Rhubarb Crumb Cake

Name: Rhubarb Crumb Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 750 g rhubarb (1.6 lb, Note 1); 300 g all purpose flour (2 ½ cups/ 10.5 oz, Note 2); 150 g granulated sugar (¾ cup/ 5.5 oz); 150 g unsalted butter (chilled 2/3 cup/ 5.5 oz); pinch salt; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 225 g unsalted butter (1 cup/ 2 sticks); 225 g granulated sugar (1 cup + 2 Tbsp / 8 oz); pinch salt; 3 eggs (large); 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 275 g all-purpose flour (2 ¼ cups/ 9.5 oz); 2 teaspoons baking powder; 150 g Greek yogurt (½ cup + 1 Tbsp/ 5.5 oz, Note 3)

This soft and comforting rhubarb crumb cake is loaded with tangy rhubarb and crunchy crumbs. The rhubarb cake recipe is super easy to make, ready in about one hour, and perfect for the rhubarb season.

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Rhubarb crumb cake is a delightful dessert that combines the tartness of rhubarb with a sweet and buttery topping. It's a perfect balance of flavors and textures, a simple and delicious cake that everybody enjoys.

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Why will you love this recipe?

Are you searching for an easy coffee cake to feed a crowd that's cheap and quick to make? You’ve found it! This delicious rhubarb crumb cake checks all these boxes:

Taste and texture: Amazing! It is sweet and tangy, soft and crunchy, light yet comforting.
Cheap: Pick fresh rhubarb in the garden or buy it at the farmers market and mix a few other low-cost ingredients. This is also an excellent recipe for using up an abundance of rhubarb in early summer.
Easy: All you have to do is a bit of chopping and a bit of stirring.
Quick: Five minutes chopping the rhubarb, less than five minutes mixing the buttery crumble, and another five minutes stirring the batter. The rest happens in the oven.
- Altogether, you will only need about one hour to make a delicious rhubarb coffee cake recipe that you can serve with a cup of coffee or tea.

Do you need more rhubarb and crumbs recipes? Check out Rhubarb Apple Crumble, Rhubarb Crisp, or Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble Tart.

Recipe ingredients

Rhubarb:

It's one of my favorite seasonal plants. To learn more about dealing with it in the kitchen, read “What to Do with Rhubarb (Cook, Bake, Preserve).”
You will need about 1.7 lbs/750 g of cleaned stalks cut into ½ - 1-inch/ 1.5-2 cm. Discard the leaves; they are poisonous.

Crumbs:

This is my favorite and easiest streusel or crumbles recipe because it uses ingredient amounts that are very easy to remember and scale:
- 2 parts flour + 1 part granulated sugar + 1 part unsalted butter
- In this recipe: 300 g flour + 150 g granulated sugar + 150 g unsalted butter
Of course, this calculation works best when using a scale to measure the ingredients. But that is what I always recommend anyway: use a digital kitchen scale; it makes a lot of a difference in baking (the Amazon affiliate link opens in a new tab).

You will need 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour + ¾ cup granulated sugar + ⅔ cup unsalted butter when it comes to cups. Less easy to remember and to scale, unfortunately.
Additions: pinch of salt, vanilla extract.

Batter:

Granulated sugar, soft unsalted butter, a pinch of salt, large eggs at room temperature, pure vanilla extract, flour (all-purpose or cake flour), baking powder, and Greek-style yogurt or sour cream (it makes the cake base moist, soft, and comforting).

How to make a crumb cake with rhubarb?

Clean and chop the stalks, and set them aside (1).
Crumb topping: Mix sugar, flour, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Cut cold butter into small pieces and add them to the bowl together with a bit of vanilla (2).
Work it with the electric mixer (dough attachment) or your hands until you get coarse crumbs (the link opens in a new tab).
If working with your hands, ensure they are also cold. Place the topping in the fridge while you make the batter.

collage of two pictures of chopped rhubarb and crumbs in separate bowls.

Batter:

Wet ingredients: Beat soft butter, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until light and fluffy (use the electric mixer fitted with the beaters)(3).
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well in between, about 1 minute per egg. Stir in vanilla extract (4).

Dry ingredients: Mix flour and baking powder in another bowl. Add the flour mixture and the yogurt to the batter and mix it in shortly on low speed (5).

collage of two pictures of stirring cake batter in a bowl.

collage of two pictures of cake batter in a bowl and then on a baking sheet.

Bake:

Spread the cake batter onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper (6).
Cover with rhubarb (7) and spread the crumb mixture on top of the cake.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until the streusels are golden brown and slightly crunchy (8).

Variations:

You can swap the rhubarb for pretty much any other fruit or berries. For example, I love making similar streusel topping cakes with peaches or nectarines, plums, cherries, mixed berries, etc.
Or make a strawberry rhubarb crumb cake by replacing half of the rhubarb with sliced strawberries.

Expert Tips

Best tip: Always use a digital kitchen scale in baking; it guarantees the best results.

Tips for making the crumbs

For nicely crispy, larger crumbs, use chilled butter as instructed before.
Alternatively, you can melt the butter in a small pan and mix it with the flour using a fork. The crumbs will be softer, smaller, and crumblier in this case.
Both versions are delicious, but I prefer the cold butter version; I like the texture of the crumbs better.
Add some cinnamon/nutmeg/cardamom/allspice to the crumble topping.

Recipe FAQ

Can I use frozen rhubarb for the cake?

Yes. Defrost it in the sieve and pat it as dry as possible with kitchen paper before placing it on the batter.

Make ahead and store

You can make the rhubarb crumble cake one day in advance. Let it cool completely on the tray, and cover it with a kitchen towel once cooled. However, the crumbs will lose some of their crunch after a while. The cake will still be scrumptious, though, but softer.
Refresh: You can solve that by placing the tray in the preheated oven for another 10 minutes or so. Then, serve it lukewarm or let it cool again and serve.
Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge; they will last 3-4 days.

Can you freeze a crumb cake?

Yes, the rhubarb crumb cake freezes very well. First, freeze the cooled pieces on the tray or a large plate. Once solid, transfer them to freezer bags and freeze them for up to 3 months.
Defrost in the refrigerator or on the counter.
You can also place the frozen pieces on a baking tray and bake them until heated through and slightly crunchy again, about 10-15 minutes at 180°C/ 350°F, but check.

How to serve?

Cut the rhubarb crumb cake into 12 large pieces or 24 smaller ones and serve it lukewarm or at room temperature.

When serving it lukewarm, try the rhubarb crumb cake with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. A dollop of homemade whipped cream would be perfect when serving it at room temperature.

sliced rhubarb crumbs cake overhead view.

More rhubarb cakes

More crumb cakes

German Apple Crumble Cake
Cherry Crumb Pie
German Plum Cake - Zwetschgenkuchen Recipe
Coconut and Cherry Cake
Red Currant Cake - German Recipe

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