Rhubarb Upside Down Brown Sugar Cake—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi (Gluten Free, too!)

Look at this cake—it’s gluten free.  For Tuesdays With Dorie this week we chose the Rhubarb Upside Down Brown Sugar Cake.  I didn’t think it would be very fun to make a cake that I couldn’t taste.  So I decided to halve the recipe and make two cakes in six inch pans.  One is gluten free and made with organic sugars and the other is done as the recipe is written by Dorie.  Win—win. 

Even to make mine gluten free, I didn’t change the recipe except I used a gluten free pastry flour blend instead of all purpose flour.  And I used organic cane sugars and two whole eggs instead of 1  1/2 for the half recipe.  My gluten free cake is just a little dry, but maybe it just needed taken out of the oven a couple minutes before the other.  I baked both six inch cakes for 21 minutes when a toothpick inserted in the center came out clean.  I was happy with how I did do the butter and sugar and caramelizing of the rhubarb in the little baking pans on the stove rather than in a saucepan and pouring it into the baking pans.  I measured everything in two separate batches and had both going at the same time.  I don’t get to do that kind of thing as much as I used to and it was fun and I’m glad it worked out to be able to do it on Sunday.  I used some smaller cut rhubarb I got last year and put in the freezer.  Perfect.  I just thawed it first, then had it sit in the sugar syrup.

The big test—would the cakes come out of the pans without any trouble or sticking?  I was happy to see that they did!  Just as Dorie said, turned upside down and letting them sit for a minute to let gravity (and a little steam) take its course, out they came!

I really didn’t think the boys would eat the cake, which is mostly why I decided to do two smaller ones, which included a gluten free one for myself.  Within a very short time, so short that I didn’t get any more pictures of the gluten cake, this is what I saw and was left with photographing on the plate--

And even before I knew it, Scott came and scooped up that last piece as well.  Actually, I think it’s safe to say he ate at least half the cake.  I know, it was only a six inch cake, but still.  I guess he really liked it, especially with a little whipped cream on top. 

Because I thought my gluten free cake was just a little dry, I doused it with a spoonful of the leftover rhubarb sugar water (from my organic cane sugar).  This would definitely be good with a little whipped cream on the side, but I only had the Reddi-Whip kind, which I don’t eat. 

Scott will most likely be happy to polish off my gluten free cake as soon as I give the okay.  I don’t want to say I ate a whole cake by myself, you know. ; )

If you have learned anything from me and my blog over the last seven plus years, it should be that you should have all of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbooks if you are looking for some delicious recipes and food.  Definitely including Baking Chez Moi.  I am loving baking through this one with the rest of the Tuesdays With Dorie group, a little gluten can’t stop me.  Check out the others’ Rhubarb Upside Down Brown Sugar Cake.  

On a different note, today is World MS Day (Multiple Sclerosis).  Check out the link.  Become aware, millions worldwide suffer with this MonSter, including me.  sigh  Someday, someday we have hope for a cure.  Until then, wear orange, color your world orange, (today especially) in honor of someone you might know who has MS.  (I didn’t put my gluten free version of this cake on an orange plate by accident.)