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Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch springform pan. Drop a round of parchment paper into the pan and grease it as well.
  2. Stir or whisk flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together in a bowl, then sift to combine. Set aside.
  3. Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, followed by almond extract. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir rhubarb into the batter. 
  4. Transfer batter into the pan, smoothing it out gently to an even layer. Dot the top of the cake with the strawberries, cut side down into the batter. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. 
  5. Transfer to oven and bake for 55 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and slightly spongy to the touch. Cool for 15 minutes before removing springform ring and cooling completely.
  6. To serve: 
  7. Option One: Dust cake with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream. Garnish with mint and a strawberry slice.
  8. Option Two: Cut cake into 8 wedges. Transfer slices to dessert plates. Decorate with zig-zag of glaze, then top with whipped cream, mint and a strawberry slice.
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Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

5 / 5. 4

An almond-scented cake ribboned with tangy bits of rhubarb and topped with sweet strawberries…

  • clock icon
    65 MIN
  • 8 SERVINGS
Strawberry Rhubarb Cake.

Ring in rhubarb season with a delicious STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB CAKE.

This recipe for homemade STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB CAKE was a last-minute addition to our content calendar. With warm weather entertaining on the way, our sights were set on dreaming up GRILL RECIPES, summer DESSERTS and assorted SIDE DISHES that put the abundant array of locally grown vegetables to good use. But then I literally saw the sign “Fresh Rhubarb” and couldn’t resist crafting something scrumptious.

Rhubarb is a perennial favourite springtime vegetable commonly thought of as a fruit due to its application in desserts. If you love rhubarb as much as we do, we have plenty of other recipes that put it to good use. This RHUBARB PIE is a personal favourite, but partnering rhubarb with strawberries is a match made in culinary heaven. Case in point; our STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB CRISP and this STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB ICE CREAM. Two more sweet treats include a lovely STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB GALETTE, and finally, this glorious STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB JELLY. As you can see, we’re big fans.

Because this dessert is so tasty, we suggest you PIN the recipe to a favourite cake or baking board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make it too. We’d also appreciate seeing pics of all the scrumptious baking you’re making these days. Use #weekendatthecottage when you post those pics on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks!

Here are a few things to consider when you make this homemade STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB CAKE:

The ingredients needed to make the strawberry rhubarb cake.
Yet another example of how just the right ingredients can yield something exceedingly delicious.

INGREDIENTS

We love this shot of the ingredients needed to make this cake; everything required is readily available at your favourite grocery store or market. Before beginning the recipe, bring the butter and eggs to room temperature. Doing so allows them to cream together more easily. If you decide to present the cake all fancy with our suggested almond glaze (more about that in a bit) make sure to bring the small quantity of milk to room temperature too.

Stalks of rhubarb and a pint of freshly picked strawberries.
Look for fresh rhubarb at your local market and farm stands.

STRAWBERRY AND RHUBARB

Let me get more in-depth on our appreciation of strawberries paired with rhubarb. The taste of rhubarb is most often described as extremely tart, and its texture is compared to celery. It softens and mellows when cooked, and combining it with sugar gives it a pleasing flavour. Therefore, baking tart rhubarb with sweet, succulent strawberries makes sense. The tartness of the rhubarb is nicely balanced out by the sweetness of the strawberries. Head HERE to learn more about rhubarb.

A bowl containing the creamed batter for the cake.
The batter is supposed to be dense, just saying!

CAKE BATTER

Making the batter for this cake recipe is super easy. We purposely avoided turning the recipe into a coffee cake, so there’s no baking soda, cornstarch, lemon juice, greek yogurt or crumb topping in sight. We instead opted for a simple cream cake recipe, with the addition of some almond extract and freshly grated nutmeg. They replace the vanilla extract and cinnamon and we love how they add a memorable surprise to the flavour profile. 

The cake batter ribboned with sliced rhubarb spooned into an 8-inch springform pan.
Look at those tangy bits of rhubarb ribboned in the batter.

The resulting cake batter is very dense. It’s all very clear in the VIDEO we crafted for this post. Don’t let that worry you, the cake still has a nice light crumb and is soft in texture.

The top of the cake sprinkled with granulated sugar.
Place the strawberries in cut side down into the batter.

ADDING THE STRAWBERRIES

We discovered while testing this recipe that stirring chopped strawberries into the batter along with the rhubarb created a wet cake layer where the berries sank to the bottom of the pan. Guess that would work if we were to invert it and serve it as an upside-down cake?! Instead, placing them gently onto the batter works much better. They only sink slightly into the cake batter and remain suspended in the cake as it bakes, ensuring every slice has both rhubarb and strawberry within.

Strawberry rhubarb cake with a rich golden brown colour, fresh out of the oven
The top of the cake is a rich golden brown colour.

BAKE

We found 55 minutes in the oven worked perfectly for this cake, so there’s nothing complicated to worry about in the baking. Look for the cake to be golden brown in colour and slightly spongy to the touch as indicators of being done. Feel free to test doneness using a cake tester, and when it comes away clean, your cake is done. Pro tip: have a thin knife or icing spatula handy to run between the cake and the springform pan. This helps release the cake in case it sticks to the ring in spots.

Strawberry rhubarb cake with a dusting of icing sugar.
Add a simple dusting of icing sugar.

SERVE

We love the simplicity of this homemade dessert recipe. Serving it with a dusting of icing sugar, a dollop of whipped cream, a strawberry slice and some mint is perfect for relaxed family meals and casual get togethers.

Strawberry rhubarb cake served with a drizzle of almond glaze.
Let’s serve it all fancy!

That said, we’re always looking for ways to elevate the presentation of our favourite dishes and take them from simple to amazing. For that, we added an eye catching zig-zag of our almond glaze, then topped each slice of cake with whipped cream, strawberry and mint. Don’t be too surprised by all the oohs and aahs when you serve dessert in this fashion; happens every time.

Strawberry rhubarb cake served with whipped cream.
Or, simple.

Enjoy rhubarb season with this glorious STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB CAKE!

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Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

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Products used in this recipe

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Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

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Ingredients

  • For the cake:
  • ½ cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
  • 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • pinch of nutmeg
  • 1 cup fresh rhubarb, chopped
  • 1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • For the glaze, if using:
  • 2-½ cups confectioners’ (icing) sugar
  • 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
  • 3 tablespoons homogenized milk, room temperature
  • To serve:
  • glaze
  • icing sugar
  • whipped cream
  • strawberry slices fresh mint

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch springform pan. Drop a round of parchment paper into the pan and grease it as well.
  2. Stir or whisk flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together in a bowl, then sift to combine. Set aside.
  3. Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, followed by almond extract. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir rhubarb into the batter. 
  4. Transfer batter into the pan, smoothing it out gently to an even layer. Dot the top of the cake with the strawberries, cut side down into the batter. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. 
  5. Transfer to oven and bake for 55 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and slightly spongy to the touch. Cool for 15 minutes before removing springform ring and cooling completely.
  6. To serve: 
  7. Option One: Dust cake with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream. Garnish with mint and a strawberry slice.
  8. Option Two: Cut cake into 8 wedges. Transfer slices to dessert plates. Decorate with zig-zag of glaze, then top with whipped cream, mint and a strawberry slice.

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