Rhubarb Coffee Cake
This Rhubarb Coffee Cake is a simple and delicious recipe! A light vanilla cake, with cinnamon streusel and a sweet and tangy layer of rhubarb. You can use fresh or frozen rhubarb in this cake. So good.
Who can’t love a coffee cake? I mean any cake that’s called a coffee cake must mean we have permission to eat it for breakfast, right? It’s got fruit in it too…so I say YES! This Rhubarb Coffee Cake is delicious for brunch, snacking and dessert.
Over the years I’ve made many coffee cake recipes. We just love the tender vanilla cake with different flavours like apple, but my favourite of all time is rhubarb coffee cake. I just love its tangy sweet flavour. So if you’re here looking for a delicious recipe to use up some rhubarb, you should try this cake! You can use fresh or frozen rhubarb in this recipe too, so it’s really versatile…just make sure to read my tips on using frozen rhubarb, below.
How to use frozen rhubarb in this recipe:
If you have stash of frozen chopped rhubarb in your freezer, you can use it in this recipe. I personally don’t like to add frozen rhubarb directly to a recipe, because I find that frozen rhubarb becomes dry and a little tough. So I will cook the rhubarb slightly first with a little bit of sugar, making it nice and tender. Here’s how:
- Add the frozen chopped rhubarb to a skillet, and sprinkle on about 1/2 cup sugar.
- Cook on low heat until the juices disappear.
- If you want to keep the rhubarb intact, don’t stir the rhubarb too much or it will break up.
- Let cool before adding the to cake batter.
- If there is too much liquid and you feel like the rhubarb is cooked enough, just strain the liquid off. TIP! Keep this juice and cook it a little longer (you might need to add a little more sugar to thicken it up)…it makes a great syrup!
The resulting rhubarb will be soft and tender. Once it’s cooled off, add it to the cake recipe below.
If you are using fresh rhubarb, you don’t need to cook it. Just mix the rhubarb with the sugar and let it rest for about 15 minutes before adding it to the cake (as per the recipe below).
Rhubarb Coffee Cake Recipe Tips:
- You can use sour cream or a thick plain yogurt (Balkan, Greek or a 3.25%) in this recipe.
- You can use fresh or frozen rhubarb. Just refer to the frozen rhubarb tips I shared above.
- Golden (yellow) brown sugar, or dark brown sugar can be used interchangeably in this recipe. I used dark brown sugar in this cake because that’s what I had on hand, which is why the top of the cake looks a little dark.
- The second layer of batter is a bit difficult to spread, so I put dollops of it all around the pan and smooth it out as best I can. It’s ok if it picks up pieces of rhubarb as you spread it. See the picture below that shows you how I add the batter in dollops.
I hope you try this Rhubarb Coffee Cake recipe and love it as much as we do! Like I said, I like to enjoy a slice with a cup of coffee in the morning, but it’s also great for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. YUM.
Rhubarb Coffee Cake
This Rhubarb Coffee Cake is a simple and delicious recipe! A light vanilla cake, with cinnamon streusel and a sweet and tangy layer of rhubarb. You can use fresh or frozen rhubarb in this cake. So good.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 cake 1x
- Category: Baking
Ingredients
Rhubarb Filling:
- 3 cups chopped rhubarb
- 1/2 cup sugar
Cake Batter:
- 1 cup butter
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Cinnamon Sugar Mix:
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare a 9 x 13 baking pan. You can either rub it with butter, line it with parchment paper or use a flour spray (this is what I do). Set aside.
- In a bowl mix together the chopped fresh rhubarb and sugar. Mix well. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes, stirring a few times. (if you are using frozen rhubarb, refer to the instructions above)
- Using a mixer cream together the butter and sugar.
- Then mix in the eggs.
- Add the sour cream and mix well.
- In separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
- Then combine the butter mixture with the flour mixture to make the batter.
- In a separate small bowl, make the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Spread half of the batter in an 9 x 13 prepared baking pan.
- Layer the rhubarb mixture evenly over the batter.
- Sprinkle with half of the brown sugar/cinnamon mix.
- Add the remaining batter. Recipe Tip! The batter is a bit difficult to spread at this point, so I put dollops of it all around the pan and smooth it out as best I can. It’s ok if it picks up pieces of rhubarb as you spread it. See the picture above that shows you how I add the batter in dollops.
- Sprinkle on the remaining brown sugar/cinnamon mix.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Keywords: cake, coffee cake, rhubarb cake
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Have a delicious day!
