Rhubarb Cheesecke Reactions and "Yuck, a Pie!"

First order of business: That was really tasty! All parties involved with the consumption of Rhubarb Cheesecake said it was delicious. The tartness complemented the creamy goodness that is cheesecake in a wonderful way. Presentation-wise, I felt the cheesecake was a little short. It only filled up about two of the three inch depth of my springform pan. So next time, I might try making the recipe 1.5 times as big.

Then on to the first of the surprise pie ingredients!

Zim was really excited about bringing back a yuca root as one of my surprises. I was baffled.
I looked it up, and it appears that it is related to tapioca, so it wasn't too much of a long shot. So I moved on to googling for recipes.
The yuca pie recipe I found had me wary.... For one thing, the recipe had no crust, seemed overly starchy, and was slightly leavened. So my brain thought 'CAKE!' and 'IMPOSTOR!' But it seemed interesting, so I just went for it.

2 cups shredded yuca root
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter (see last paragraph)
1 cup sugar
2 cups coconut milk
1 cup coffee
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 375F and mix the first four in a bowl. No big deal.
Cream the butter and sugar together. This works best if the butter is room temp, not melted. I was in a crunch for time, so I melted mine. Add the rest of the wet things and spices and combine. Then mix in the dry bowl. Butter and flour whatever vessel you choose for this goop. I used two round cake pans, but you could easily use a 13x9 or some such baking pan.
Bake until it gets firm and golden brown.

While that's going on in the oven, melt the butter from the last block of ingredients in a saucepan. Add in the sugar, powdered milk, and water. Stir constantly over low to medium heat until it thickens.
I had mine on pretty low heat, and the mixture liked to get stuck to the bottom a lot. If I didn't scrape it off pretty quickly, it would burn. so my recommendation would be to use a silicon spatula that you can use to constantly scrape the pan and stir to keep an even consistency.
When the oven part is done, pour this goop on top.

Overall, I am pleased with the taste. It's sweet, chewy, dense, and creamy. However, the butter, or god, the butter. It is swimming in it. I am wary that my melting the butter rather than creaming it at room temp made it fail to incorporate, but I also think that there is just too much of it. Hopefully if you want to try this recipe, you have read the whole post before staring to cook. That way you can attempt to prevent the buttery overload I experienced. I ended up putting the finished product on a cooling rack over a baking sheet and letting some of the butter drip out, then setting them on paper towels to soak out a bit more.