Mysterious Life of Plants. Forcing Rhubarb.

I want to share with you my very first garden project I decided upon realising after I understood that we had a really big rhubarb patch in our garden - forcing rhubarb. Maybe I am the last here, but for me such entity was completely unfamiliar up to a few months ago. 

Luckily I occasionally binge-watch The Great British Bake Off and lately also The Great Australian Bake Off which have taught me in quite many ways already (yeasted dough, here I come!), but there was always a thing that bothered me - they NEVER peel their rhubarb! They make tarts and jams and pies and make nice patterns out of their stalks and they serve these dishes to the judges. And the rhubarb is never peeled And it never bothers the judges!!! 

Very suspicious, indeed!

So finally I went for it and did some googling and it appeared that they (it seems) always use "forced rhubarb" as their component. Fast forward some more googling and youtube videos and here it is: 

Forced rhubarb happens, when you cover a normal rhubarb plant - just putting its nose out of the ground - with a big lightproof vessel. And then you wait. Because the plant cannot see any sun it cannot photosynthesize, therefore all the energy usually put into growing great big green leaves is seft for growing the stalks so you will get your rhubarb a lot quicker than normally, won't have to peel it because the skin is really soft and fragile and will be able to enjoy a really pretty vibrant pink colour in your dish. Story goes that it was "invented" during some road works when a plant was accidentally covered with dirt for a while and after clearing it up the workers found pink stalks and yellow leaves.

You should not do this with one plant for two years in a row though as the plant gets stressed and stressing out your plants is not nice! 

So we covered a part of our plant with this huge metal pot on the 27th of March. (Actually after a few days we exchanged the pot for a black plastic bucket with two bricks on top because the metal seemed a bit too harsh for colder weather, but somehow I don't have any pictures of that.) Youtube also suggests a really huge terracotta pot, but these are expensive so I'd recommend using what you have at hand.

In about a week or two we started peeking under the bucket and this is how it went:

And a month later, on the 29th of April this was our first harvest of rhubarb that very quickly found its way on an upside down cake because this is what you make to show off such beautiful colours! I'll also add the recipe below because it turned out really delicious and can definitely be also made with normal everyday rhubarb, it just needs to be peeled.

Oh, and we gave some to mr. N who then ate almost one whole stalk on his own which seems impossible, but he seemed to really enjoy it. Maybe it was the crunch factor, but I assure you - they are every bit as sour as any old rhubarb! 

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

(modified from this post)

Here are ingredients for a 25cm spring form cake. I only have a 16cm one at the moment so I halved everything and it was good. Since most people have the regular pan I keep measurements the old way.

Unsalted butter, for the pan

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C


1/4 cup/50g granulated sugar5 stalks rhubarb, trimmed

4 eggs, room temperature2/3 cup/130g granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup/110g unsalted butter, at soft room temperature
2 Tbsp olive oil 
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp coconut flour
1/4 cup/60ml water

Finely grated zest of 1 orange
3 Tbsp/45ml fresh orange juice 
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt3 cups/360g almond flour
1/4 cup/36g white flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C. 
Lightly cover the bottom and sides of your cake pan with parchment paper and spread with butter.

Evenly spread 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar over the bottom of the pan. Cut 5 stalks and fill the pan in a desired pattern. Fit the rhubarb tightly into the bottom of the pan.

Combine the eggs, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Using electric beaters or a stand mixer beat on high speed until the mixture lightens in colour and triples in volume, 2 to 3 minutes. Continue to beat at a medium speed for 1 more minute, until the air bubbles appear more uniform in size and the mixture forms satiny ribbons. 

In another bowl stir together the butter and olive oil. (The butter must be very soft for this to work properly). Add vanilla extract. 

In a small bowl, combine the coconut flour and water and then add to the butter and oil. 

Add the orange zest and juice, vanilla, and salt to the butter mixture. 

Stir together the almond flour, white flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the beaten egg mixture. 

Fold about one-quarter of the butter mixture into the egg mixture and then continue with the remaining three-quarters. Spread the batter evenly over the rhubarb and bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 45-60 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate.