Spiced Rhubarb Rum Poke Cake

Mom harvested more Rhubarb last night. I went to bed pondering Rhubarb possibilities. 

​I thought about one of my favorite desserts sticky toffee pudding and thought to myself... what about Rhubarb and Rum... a pinterest search revealed many delicious sounding cocktails but not much in the way of recipes. Well I am sometimes a clever girl (only sometimes)... so I thought I can do this...  So I've made a Spiced Rhubarb Rum Poke Cake. 

It's a lovely spiced cake with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, vanilla and Falernum rum with the Rhubarb speckled throughout and a nice buttered rum caramel drizzled over the top. 

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​Coming up with interesting ways to utilize our Rhubarb is going to be fun. Cooking is therapeutic and I am enjoying having a nice large kitchen to play in again. I try not to make too big of a mess to make my mom crazy.

Ingredients
For the Cake:

• 4 Cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Cups granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cardomom
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons rum
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick of butter melted
• 3 cups roughly chopped rhubarb 

For the Sauce

• 1/2 a stick of butter 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 oz rum

Preheat your oven to 350 F.
In a large mixing bowl mix all your dry ingredients
Melt your butter
Mix into your dry ingredients the milk, butter, eggs, vanilla and rum
Mix until well incorporated and all the dry ingredients are dissolved
Fold in your rhubarb until its spread throughout nicely.
Grease a 9x13 baking pan (I used cooking spray)
Pour your batter in the pan and make sure the Rhubarb is spread evenly. 
Bake for approximately 45 minutes  
Do the toothpick test it should come out clean (ish)... when you hit a rhubarb there will be residue.. test a few places. 

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Make your sauce:
In a sauce pan melt your butter, add the sugars till they are dissolved. Add the rum and simmer on medium high until the sauce becomes just slightly thick... (should coat a spoon a bit) 

​Should still be a sauce not a caramel.

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Once the sauce is a nice consistency, poke your cake full of holes... you want the sauce to soak in.
Drizzle the sauce over the cake. 

Let it set up a bit. 

Enjoy while still warm (It's good cool too). After tasting I will say that next time I will add both more rhubarb and more spice (and rum). these are all subtle in the cake and if you like mild flavors it is just perfect. 

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