surprise for me, the way it tasted. Thanks lovely:-)
awesome cake,lovely pink butter cream and beautiful food clicks as always,thanks 🙂
Thank you so much Kumar:-)
I think you already know which group I’m in, I can’t wait till spring rolls around and the first frw stalks of rhubarb appear. I grew up eating rhubarb so I’ve loved it since childhood. But there are people who just don’t like the taste..it can be a bit acrid and maybe that’s what they don’t like. Not me, I’m a fan of pomegranate, Rosemary and rhubarb. This cake is beautiful!!
I do know your love for all 3 Nazneen…great minds think alike (lol). Thanks lovely:-)
Is the rhubarb cooked or do you put it in raw?
Thank you
Hello! The Rhubarb is raw. Hope this helps:-)
Brilliant thank you! I’m going to try it for mothers Sunday this Sunday (UK)
Many thanks Jaime
Not sure how I missed this. I hope you tried it and liked the flavors. Thanks so much. Do let me know how it turned out:-)
Hi Sonali,
Looks fantastic and the combo of Rhubarb, pomegrante & rosemary sounds delicious! Just one thing that turns me off is the enormous amount of sugar you are using. I know Rhurbarb is quite tart – thats the great thing about it – but 2 1/4 plus 1 more cup seems an awful lot of sugar for my taste.
If you add like a teaspoon of Vanilla extract to the batter as well as the buttercream I´m sure you can use quite a bit less sugar. – Usually that´s what I´ll do when coming up a recipe with too much sugar. At least thats my goal to use as little sugar as possible w/out compromising the taste and the balance of the ingredients.
Looks Great anyway!
What a gorgeous cake! Love all the layers! It sounds delicious too!
Hello,
I would like to ask what size of bake form do you use for your layer cakes?
Thank you 🙂
What is the unit of measure for the sour cream? Grams? Milliletres? Also, approximately how many cups of rhubarb is 400 grams?
Do you think I could use rhubarb to flavour the buttercream? Stewed, or as a syrup, perhaps?
I made this cake today & it went down very well with my family. Thank you. I must admit it didn’t look at neat as yours but tasted lovely!
Wow! So happy to read this:-) Thank you so much for making it!
Hi Sonali, I have just discovered your amazing looking cake and can’t wait to try the recipe as I love all these flavors and they sound so yummy together.
I have a question, could I use pomegranate molasses instead of fresh pomegranate in the buttercream? I don’t think I will find fresh ones at the moment.
Cheers, Duquette
Duquettemorrissey@outlook.com
Hi Duquette, lovely to hear from you! So glad you want to try the cake. Thank you so much! If you don’t have fresh pomegranates near you, you could try a good quality store- bought pomegranate juice. You could definitely try Pomegranate molasses though it will have a slightly different taste. There is no right and wrong in baking as long as the final product is delicious. Just make sure the tartness of the molasses balances out with right amount of sweetness in the buttercream (you may need to increase the sugar). Totally up to your taste! Happy baking:-)
Rhubarb was not in season at my local grocer, so I substituted with fresh cranberries, My crowd seemed to enjoy, but I felt it was a little too tart for my taste. I will try again with rhubarb in the late spring. One thing I did notice about the base cake recipe was how dense the batter was. Perhaps I did something wrong, but it was nearly the consistency of cookie dough and I had to spread it in to my pans. I didn’t mind the consistency of the final cake as it retained it’s moisture, but a few people asked me if it “was supposed to be that dense?”. The buttercream was great, but I wished for more pomegranate. The subtitle rosemary flavor was a fantastic addition. Overall a lovely cake with a high impact decoration that’s a cinch to pull off.