Hi Hello Happy Mother’s Day Weekend here’s some boy bait for ur mom in case she wants a man.
Or a woman, if she’s on our lgbtq train, we can call it girl bait too because girl, you’d like this too. Which makes sense that we’re making it for mom!
I’m not able to be with my mom or my sister this mother’s day because they’re so far north but I did send my mom a bouquet of flowers at work. I know this will a) make her v happy and b) brag about her children to everyone at work even more. My mom is one of the most humble people I’ve ever met but trust and believe she’d brag about me getting 30% off a couch if she thought it was a big deal.
This is why she got the dedication in my book. When I was visiting and testing recipes a trip to the grocery store would take twice as long because she introduced me as her son that was writing a cookbook to every person she knew because she was my Mendocino county PR team. Of course the addition of her being the best, most supportive mom was the icing on the dedication cake gig.
I’m in love with the idea of boy bait because it’s a simple not too sweet option for breakfast, brunch, or dessert, and it takes all of about 10 minutes to throw together and toss in the oven. The usual, original flavor of the boy bait is blueberries, which I’m sure would be equally as delicious, but I went with my favorite spring combo: rhubarb and lime.
These are actually very similar to my pie bars that I’ve made countless times but the base here is more cake/breakfast friendly instead of the shortbread situation so you can serve it whenever wherever Shakira wants to eat this on Mother’s Day or really any day you’ve got fruit to use up and eating it by the handfuls isn’t in the cards.
Rhubarb Lime Boy/Girl Bait
Adapted from this probably v old recipe
Serves 8-10
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest and juice of 1 lime
10 tablespoons butter, softened and cubed up
1-ish cup of buttermilk
2 eggs
2 cups diced rhubarb, about 1/2 a pound
Preheat your oven to 350ºF and grease and line a 9×13″ cake pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt then add the lime zest and toss it all together. Add the butter then use your hands to sort of fully incorporate it into the mixture. We don’t really want there to be pea sized chunks or flakes of butter, we’re looking for sand.
After it’s all incorporated remove 3/4 cup of the mixture and set aside for the topping. Now in a two cup measuring cup squeeze out the lime into the measuring cup then add enough buttermilk to reach the 1 cup measurement (this is the 1-ish cup situation). Add the two eggs and beat with a fork until everything’s combined. Add this to the dry ingredients and fold it all just until it comes together.
Spread the batter out into the prepared pan then evenly scatter the rhubarb over the top and follow that with the reserved topping, squeezing it in your hand then sort of breaking it up gently before sprinkling so you get some chunks.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, until it’s golden brown around the edges and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for about 30 minutes in the pan then use the parchment to lift the cake out and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.
