It’s finally rhubarb season! The ones in my garden still need a few weeks, but it’s popping up in the markets now and I’m itchy to use it. There are so many great recipes out there! I want to make a rhubarb bbq sauce, can it up for future desserts, turn it into ice cream, and bake piles of cakes.

For today, I chose a streusel cake with a twist. The recipe is inspired by this one, but I turned it wholegrain, adjusted the liquids a bit, and generally messed with things. Like I always do. I rarely make a recipe exactly by the instructions, not even my own.

You need a lot of rhubarb for this cake, nearly 2 pounds. It sounds like a lot, looks even more once it’s mixed with the batter, but it works out perfectly.

You need for a 26x40cm (10×15 inches) pan:

• 800g rhubarb
• 150g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 400g freshly milled khorasan / kamut (you can substitute whole wheat)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 200g advocaat (you can substitute milk)

Clean the rhubarb and chop it up. I used a mix of red and green.

Mix the rest of the ingredients into a stiff batter and once it’s done, add the rhubarb.

The mass looks and behaves more like cookie dough than a cake batter at this point, but once the rhubarb loses a bit of moisture during the baking process, things will fall into place.

Prep a cake pan and spread the mix evenly. You might want to use a wet rubber spatula for it.

Now, make the streusel:

• 220g cold butter
• 100g sugar
• 200g freshly milled khorasan (or just whole wheat)
• 100g ground almonds
• pinch of salt

Mix everything together until the dough starts to lump into small balls. A food processor works great for this step. You can also rub the mix between your hands until the lumps form.

Loosely cover the 1st layer of the cake with the streusel and bake your cake in a 175°C / 350F oven for about 40 minutes.

Let the cake cool for about an hour before you cut into it, that way everything can settle and it keeps the mess to a minimum.

(who am I to tell you that? I had the first small piece while it was still hot with a scoop of icecream melting all over it)

Enjoy, just don’t burn yourself!