Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake (NYT)

At a recent dinner party, Dr. S wanted to feature rhubarb (yup, we’re subscribed to the Thames River Melon market box again). It’s usually a sweet ingredient, but we made a wonderful chicken tagine with vanilla-scented poached rhubarb. For dessert, we used it in an upside down cake.

The version from last year was a real winner, but I wanted to try something different. This recipe is from Melissa Clark, and was just so-so.

The directions are very similar to many other classic upside-down cake recipes. Pour a butter-sugar mixture into the bottom of a pan, add the fruit, add a yellow cake batter. Bake, invert. I like how she asks you to massage the lemon zest into the sugar, to really extract all the oils.

Our guests enjoyed this cake, but it was definitely ordinary. I’d stick with Cook’s Illustrated’s 2021 recipe, as it had the streusel base, as well as the gorgeous jammy top.