This pretty pink cake is swirled with roasted rhubarb raspberry puree and has a hidden layer of crumble inside.

Spring is… A promise of warmer weather. The end of exams. When our best friends come home. Time to tour all the colourful blooms. Rhubarb season.

All of these things and more in today’s post!

We’ve been eagerly waiting for May so we could escape the inconsistent weather in Vancouver (it’s literally pouring one day and hot and sunny the next). Our friends came home from the east coast and we are overjoyed to be reunited after another four months apart. Despite four months being a considerable amount of time, we have to thank social media for keeping us connected. By seeing each others’ faces in a Snapchat once or twice a day, we don’t feel as disconnected from each other. We even know what each person is eating on a day-to-day basis. So when we reconvene over Christmas or in the summer, we can pick up right where we left off, ready to have more fun times, like nothing has changed.

At the time this post goes live, we’ll likely be lounging on a tropical beach in weather that is not very spring-like (Don’t be too jealous). But backtrack a few days, we were frolicking in a massive tulip field as the sun shone it’s face on our side of town. Since the sun came out to play, we drove out to the countryside to visit this ‘limited edition’ spring attraction. Armed with several cameras, we were well prepared for mini photo shoots but did not expect the fields to be as muddy as they were. Pro tip: wear rain boots even if it isn’t raining that day. The rows and rows and rows of vivid flowers was certainly a feast for the eyes. It’s been ages since I last visited a tulip field. To put ‘ages’ into perspective, the photos of little me among the tulips are printed out from film cameras. Yeah, that’s a long time ago.

Two hours of wandering the aisles of tulips and over 800 photos later (we are an excessive bunch), we drove towards home, making a pit stop at the supermarket.

Take one hungry person (i.e. me), put them in a grocery store and they will likely leave with one item they didn’t come for. Now take four hungry best friends, put them in a grocery store, and they will definitely leave with a cart full of food they think they can eat all in one day but realistically will not (ex. a whole watermelon, club sized bag of Chicago mix popcorn, tortilla chips, and 8 avocados just to name a few items) May I remind you that we are an excessive bunch. #extra

After ravenously demolishing many summer rolls, we did some ‘Hawaii prep’ by painting our toes. Each friend searched through my collection of nail polish and picked colours that screamed their names. I painted mermaid-inspired scales on three sets of toes and cute little palm trees on another two so we all had matching toe buddies. Apparently getting pedicures makes my friends hungry so we pulled out this rhubarb raspberry crumble cake and celebrated Pam’s birthday in advance. As we shoveled massive slices of this fluffy vegan cake into our mouths, we also finalized Hawaii trip plans. The excitement for our vacation was certainly brewing.

Everyone adored this rhubarb raspberry cake! It’s a simple vegan vanilla cake that’s scented with a bit of lemon zest and swirls of roasted rhubarb raspberry puree. Roasting the fruit and rhubarb intensifies and concentrates the flavour so each bite of cake packs a punch. A layer of crispy crumble is hidden in the middle for some textural contrast. Chew and I are kind of really obsessed with all things crumble these days; we’ve put it on vegan cheesecake, lemon bars, and now even layer cake! Something about that crunchy texture and brown sugar just gets us.

Oh and this coconut whip frosting. Those that don’t like the sugar-laden buttercream stuff will appreciate how delicious this coconut whip frosting is without being tooth-achingly sweet. It’s my go-to frosting for all cakes because 1) all you need is a cold can of coconut cream and 2) everybody loves it. Enough said. This cake is the ideal spring dessert!