Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

I have one of these really REALLY old recipe boxes made of hard plastic jammed with hand written recipes, many of which are in what one might think is a foreign language. Some have shorthand scratchings while others are written diagonally with things like 2 cups flour written 2 c f and 1 tsp cinnamon would be 1 t cin. I'm sure most cooks or bakers would figure it out but since the whole idea of our blog is to create a living cookbook - something that can be a heritage thing to pass down for generations to come, it's a good thing that I'm pulling out the old recipes and making them accessible. Here's one of them that in original form would probably need an experienced ancient scribe to figure it out.

Just looking at that recipe brought a smile to my face because I could actually remember the day I wrote it. In the day, my mother's contemporaries would get together on Saturday night for what they called "The Poker Game". As kids, (all four of us), we would hate it when my parents were the hosts. All their friends would sit around this round poker table that my dad crafted, speak very loudly and smoked like crazy. I guess it was just cool in those days to have a cigarette hanging out of your mouth. My mother would prepare a literal feast for when they took a break for what they called "snacks and coffee". One of these snacks was the famous Strawberry Rhubarb cake. So, when I saw this recipe it brought back memories of "check to the aces" and how hard my mother worked to please.



So tell me this isn't perfect for a walk down memory lane!! This event was a great trigger for me to submit this cake to Chef Jeena's Kitchen event. The idea is to cook a recipe that reminds you of a person or event from the past and state why.

And...psst...if you've never visited Chef Jeena's blog and you like pictures - you'll find a plentiful supply of pic by pic tutorials for the recipes on her blog. She just makes it all look so easy.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

Ingredients

4 cups diced fresh rhubarb
3 oz. package strawberry jello (I use the sugar free)
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar (I use 1 cup)
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream (yogurt would work too)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Directions

1. Cut rhubarb into small dice and mix with jello powder, set aside.

2. Make a batter of the next 8 ingredients.

3. Spread 1/2 of the batter into a greased 13 x 9 pan

4. Spead rhubarb over the batter.

5. Combine the last 4 ingredients to make a streusel mix

6. Sprinkle half of the streusel mix over the rhubarb.

7. Spread remaining half of the batter over rhubarb and sprinkle remaining streusel mix on top of it all.

8. Bake 350 F oven for 60 minutes or until done.