SethG

Ori's review is the best thing I've read here in ages.

I never knew that glass tip, I'll try that next time!

So tonight we had a surprise guest, my wife Robin's sister Jodi.  She had to come into town for business and came over for dinner.  I was whipping up something to eat and then it occurred to me that I could bake something with the rhubarb I had sitting in the fridge.  I remembered that Saveur recently had this upside-down rhubarb cake made sort of like a tarte tatin; the rhubarb is caramelized with sugar on the stovetop and then the cake batter is spooned atop the chunks and baked.

So I threw it together while I finished dinner and I was sort of in the weeds, dumping in lemon juice and vanilla on the fly, eyeballing it as I caramelized the rhubarb.  Then I realized I didn't have any of the shortening called for in the recipe.  So I substituted extra butter, figuring it would improve the taste anyway.  But perhaps in part because of this substitution, the batter was too dry, and I started pouring in extra milk, just trying to estimate the right texture without making it too wet... 

I thought I might have a disaster on my hands, but it seemed to firm up well enough in the oven, and it unmolded well onto a plate.  It looked a little messy but passable.

But I was the only one who thought so.  "Is that what it's supposed to look like?" Robin asked.

I said it wasn't too far from the look of the dish in the magazine.  

"Really?"  Robin said.  "Let me see."  

So I brought out the professional photo, proudly.  Here it is:

It proved that my cake looked just about right.  But the photo did not generate the reaction I expected.

"I can't believe you saw that photo and wanted to make it," Robin said.

Her sister Jodi agreed.  "It looks like a leprosy pizza!" she said.

Leprosy pizza.  I thought that was hilarious.  I let it cool a while and then said "Who's ready for leprosy pizza?!"

It tasted pretty good.  They both ate it happily.  I would maybe make it again some time despite its look.

Recipe

We went to Franny's last weekend.  It was great as always.  The room was different but the experience was the same.  Very relieved.

It is natural quartzite.  White Macaubas.