Have an abundance of rhubarb? Fresh or frozen? Your family is going to love this recipe for Rhubarb Cake with Buttermilk!
Springtime and early summer is when the rhubarb leaves begin to grow and unfold and all of the delicious rhubarb appears. It’s a little funny that we usually serve this vegetable as a fruit but nonetheless, it’s SO good and usually in abundance.
I love making things with rhubarb! It’s wonderful to use fresh but also works just as well frozen or canned. (Here’s how to Can Rhubarb.) If you are looking for several recipes to use your rhubarb in, jump over to my post full of Easy Rhubarb Recipes for Spring.
This cake is a yummy play on a coffee cake. The recipe will fit in a 9×13 pan which is quite a bit unless you are serving a crowd so you can always cut the recipe in half and bake in an 8×8 baking dish instead.
Rhubarb Cake with Buttermilk
What You Need:
- 2 cups Sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup Butter, melted
- 2 cups Buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 4 cups All Purpose Flour or All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
- 2 cups Rhubarb, diced
In a large bowl, cream the sugar, eggs, butter, and salt together.
Slowly add in the buttermilk and mix until it’s well incorporated. If you don’t have buttermilk from the store, you can learn to How to Make Buttermilk here.
Add in the baking soda, baking powder, and flour. Mix until there are no lumps of batter remaining.
Fold in the pieces of rhubarb last. You can use fresh or frozen. You may need to bake slightly longer if you use frozen because of the moisture content.
Pour the batter into a greased, or tin foil lined 9×13 baking pan. If you’d like, combine 1/2 cup of sugar with 2 tablespoons of melted butter and crumble over the top of the cake before baking. If you want to lessen the amount of sugar used, skip this step.
Bake the cake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the center is no longer wiggly. Let it cool slightly to cut but serve warm.
For a delicious optional, but highly recommended topping:
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 1/2 cup Half & Half
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Combine on the stovetop and simmer together for 2 minutes while constantly stirring. Serve as a warm sauce over warm pieces of the Rhubarb Cake with Buttermilk.
If you’ve been looking for another great way to use up your fresh rhubarb this spring, I hope you will give this recipe for Rhubarb Buttermilk Cake a try!
Print the Rhubarb Cake Recipe below!
Rhubarb Buttermilk Cake Recipe
This delicious Rhubarb Cake is the perfect way to showcase rhubarb in all of its summer glory. Your friends and family will love this!
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 2 cups Buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups rhubarb diced
Instructions
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In a large bowl, cream the sugar, eggs, butter, and salt together.
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Slowly add in the buttermilk and mix until it's well incorporated.
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Add in the baking soda, baking powder, and flour. Mix until there are no lumps of batter remaining.
-
Fold in the pieces of rhubarb last. You can use fresh or frozen. You may need to bake slightly longer if you use frozen because of the moisture content.
-
Pour the batter into a greased, or tin foil lined 9x13 baking pan. If you'd like, combine 1/2 cup of sugar with 2 tablespoons of melted butter and crumble over the top of the cake before baking. If you want to lessen the amount of sugar used, skip this step.
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Bake the cake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the center is no longer wiggly. Let it cool slightly to cut but serve warm.
Need more recipes for rhubarb? Here are some of the things I make!
- Old Fashioned Rhubarb Bars Recipe
- Easy Rhubarb Recipes for Spring
- Canning Rhubarb
- Strawberry Rhubarb Jam (Butter)
- Rhubarb Crumble Recipe
- Rhubarb Smoothie Recipe (And Harvesting Rhubarb)
Do you grow rhubarb?
This recipe for Rhubarb Cake with Buttermilk was originally published on Little House Living in April 2018. It has been updated as of May 2020.
Can you make your recipes so they are print ready?
There is a green button at the end of the post (under my pic) that says “Print Friendly”. Clicking that button will allow you to select only the area you want to print (can take out the pics or extra wording) and then print to save paper 🙂
As soon as my rhubarb is ready, I am so making this cake! Do you think the recipe can be successfully halved and put in an 8×8″ pan?
Following. Good question.
Can I use half the sugar. Can I substitute that half with maple syrup or molasses?
You could probably substitute it but would need to leave out part of another liquid ingredient. I would not add less sugar in a rhubarb dessert unless you don’t mind the sour taste of rhubarb.
Ooops, I just read further, and saw that the cake can be halved. Never mind, lol!
This sounds like such a good old fashioned recipe. We had rhubarb in the back yard when I was growing up on the farm. The only thing that we ever made with it was rhubarb cobbler. We also had a lot of buttermilk while I was growing up so this recipe is bringing back some childhood memories. Thank you for sharing at Tasty Tuesdays link party.
The cake sounds moist with buttermilk and when rhubarb make an appearance ( I am from Midwest) top of my list and I am thinking the addition of strawberries would make a nice pairing.
Strawberries and rhubarb always seem to be a good combo! 🙂
Your Rhubarb Buttermilk Cake looks delicious! So glad you could join us on Full Plate Thursday and thanks so much for sharing with us. Hope you have a great week and a very Happy Mothers Day!
Miz Helen
What a great recipe! I love baking with buttermilk! Looking forward to trying this yummy recipe! Thanks for sharing at Celebrate It!
I loved the recipe, it’s a bit different. I really want to make it look delicious.
I didn’t see how much buttermilk to put in the receipe.
thanks
It’s 2 cups of buttermilk.
I am so fortunate as to be given as much fresh rhubarb as I like from my dad’s little patch! I have made this recipe numerous times since it was first published two years ago. My family LOVES it. The only change I make? I TRIPLE the amount of the rhubarb and it is fantastic!
I made this recipe for breakfast this morning and it was outstanding! Definitely a new favorite. I loved the crunchy sugar crust. Very very good!
I’m so glad your family loved it!
Yummy and easy!!
I used to live in Nebraska about 40 years ago and people there made this exact cake, but I could never find the recipe and foolishly never got it from anyone there. In Florida now with no fresh rhubarb but I’ll keep the recipe just in case! Thanks.
used to live in Nebraska about 40 years ago and people there made this exact cake, but I could never find the recipe and foolishly never got it from anyone there. In Florida now with no fresh rhubarb but I’ll keep the recipe just in case! Thanks.
I have a patch of rhubarb in my backyard in rural Ontario… and never knew what to do with it! Thanks so much for this recipe.. we have made in twice in the past month and shared with our neighbours and it has had RAVE REVIEWS. So delicious!!!
I’m so glad you enjoy the recipe!