Rhubarb Upside Down Cake(s)

A cake that I love!  I must admit that I am whole-heartedly not a cake lover (much to my father's chagrin).  I don't like it so much that I had brownies at my wedding instead of cake (my father ordered a cake in addition to the brownies).   Now to be fair, I think this dislike stems from the many bad cakes that I have had: crumbly, dry, no flavor, sugary frosting.  This rhubarb upside down cake was the opposite of all those bad cakes: moist, tender, tart sweetness.

The upside down part is prepared with brown sugar and butter melted with the addition of some bourbon, nut pieces and rhubarb slices.  Since I don't have baby cakes, as per the recipe from Baking with Julia, I decided to use my 8" cast iron pan and put the leftovers in muffin tins.  Using the cast iron pan made this part easy, as I just was able to do it all in the pan and leave most if it in there.

As for the batter, it is a basic butter cake batter.  After creaming the butter and sugar, eventually adding the eggs, I added the dried and wet ingredients in alternating rounds.  The main wet ingredient in this one which created that tender crumb was sour cream (or creme fraiche or plain yogurt).

Then it was just a matter of plopping the batter on top of the rhubarb sugar mixture and baking it.  Flipping the cake was nerve wracking as I completely flopped the Boca Negra at this step.  But these all came out easily and in one piece.

This recipe truly highlighted the spring rhubarb and the tartness of the rhubarb allowed us to eat more before getting over-sugared (for better or for worse).  My dad and I both loved this cake.  Maybe this should have been my wedding cake.

This post is part of the Baking with Julia/ Tuesdays with Dorie baking group.  See Erin's blog for the full recipe.

And here is Rhiannon...