Once spring rolls around, vibrant red stalks of rhubarb slowly start popping up at markets, and when that moment strikes, you have to act fast. Making strawberry-rhubarb pie with your haul is a no-brainer, but using it in a cake is not as common. Perhaps it makes sense: Rhubarb cake is tricky because the stalks contain a deceptively large quantity of moisture, and simply adding raw rhubarb to cake batter is a recipe for disaster. The rhubarb juices flow into the cake, creating gummy, wet pockets that mess up the texture. Nobody wants that.
But fear not: You can bake a cake with rhubarb—and a very good one. You just have to take a few simple steps to ensure the rhubarb doesn’t sog out. Here’s everything you need to keep in mind before you embark on your rhubarb cake journey.
Photo by Elizabeth Coetzee, Food styling by Emilie Fosnocht
Rhubarb belongs on top
Let go of any dreams of a picturesque rhubarb upside-down cake. Baking rhubarb on the bottom of a cake pan requires extra work—either macerating the rhubarb overnight or precooking it to eliminate some of the water content. Even with those efforts, you’ll often end up with a less-than-ideal mushy texture. Stick to placing your rhubarb on top of your cake. This way the juices have an opportunity to evaporate instead of just seeping into the crumb.
Slice it thin
Big, dramatic chunks of rhubarb might look nice, but they turn out stringy and fibrous, much like a piece of celery that gets stuck in your teeth. Instead, stick to thin slices (about ¼”) and cut your rhubarb on a slight bias. This just means holding your knife at an angle and cutting the rhubarb into elongated, angled slices. This technique will help the rhubarb cook through and limit the amount of stringiness. (It also just looks pretty!) These thin slices allow you to load up your cake with rhubarb flavor—our recipe calls for a half pound of rhubarb—without a trace of stringiness after baking.
With this cake batter, thicker is better
This cake recipe is specifically developed with enough structure to hold up to the rhubarb, preventing it from sinking as it bakes. The batter is thick; stirring it is almost like working with spackle. Made with buttermilk, butter, and eggs, the batter has enough strength to keep the rhubarb afloat as the cake rises.
Sprinkle with sugar for sparkle and crunch
One last piece of advice before your spring bake begins: Right before you throw the cake into the oven, sprinkle the cut rhubarb with a generous amount of granulated sugar. This sweetens the rhubarb and tames its tart bite while also transforming into crunchy sugar crystals as it bakes. And to gild the lily, a post-bake brushing of strawberry jam intensifies the rhubarb’s rosy hue, while a shower of sliced and toasted almonds adds a welcomed crunch. The final cake is fluffy, buttery, and perfectly tart, the ideal way to celebrate the short-yet-stunning season without a single trace of sog.
