Rhubarb Cake Bars

Rhubarb Cake Bars

A day or two ago, I saw a recipe on Facebook for   Blueberry cake bars on the World of Taste Page and I thought it  looked awesome..  but...  Im not supposed to eat wheat.. not celiac but highly sensitive .. I thought it looked like something M'honey would love... except he's not really wild about blueberries like I am. . <G>  I did however have some rhubarb from my CSA (Geauga Family Farms) share but I'd already made a rhubarb pie  recently

so I thought I'd see how it would work swapping out rhubarb for the blueberries.

    And thats what I did...  First. I gathered up my players ..  

I then chopped my rhubarb into rough 3/8" slices (discarding end pieces)

and placed them in a heavy sauce pan with a teaspoon of butter and 2-3 Tbsp of sugar.

I turned the heat on low and gave it 3 or 4 slight stirs, just enough to get the juices simmering, about 4 or 5 minutes.

My intent was to soften the rhubarb, but still retain some individual pieces to bite into. 

             So far so good..  Then I proceeded to follow the recipe exactly...  Ok..not exactly..     I didnt measure the rhubarb but it was pretty close to the 13/4 cup measure of blueberries the original called for.. and I used chopped walnuts instead of pecans since thats what M'honey prefers. 

THEN I followed the recipe exactly... 

 I greased & floured my cake pan and poured in my gorgeous batter... 

 I swirled some of the rhubarb around where it was still hanging out in clumps.  I didnt go overboard with that, just gave it a good swish or two.. 

My oven is running a little bit hot for some reason so I took it out about 10 minutes early and it was PERFECT!!  Oh man oh man was it good..  (reminder to self.. oven is running hot!)

I cant wait for it to cool to taste it..  so I didnt ..wait..  

Oh man did it taste heavenly... so good I forgot all about the confectioners sugar

 that is supposed to go on top of it..

I remedied that & took M'honey a this nice large slice to sample..

His opinion?  Pretty Darn Good!!  And that's saying something coming from him.  ;) 

He also said its a Keeper!!  YAY! 

I agree completely... its more than pretty darn good.. its AWESOME!!  

And I plan on using this recipe for a long long time to come..  

I can just taste White Peach Cake Bars..

 Wild Texas Persimmon Cake Bars..  

Candied Pear Cake Bars...

Blueberry Cake Bars..

Mmmmmmm!!

Oh wait.. Im not supposed to eat wheat! 

Looking around for a really great gluten free baking blend!  ;)

Here is the recipe in its original form...

World of Taste

Blueberry Cake Bars

3/4 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 3/4 cups washed and stemmed fresh blueberries
2/3 cup chopped pecans
Confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar for 5 minutes. Add eggs and beat another 2 minutes. Mix in flour and almond extract. Fold in blueberries and pecans until well combined.

Coat a 13 x 9-inch pan with cooking spray (and dust with flour, if desired). Spread batter evenly in pan and bake 45-50 minutes or until toothpick tests clean (except for blueberry juice). Cool on a wire rack. When cool, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Cut into bars of desired size.