One of the things I am most excited about for the upcoming warmer months is going to the weekend farmer's market. I get so inspired seeing all of the brightly colored fruits and vegetables, and that is lately where I have been getting ideas for blog posts. I often will buy a gorgeous vegetable or fruit, and then come home and try to figure our what to do with it.
This rhubarb cake was kind of a product of that, except I have been pretty much obsessed with rhubarb and also because I still don't understand completely what it is. Is it a fruit or is it a vegetable? Is it like celery's bright pink and red cousin, or is it closer to red chard? Or is it a fruit? Anyway, I have recently found out when it is baked in the oven in a cake or a pie it tastes rather good.
Last night Katherine and I went to the Samsung and the feedfeed food photography event in Chelsea. There was a panel and short presentation by the feedfeed founders, as well as some other food bloggers/photographers including Hint of Vanilla, Half-Baked Harvest, and A Brown Table! Overall it was very inspiring and it's always cool to meet online people in real life. There were also free donuts at the end!!
In addition to this bloggity-blog event yesterday, I also got to meet, in the flesh, in actual real life, Erica from Nommable!!!! She is so incredibly sweet and funny and as cool (if not cooler) than her blog voice suggests! We had so much fun together. She and her bf Andrew met me at Jack's Wife Freda for lunch and we totally geeked out together over food and instagram and the annoying and great things about our blogs and what our favorite spices were (hers is cardamom! hehe). Then we went to Molly's Cupcakes and sat on the chair swings and ate some more. I was very tempted to skip work the rest of the day and hang out with them, especially since they were headed to Central Park afterwards.
But I obviously didn't, and now really want to visit Indianapolis to hang out with those cool cats again. Maybe someday!
I am SO ready for this three-day weekend coming up. And it's my younger sister's 15th birthday tomorrow (Hi sissy!), so I will have to send her a virtual cake along with an actual gift. What are the teens into these days, hmm? All I know is that they like to snapchat and they like iPhones. Is there a gift that combines these things? I may just have to give money or a gift card, because I think kids are also into money these days. I mean, it makes sense!
Hope you all have a lovely long weekend!
Rhubarb Olive Oil Cake (makes one 9x9 square cake)
Ingredients:
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 cup good olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 3-4 stalks of rhubarb, diced in half lengthwise and diced in half crosswise to fit in pan
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- pinch of salt
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously spray a 9-inch pan with olive oil spray and flour, making sure to tap out excess.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until they are light yellow and well blended. Whisk in the milk, olive oil, and vanilla.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and continue to whisk together until just blended.
Arrange sliced rhubarb into bottom of pan, and pour batter on top. Rhubarb should rise to the middle/top. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool completely, before flipping out onto a cooling rack and slicing into squares! Dust with powdered sugar for more decoration (optional).
