Rhubarb & Lemon Cake Recipe

Wednesday, 13 May 2020

We discovered this recipe several years ago and has been a firm favourite ever since. At this time of year we have plenty rhubarb in the garden and are always looking for interesting things to do with it. By popular demand here is the Rhubarb and Lemon Cake recipe – enjoy!

Rhubarb & Lemon Cake

Ingredients:

• 320g plain flour (plus 2 tablespoons for coating the rhubarb)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 125g unsalted butter
• 225g granulated sugar
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil (see note 1)
• 95g buttermilk (see note 2)
• 400g rhubarb, trimmed and very thinly sliced

For the Lemon Glaze:

• 250g icing sugar, more as needed
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon nearly melted butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 350/180 degrees.
Butter a 10-cup bundt pan or a 22cm spring-form tin. (See note 3)

To make the cake, sift the flour, the baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Using a handheld mixer with beaters or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition, then stir in the lemon oil.

Stir in the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the buttermilk in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. The batter will be very thick.

Toss the rhubarb with the 2 tablespoons of flour and fold half into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the remaining rhubarb on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, then rotate the pan and cook for an additional 30 minutes, or until the centre springs back when lightly touched. Cool the cake in its pan on the wire rack for 30 minutes before inverting and removing the pan.

To make the lemon glaze, whisk the icing sugar, lemon juice and butter together. The mixture should be thick. If it’s not, whisk in another tablespoon or two of the sugar. Spread the glaze over the cake as soon as you remove it from the pan.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as us.

For more lovely rhubarb recipes try:

Rhubarb Friands Recipe

Rhubarb Chutney Recipe

All at Vialii

1. We didn’t have lemon oil so we just used the zest of another lemon. You could use the juice but then you would need to reduce the amount of buttermilk you added.
2. If you can’t find buttermilk you can substitute it with full fat milk mixed with natural yoghurt.
3. If you are using a spring form tin, line the base with some greased baking parchment.