Buttermilk Rhubarb Breakfast Cake

This is a easy and versatile cake to keep in your back pocket. It takes maybe 20 min to assemble and mix up, about 40ish minutes to bake, and can be made with most fruits fresh or frozen. And you can eat it for breakfast!

My friend Aileen has been singing the praises of this cake for a while now and when I finally looked at the recipe I realized 1. It was easy and 2. I had all the ingredients!

rhubarb, fresh from our garden!

The recipe Aileen uses, from The View at Great Island, calls for half and half and lemon juice, but the original recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen uses buttermilk. Aileen is dairy free so I know there's a way to do this without milk.

The original recipe uses blueberries, the Great Island recipe uses rhubarb in the same quantity (2 cups). You really could use whatever fruit you have on the counter, or in your freezer, for this cake. Alexandra's Kitchen mentions making a cranberry orange version of this during the winter.

After the batter is spread in the pan, sprinkle 1 tbsp sugar on top

The cake has yummy crisp edges and a moist soft interior. The batter is quite thick and you really need to spread it out into all the edges of your cake pan. You could use an 8x8 or 9x9 square or round, and probably even a deep dish pie plate (maybe). I used a glass 8x8, greased, no parchment. If I wanted to pull this cake out of the pan to serve I would have lined the pan with parchment, but something so easy to make and touted as a breakfast food should be served warm, right out of the pan.

Alexandra's Kitchen says you can make the batter the night before, keep it in the refrigerator overnight, and bake the next morning. No excuse not to have cake for breakfast. Or brunch. Or snack!

Recipe modifications for Alexandra's Kitchen Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake:

1. I measured by volume since only a few ingredients were given weight measurements and one of them was incorrect. For the flour, I stirred, scooped, and leveled. I also chose bleached all purpose since I thought it would hold the moisture of the fruit better than bleached all purpose.

2. I didn't have a lemon to zest so I used lemon oil.

3. The instructions have you remove 1/4 cup of flour to dredge the fruit, leaving any excess flour behind when adding the fruit to the batter. I decided to cut the flour by 1/4 cup and not dredge the fruit. I don't think it really helps keep the fruit from sinking and I hate extra steps.

Look at that crispy crust and that moist interior! Everyone needs to make this with whatever you have right now.