Recipe: Big Pink Rhubarb Cake

Here’s a recipe not for the faint of heart. It’s an over-the-top, 1950s-era recipe that I dug out of my grandmother’s collection. This confection combines yellow cake, rhubarb, strawberry jello, and marshmallows. If you aren’t afraid of that last sentence, then pull up a chair and join me for a slice of “big pink.”

Much of mid-century American cooking was about convenience and mechanization. Reading through cookbooks and recipe pamphlets from this time, I’m always struck by the amount of semi-homemade mixes, processed foods, canned goods, and such are listed as ingredients. In our current culinary era, where freshness and whole foods dominate the food literature landscape, you’d be hard-pressed to find pudding mix incorporated into any “farm-to-table” experience.

But there’s certainly a time and place for all types of food, be it from a backyard garden or a cardboard box. This is an instance where we utilize both schools of thought.

This rhubarb cake is a show-stopper. Its electric pink sweet-sour rhubarb and strawberry Jello layer sets off the richness of the yellow cake beautifully. There’s a certain yin and yang about the whole thing, and the marshmallows add a toothsome chew. If you are a texture person, you’re going to want to get at a corner of this cake. It’s flavor country over there with the chew of the cakey layer and the crunch of the candy-like strawberry layer. Each slice can be tempered with a little crème fraîche or ice cream, but it’s hardly necessary.