Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake
This coffee cake filled with the classic strawberry-rhubarb combo and topped with a crispy crumb topping is a perfect springtime treat!
One of my favorite signs of spring is the shoots of rhubarb that pop out of the ground in my backyard every March. It means winter is over! And more importantly, that I can bake all the strawberry-rhubarb things again. The fruity sweet + tart flavors is one of my favorite combinations and I just can’t get enough this time of year.
This coffee cake has a simple vanilla cake base, a filling of strawberries, rhubarb and lemon zest, and a buttery crumble topping. I’m not ashamed to admit I enjoyed slices with breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a few days.
Told you I was obsessed!
baking tip:How to prevent cake from sticking to the pan
There are few baking failures as frustrating as a cake that sticks to the pan! Here’s how you make sure your cakes come out clean every time:
- Line the bottoms of cake pans with parchment paper. You can trace and cut circles from sheets of parchment, or use pre-cut rounds.
- Grease with a baking-specific nonstick spray that contains flour (such as Baker’s Joy) OR grease pan completely with butter, then dust with flour.
- While I don’t like non-stick pans for traditional cakes (they tend to over-brown the edges), non-stick pans are great for other recipes like bundt cakes, cupcakes, loaf cakes, etc.
Other strawberry rhubarb recipes
In case you’re obsessed like me…
- strawberry rhubarb crumb bars
- strawberry rhubarb pie
- strawberry rhubarb stuffed french toast
- strawberry rhubarb meringue tartlets
- strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb crisp
- mini strawberry, rhubarb and pecan hand pies
- strawberry rhubarb upside-down cake
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Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (240 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick, 113 grams), softened to room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (125 ml)
Strawberry-rhubarb filling:
- 2 cups sliced strawberries (334 grams)
- 2 cups sliced rhubarb (275 grams)
- Zest of 1 lemon
Crumb topping:
- 1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar (105 grams)
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (30 grams)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (42 grams), melted
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with a non-stick baking spray that contains butter, or butter and dust with flour.
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each.
- Add vanilla extract and butter milk and mix until smooth.
- Add flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Make the filling:
- Toss the strawberries, rhubarb, and lemon zest together.
- Place in an even layer over the cake batter, leaving about a 1/2 inch border around the edges.
Make the crumb topping and bake cake:
- Combine the sugar, flour, and melted butter with a fork until combined.
- Drop in medium-sized chunks on top of the fruit filling.
- Bake cake until crumb topping is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs, about 35-40 minutes. The center of the cake should also bounce back when gently pressed.
- Let cool in the pan 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake and remove sides of springform pan. Let cool completely before serving.
Strawberry-rhubarb is one of my favorite combos and I always look forward to the farmers market around here starting so I can get my hands on both! Great post, I pinned this recipe 🙂
I have serious rhubarb envy! What a lovely plant for pies, tarts and coffee cake!
The pairing of ginger with the strawberries and rhubarb makes for a exceptional coffee cake.
I don’t care that there was snow today – as long as there is strawberry and rhubarb, it feels like spring to me!! And I’m with you – love cake for breakfast!!
I’m a huge fan of coffee cake but I’ve never tried strawberry and rhubarb together. Will have to try it soon! 🙂
Just made this cake and it is AMAZING. Will be blogging about it soon, with credit to you. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe 🙂
PS. I will TOTALLY be eating this for breakfast tomorrow!
I’ve some frozen rhubarb and strawberries thawing now for this. I don’t have a springform pan, so I hope my 9inch square glass will work just as well…either way, I know it will taste AWESOME!
I have my cake in the oven.I use what I had.I used 9×13 pan and I did not have lemon so I use orange zest.The cake is smelling great
I am trying your rhubarb strawberry coffee cake recipe today, it’s in the oven. It looks great, but I hope mine turns out. Your measurements for cups versus grams did not tally. I used weight measurements (grams) but I have a feeling I should have stuck with the cup measurements. Please advise…
I’m having the same request for clarification. In the crumb crust, 210 grams doesn’t compute with 1 3/4? (Was it supposed to be 1 3/4 cups which seems like too much for a crumb topping.) I’m 1/2 way thru making this so I think I’ll try 1 cup & see what happens.
Check out this website:
https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/resources/conversion-tables/us-cups-conversion-table/
Cup sizes differ based on ingredient.
Approximately how long should it bake?
I think there is something wrong with the ratio of flour to brown sugar in the crumb topping. I’ve just made the cake as per the recipe and it has come out with a pool of melted brown sugar and butter on the top. Were the ingredient amounts supposed to be the other way around?
I was very disappointed with the final product. It was very time consuming in making but it smelled so good baking. I followed the cup measurements of the recipe. I baked the 45 minutes. It was brown on the sides & top of crust. I cut after it cooled for a couple hours. The fruit was like soup in the center. It ran all over. The topping measurement have to be wrong. Disappointing.
I made this cake, I think it might have come out okay if my mom had not thought it needed to bake longer. She thought it was too gooey and needed more time and let it bake an additional 30 minutes, it came out burnt.
I just baked this and it turned out fairly well, with a few quick changes. I think the oven needs to be about 365 degrees (closer to 180 celcius). I went to cut the cooled down cake I thought was done, but it wasn’t baked at all in the middle, so back in the oven it went–this time at 365 instead of 350. Next time I would try a full hour at 365 and then check it periodically so it doesn’t burn.
For the crumb topping, I kept adding flour until it became a crumbly consistency–at least 3/4 cup.
From reading about jam making, I got the idea to use a little salt and pepper to draw out the flavors of the strawberries and rhubarb. I also had large lemons, so I had a lot of lemon zest. In the end, I added a little ground ginger–I didn’t measure, just guesstimated how much to use. There is definitely a bite to the fruit, and it is delicious!
I will try making this again or a version of it if rhubarb season is over.
This might be a repost–apologies, I was about to hit submit on a previous attempt and I think I lost it.
I just tried this last night and am eating a piece now. It turned out well in the end, but I made a few changes that might help:
I think it bakes better at 365 instead of 350
For the crumb topping, I had read the previous comments about the measurements being off and I kept adding flour. I used about 3/4 cup of flour and it worked well.
I like to experiment with spices in my baking and after reading a recipe for making jam, I tried a little salt and pepper along with a lot of ground ginger. My lemon was rather large, too. The acid in the lemon apparently helps the fruit set, too (another tip from the jam recipe). Next time I’ll try other spices, just for fun!
I have my cake in the oven.I use what I had.I used 9×13 pan and I did not have lemon so I use orange zest.The cake is smelling great
I baked this in two 9” round cake pans. I would have chopped up the strawberries and rhubarb into smaller chunks.
I should have only baked for 20-25 minutes but forgot to adjust the time for two smaller pans so the sugar in the topping was a little dark.
SORRY. it was a disaster. maybe it was supposed to call for only one cup each of fruit?? the crumb topping stayed clumped. the middle was WET. had to cut it out and put it in the oven on its own so as not to waste it all. the cake around the edge was getting well done but had a nice flavor.
I bake alot. wondered about the amount of fruit but still went for it. my mistake
Made this cake and it didn’t cook properly! I don’t understand I’m supposed to put 4 cups of strawberries and rhubarb on top of a cake and cook it for 35 min? On the picture it doesn’t seem like the same amount at all!! It took more than an hour to cook and the center is still very soggy! I won’t be able to serve this and I waisted 4 cups of good fruits 🙁 very disappointed.
I made this recipe yesterday with fresh strawberries and rhubarb from my garden. I followed it verbatim, other than I baked it 10 minutes longer and used gluten free flour.
The middle does look soupy when pulled out of the oven, but it thickens up beautifully after 30 minutes of cooling down. I served this to seven of my friends and they ALL asked for the recipes. I read all the negative reviews on this, so wanted to share how well this recipe worked for me. I will make it again.
Hi Stephanie! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave this feedback. And I’m so happy to hear you had success with this recipe, and that using GF flour worked well!