Rustic Rhubarb Cupcakes

These were inspired by a Nigella Lawson cake recipe and a British friend's affection for rhubarb (and Nigella Lawson). I tried to convert the metric measurements and probably screwed them up, but the ingredients wound up working out just fine in these proportions:

4 stalks rhubarb, roughly a pound
1 1/2 c sugar
2/3 c plain flour
2/3 c fine polenta or cornmeal
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c. unsalted butter (the original recipe wanted twice as much, I later figured out -- oops! -- but this worked. --ed.)
1 c. plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers.

Peel tough outer skins off of rhubarb and slice it into thin coins. Place these in a bowl and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of sugar; toss and let it sweat for about fifteen minutes, while you're assembling the rest of the batter. (Nigella says not to leave it for longer than a half hour, since too much of the tart juice will leach out of the rhubarb if you do.)

In a medium bowl combine the flour, cornmeal/polenta, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. In your stand mixer, cream the butter and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat well until mixture is fluffy again.

In alternating spoonfuls, add the flour mixture and yogurt to the creamed mixture. Mix these in very slowly to preserve the fluffiness of the mixture. Finally, fold in the rhubarb and all the sugary juices.

Pour batter into prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

I iced these with a standard buttercream frosting, laced with raspberry jam. I won't share the recipe here because (a) I didn't use one and (b) it showed. The cupcakes were fine, though, and garnishing them with cute fresh raspberries almost made up for the underwhelming visual effect of the frosting.