Easy Rhubarb Cake Recipe (2024)

Last updated on March 14, 2021

ThisEASY RHUBARB CAKEis SO moist and delicious! Serve it cold as a snacking cake, or warm with ice cream or whipped cream. It’s a perfect go-to dessertfor family gatherings or decadent mid-morning treat with a cup of coffee!

I do love rhubarb season, but it’s short so I try to make most of my favourite rhubarb recipes while it’s here.

This old-fashioned rhubarb cake is my favourite rhubarb recipe ever. Along with my buttermilk-rhubarb muffins, it’s one of the first things I make it every year as soon as the rhubarb is ripe.

Several years ago, a good friend of mine was transplanting her grandmother’s rhubarb patch, and she gave me a chunk of the root for my garden.I popped it into the ground beside our tool-shed, and every year, it yields a bigger crop than the year before. Then, last year, when it was on its way to producing a decent harvest, someoneran over it with the lawnmower. I’m still not sure who that was. No-one here is owning up to it..

THIS year, after a very warm and sunny spring, my rhubarb patch has finally flourished! HOORAY!

It’s bursting with ruby-red stalks of fruit, topped with gigantic green leaves, and it’s been just begging to be harvested.

The other day, I pulled a bunch of it, and made a couple of my all-time favourite rhubarb recipes; one of them being this simple, from-scratch rhubarb cake that’s been in our family for years.

How to Make This Easy Rhubarb Cake

Ingredients:

(printable recipe at bottom of post)

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup milk
• 2 and 1/2 cups chopped, fresh rhubarb (3 large stalks or 5-6 med stalks)

Topping:

• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

To Make Your Cake:

Sift flour, baking soda, salt into a small bowl and set aside.

In a larger bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until well-blended. I do this by hand with a wooden spoon.

Add egg and continue to beat, by hand, until well-mixed.

Stir in vanilla.

Now, ALTERNATE between adding the 1 cup of milk and the flour/baking soda/salt mixture that you had set aside:Add about a 1/4 of the milk and stir well. Then add about 1/4 of the flour mixture, and stir well.
Continue until all is added to the batter.

Stir in chopped rhubarb.

Spoon into a sprayed (or greased and floured) 9 x 13 baking dish or cake pan.

Adding the cinnamon-sugar topping:

Mix the white sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well. Sprinkle over the batter until cake is entirely covered.

Shake the pan from side to side to evenly distribute the sugar if necessary.

Bake at 350º F for 40 minutes (or until knife comes out clean).

Remove from oven and allow to cool a little before serving.

Serve your rhubarb cake warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or top with real whipped cream. Alternatively, you could top it with fresh fruit and berries.

I hope you enjoy this simple summertime cake as much as we do! The tart, tangy rhubarb combined with the sweet, sugary topping is simply amazing.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Want to grow your own rhubarb at home or at school with your students? Check out Megan Zeni’sguide for growing, caring for and harvesting rhubarb with kids.

More of our best cake recipes:

• Crazy Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
• Crazy Good Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Easiest Coffee Cake Ever
• Easy Buttermilk-Rhubarb Muffins

More of our best summer recipes:

• Easy Chocolate Covered Strawberries
• Luscious Lemon Delight
• No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake

Follow Happy Hooligans on Facebook