Why Is a Rap Music About Rhubarb Cake Blowing Up on TikTok?

Should you spend time on any nook of TikTok, you may’ve heard this extraordinarily catchy music. Within the German rap, known as “Barbara’s Rhabarberbar,” a lady referred to as “Rhubarb Barbara” is famend for the rhabarberkuchen (rhubarb cake) she sells at her rhubarb bar. Just a few patrons frequent the bar so usually that they’re known as rhubarb barbarians. The rhubarb bar barbarians then go to the barber and declare themselves the rhubarb barbara bar barbarian beard barbers (maintaining?) You’ll be able to watch the complete video with an English translation right here. 

Since posting the video on his YouTube this previous December, comic and cabaret artist Bodo Wartke and his collaborator, music producer Marti Fischer, have racked up a whole bunch of hundreds of views — however the music has actually taken off on TikTok, the place it’s turn into the background for a viral dance and loads of puzzled translation movies. 

I had questions! Who’s Barbara? What’s the key to her rhubarb cake and why is it bringing all of the barbarians to the bar? I used to be additionally intrigued by the concept of a rhubarb cake, since I largely affiliate the jewel-like vegetable with rhubarb pie, that sweet-tart, buttery harbinger of spring. 

Sadly for rhubarb lovers like me, this music wasn’t written in a bakery, however the origins are nonetheless fairly pleasant. Wartke, a piano cabaret artist who has been working onstage for 27 years, started turning basic German tongue twisters into songs and publishing them to social media a couple of yr in the past with Fischer’s assist. He says he finds most of the authentic tongue twisters on speech remedy web sites aimed toward serving to stroke victims regain speech.

However, what’s rhabarberkuchen? 

One factor we have to clear up: Opposite to the English translation on many movies of the music, together with Wartke and Fischer’s official YouTube video, rhabarberkuchen is — repeat with me! — not rhubarb pie. 

“As a German I mentioned, ‘This isn’t right!” says F&W deputy editor Melanie Hansche, who grew up within the Bavarian Alps. “Kuchen” interprets to cake, and Germans don’t actually have a sweet-pie-baking custom, she explains — however the translation isn’t precisely one-for-one, given the lexical gaps. 

“In locations that talk German, kuchen refers to many forms of candy, sliceable desserts, sometimes loved as a snack with espresso, from a easy cake to a crumble-topped cake much like American-style espresso cake,” says F&W contributor and Nice American Baking Present season 5 winner Martin Sorge, who not too long ago studied baking in Germany. “Kuchen can be made with a pastry-like base or a base of an enriched bread dough, the latter of which is quite common. Some variations of rhabarberkuchen have a vanilla pudding layer, giving the entire dish a luxe rhubarb-and-custard vibe.” 

Of all the weather of a correct rhabarberkuchen, the streusel topping appears most non-negotiable. Hansche remembers her mother making “rhabarber-streusel-kuchen” — a crumb cake with a layer of poached rhubarb and a streusel made out of flour, butter, and sugar — as a part of a “kaffe und kuchen” (espresso and cake) afternoon custom. She pointed me to those two examples for a style of what Barbara’s cake may seem like. 

Sorge supplied the same guess. “I like to consider [Barbara’s] as a lightweight brioche-like bread dough topped with a bunch of chopped rhubarb, possibly some sugar, after which a wholesome dose of streusel on prime,” he says. 

In an e mail, Wartke mentioned his favourite rhabarberkuchen was made by his grandmother when he was a toddler. These days, he enjoys the slice at a neighborhood café in his Berlin neighborhood. 

However probably the most urgent query of all: Is Barbara an actual particular person?

“Certain! Sadly, I haven’t met her but,” he mentioned. A spokesperson for Wartke mentioned he and Fischer are engaged on a sequel to Barbara’s Rhabarberbar, which can be revealed within the subsequent couple of weeks. Within the meantime, listed below are some rhubarb cake recipes to good.