This sweet, nutty Rhubarb Pumpkin Seed Cake is deliciously moist and full of rhubarb chunks. It’s the perfect cake to bake with rhubarb this season!

Welcome to my Cooking with Friends series! This spring, as I work on cookbook projects that keep me very busy, I’ve invited some of my favorite blogger friends to share recipes with you. I hope you’ll have just as much fun cooking and baking with them as I do.

Today, I’m welcoming  Janice from The Bake School. Janice is one of the most meticulous and passionate bakers I know. With her background in chemistry (she has a PhD!), you better believe her cake recipes are perfection! Today, she is sharing her colorful Rhubarb Pumpkin Seed Cake. Enjoy!

---

I want people to bake more with rhubarb, but I think a lot of people aren’t sure what exactly to do with it. Rhubarb has such a sour, astringent flavour profile that can be quite the challenge to play with in the kitchen. The thing is: rhubarb makes such a wonderful, tart addition to so many classic recipes that we bake. You can chop it and add it to a biscuit dough or to muffins. You can use it to make a batch of jam. Of course, you can bake it into a pie, but most of the time, I’m lazy, so crumbles are the way to go. Plus, there’s nothing more satisfying than pulling a hot, bubbly pan of fruit crumble out of the oven. It’s downright irresistible and tastes fantastic with ice cream. I bet it would taste great with Marie’s salted butter caramel ice cream! That being said, if you would like to bake me a rhubarb pie, I would be happy to eat it! Just sayin’.

The funniest characteristic of rhubarb is its shape: long stalks much like celery, very different from the rest of the spring-summer offerings. So many bloggers have gotten really creative, cutting and arranging rhubarb in crazy elaborate patterns in tarts mostly. Inspired by them, I created this basket weave pattern with my rhubarb in this rhubarb pumpkin seed cake.

I guarantee you this pattern isn’t nearly as difficult as some of the others you will find on the internet. This cake is loaded with rhubarb, and has a sweet nutty flavour from pumpkin seeds, which reminds a lot of financiers, but bigger. I suspect the recipe would taste great (if not better) baked in greased muffin tins if you prefer. Try it and let me know how you like it!

Get the recipe for my Rhubarb Pumpkin Seed Cake, check out my recent Rhubarb Recipe Roundup, or explore more of my favorite rhubarb treats from the blog:

Multigrain Waffles with Tea-Roasted Rhubarb

Little Rhubarb Biscuits

Rhubarb & Juniper Berry Jam

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumbles Sweetened with Honey

Dark Chocolate & Roasted Rhubarb Tart

---

Janice is a PhD-chemist-turned-baker, which is why she loves to use science to understand and solve problems in the kitchen. She’s currently working as a recipe developer and food photographer in Montréal, Québec. Visit Janice’s blog, Kitchen Heals Soul, for more recipes, a little baking science, and some inspiration. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

All photos in this article: © Janice Lawandi.