Nothing beats the flavor of a sweet cake made with slightly sour rhubarb in this rhubarb cake recipe.
With just a handful of ingredients that you likely have on hand, this rhubarb cake recipe is easy to make, extra moist, and full of tart rhubarb flavor.
It’s rhubarb season and this fruit (yes, it’s a fruit!) is making appearances in everything from pies to muffins! This recipe for rhubarb cake showcases its unique color and flavor, in a lightly sweetened, fluffy cake that’s perfect as a quick snack or dessert.
A Delicious Summer Cake
Moist and delicious, rhubarb is used in cakes, pies, cobblers, crumbles, and crisps, and is also made into jams, syrups, and sauces.
- Moist and delicious, rhubarb cake is a sweet/tart treat with its own unique flavor.
- This recipe uses ingredients you likely have on hand along with some rhubarb stalks.
- This cake can be made when rhubarb is plentiful but it also freezes beautifully. So make a cake or two (or muffins) to save for later?
- Fresh rhubarb is always best but if the craving for rhubarb cake comes up off-season, frozen will do. Simply allow it to thaw and pat dry with a clean paper towel before using.
- It tastes so good with some ice cream, whipped cream, or vanilla custard.
Ingredients
Rhubarb: Choose stalks that are ripe and firm with a clean, sweet scent. Rinse the stalks thoroughly and chop them into even pieces. If there isn’t enough rhubarb to equal 3 cups, add sliced strawberries or chopped apples. Or, if you have extra rhubarb, if can be chopped or you can freeze it.
- Flour – This cake batter uses all-purpose flour.
- Butter – Use unsalted butter. If you only have salted, reduce or leave out the salt in the recipe.
- Lemon – Fresh lemon adds flavor and also reacts with the soda to make the cake light and fluffy (so it cannot be left out). If you’d like zest the lemon and add 1 teaspoon of lemon zest to the cake.
- Other – Use large eggs and granulated sugar.
How to Make Rhubarb Cake
This is a delicious and sweet way to use up that harvest of rhubarb.
- Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl and wet ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Toss the rhubarb in the dry mixture.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients (per the recipe below). Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish or cake pan.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake.
Storing Rhubarb Cake
Keep rhubarb cake covered at room temperature for up to 3 days. Freeze leftover portions by wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and storing them in zippered bags for up to 10 weeks.
More Rhubarb Recipes
Did you make this Rhubarb Cake? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Rhubarb Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup butter melted
- 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 3 cups fresh rhubarb chopped
Topping
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13 pan and set aside.
- Whisk flour, salt, & baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine sugar, milk, melted butter, lemon juice, and vanilla. Stir in the egg.
- Add the rhubarb to the flour mixture and gently mix.
- Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until combined.
- Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan.
- Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the cake.
- Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool and serve with ice cream.
Notes
- Mixing the rhubarb with the flour first ensures it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the cake.
- Rhubarb is very tart so there is a little bit of extra sweetness in this cake.
- Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Cake, Dessert
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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It was fantastic! I substituted lemon extract 1 tsp instead of lemon juice. I substituted 1 apple diced up for 1 cup of rhubarb as I only had 2 cups. Everyone loved it!
Husband LOVED this fresh rhubarb cake! Didn’t have a lemon or any lemon juice, so I subbed white wine vinegar for the chemical reaction. Will be keeping this recipe. From garden to table was 1-1/4 hours.
I am so happy to hear this recipe was a hit Tia!
I really like this cake in general, but it has WAY too much salt! Need to knock it back to 1/2 teaspoon.
I also left out the vanilla, because I usually find that it clashes with lemon flavors in a way I personally don’t like.
But the rest is great!
Hi All,
I’ve made this about 5X so far. It’s easy. I like the light colour of the cake. It set’s of the colours in the rhubarb well. The taste is good. I’ve given the recipe out to others as well. A little thing not so great is that the cake can be a little too wet so I do not underbake it. Today I ran out of fresh lemons so I am using the bottled stuff – hope it works. Very happy to have the recipe. Thank you!
I am so happy to hear you love this recipe as much as I do Joyce!
This cake was easy to make and very good. I used frozen rhubarb. The bottom of the cake was wetter than I wish but still fine. I baked it 50 min. Also had that larger grind of sugar that was nice in the topping.
I am so happy to hear you loved this recipe Joyce!
Hi, would it be possible to provide a button that converts ‘cups’ measurements to ‘metric’ please?
It would be so much simpler than converting each ingredient ‘cup’ measurement into metric. Recently became a subscriber and will have try at the rhubarb cake and let you know, once I’ve sorted out the ingredients.
Thank you for the suggestion Brian, we will keep this in mind. I hope you loved the cake.
After stumbling upon some fresh rhubarb at the grocery store (sort of uncommon in my area), I decided to give this recipe a try – and wow! So simple and delicious! It easily secured its place somewhere in my “top 5 favorite cakes”.
That is such a delicious surprise, Kevin! Glad you enjoyed it.
This cake is beyond delicious. The small bit of sugar and cinnamon on top add just a bit of crunch. I added 1 tsp of baking piwder on top of the soda. Just gives it a bit of extra lift.
Family say this is a keeper!
So glad your family loved this June!
Great Recipe.
By accident I had all the items needed and made it yesterday.
Will do t again with my next crop of rhubarb.
Thank you for sharing
So glad you loved it William (and had everything you needed to make it too!).
Execlent Rhubarb Cake! I just needed extra topping top cover cake. The best Rhubarb cake recipe i have tried! It’s a keeper!
So happy to hear that, Linda. Thank you!