Caramel Rhubarb Cake

By Rachel Conners @bakeritablog

This Caramel Rhubarb Cake is a light and tender cake with fresh diced rhubarb and a generous swirl of caramel. This is a quick and easy dessert you won’t want to miss!

I’m pretty sure the past few weeks have been the most erratic emotional rollercoaster of my life. I powered through my last finals week of college (stressful), graduated (exciting), had a week of apartment hunting (stressful), went to Sasquatch music festival (crazy fun/exciting/exhausting), had another week of apartment hunting (stressful/exhausting), moved to a new apartment, (exciting/exhausting) and then had four days of furniture shopping and getting settled in.

As I write this, I’m on a flight to New York City to meet up with my mom and visit my sister, followed by a quick trip to Chicago for a few days to celebrate my mom’s birthday. I really haven’t had a break, hence the sort of erratic posting schedule (sorry!).

I’ve been so go, go, go recently! Who knew apartment hunting was so darn hard? Especially in a city like Seattle. My roommate, Ally and I, spent 5 days in Seattle going from apartment to apartment to apartment, looking for something we loved that we could move into on June 1st. Pretty hard to find when you’re looking like, four days before you want to move in.

On Saturday, two days before June 1st, we were still homeless as of June 1st. We had the most depressing lunch ever, sitting in a great restaurant in Seattle, with only two more places to go visit. We were hoping and praying one of those would work, and finally, thankfully, the last apartment we visited ended up being the one.

It was available June 1st, had huge windows with gorgeous lighting (perfect for photos!), a killer view looking out over the water, about 10 grocery stores within a two mile radius, was just renovated, and had all brand new, top of the line kitchen appliances. The kitchen appliances totally sold me: I was a total sucker for the brand new, gorgeous convection oven, silent Bosch dishwasher, and awesome fridge. Definitely a food bloggers’ top priorities.

Now, we just need to get furniture to fill our essentially empty apartment and make it cute and livable! Thankfully, organizing makes me super happy and I love to furniture shop, so it should be fun. I can’t wait to figure out my new photo setup and start baking in my new kitchen!

In the midst of my tumultuous couple weeks, I did manage to bake a couple things before moving out of my college house. This Caramel Rhubarb Cake was definitely a standout. I still can’t believe I had never tried rhubarb until the Berry Rhubarb Pie I made a few weeks ago! Now that I’ve tried it, I’m hooked on the tartness of it, and how well it pairs with so many different flavors.

For this cake, I decided to keep it pretty simple to show off the flavors of the caramel and the rhubarb. I diced up the rhubarb into little bits, and folding it into a lightly cinnamon scented cake batter. I swirled in some caramel sauce I had on hand – you can use prepared caramel sauce or some you’ve made yourself. Both will work deliciously.

I kept the cake naked after baking and just sprinkled on some powdered sugar to dress it up a bit. You don’t need any frosting here – the caramel gives all the sweetness you need to balance out the rhubarb. The cake itself is light, airy, and tender, and the rhubarb bits stay suspended throughout the batter, giving you bursts of flavor in each bite.

This cake is perfect to pair with coffee or tea as a snack, or to serve as a delicious summer dessert. You’re going to want to get your hands on some rhubarb before it disappears for the season and whip this up for your family and friends – they’ll love you for it! I hope your summer is off to a wonderful start (hopefully one less stressful than mine), and that it’s full of sun, good times, and lots of cake :) enjoy!

Caramel Rhubarb Cake   Save Print Prep time 15 mins Cook time 35 mins Total time 50 mins   Author: Rachel Conners Ingredients
  • 12 oz. rhubarb (about 3½ cups), medium diced
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1¼ cups white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 1⅔ cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup caramel sauce
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 10 inch springform baking pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time until well incorporated. Add the vanilla extract. Turn mixer on low and slowly add the flour mixture. Don’t over mix. Fold in the cut rhubarb and transfer the dough to the baking pan. Drizzle on the caramel and swirl in with a knife.
  4. Bake for about 35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack.
Notes Recipe adapted from My Kitchen In The Rockies 3.3.3070
 

Hungry for more? Check out some of my similar recipes!

  • Berry Rhubarb Pie
  • Yellow Cake with Caramel Buttercream
  • Bacon Caramel Brownies
  • Coffee Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins
  • The Ultimate Snickers Cake
  • Pumpkin Carrot Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting