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This is a soft, old-fashioned Rhubarb Cake with Butter Sauce: a simple one-bowl cake to stir together and bake in a 9 x 13 pan. This is perfect for a potluck or picnic.
Rhubarb Cake with Butter Sauce
Tangy Rhubarb Cake becomes completely irresistible when paired with the sweet Butter Cream Sauce. This cake is a twist on a classic Christmas dessert, cranberry cake with butter sauce.
I’ve updated it for spring and substituted rhubarb for the cranberries. It works so well, as both cranberries and rhubarb are tart and pair well with the butter sauce.
How To Make An Old Fashioned Rhubarb Cake
This is an egg-less cake which makes it super easy to make in one bowl. First, you’ll sift all the dry ingredients together. They are just the basics: flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
To that mixture you’ll gently stir in the milk, melted butter and diced rhubarb. Pour into a pan and bake.
This is seriously the easiest dessert. It’s just as fast as using a cake mix and doesn’t require and special ingredients (other than rhubarb, of course.)
The Rhubarb Cake is perfect for last minute company or anytime you want to bring a dessert somewhere.
The lack of eggs in this cake makes it especially tender and I love that. Be careful not to over bake it as it will be dry. Don’t worry though, a healthy dose of butter sauce will fix it.
How To Make Butter Sauce
Butter sauce is just butter, heavy cream and granulated sugar – and it is oh, so delicious when poured warm on cake. Think of it as a superior frosting since frosting is just sugar and butter too.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter, stir in the heavy cream and sugar, bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
Ta da, magic butter sauce that is perfect over cake.
In addition to seeing this butter sauce over cranberry cake, I’ve also seen it served over a Pecan Praline Cake and a Warm Gingerbread Cake.
More Rhubarb Recipes
Both my family and my reader’s love rhubarb recipes. If you’re looking for ways to use up extra rhubarb, check out one of my other rhubarb recipes.
- Rhubarb Bars
- Rhubarb Coffee Cake
- Rhubarb Crunch
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
- Rhubarb Sauce
- Old Fashioned Rhubarb Custard Pie
- Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler
Can I Freeze Rhubarb?
Rhubarb season is short, but never fear, you can use freeze rhubarb and use it throughout the year without any issues at all. You can also purchase frozen rhubarb at most grocery stores.
To use frozen rhubarb: thaw the rhubarb first and let any excess liquid drain off. Don’t squeeze any liquid out, just drain what naturally thaws out of the rhubarb.
Rhubarb Cake with Butter Sauce
Ingredients
For the cake
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups rhubarb diced (see note below about using frozen rhubarb)
- 2 cups milk
- 6 tablespoons butter melted
For the butter sauce
- 1/2 cup 1 stick butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the diced rhubarb, milk and melted butter. Stir just until combined.
- Pour the batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and cool
- To make the butter sauce, combine the butter sugar and cream in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 1 minute stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
- To serve, cut pieces of cake and serve with a generous amount of warm butter sauce. The sauce can be gently reheated on the stove or in the microwave if necessary.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 4/20/19 – recipe notes and photos updated 5/6/21}
This turned out good. Not doughy. Maybe a hair sweet so I would cut some sugar out next time. I add the sauce right before eating to the individual slice. I can see it being doughy if done to the whole cake and left to sit. My Rhubarb was very tart too so lots of rhubarb flavor!
Kelly – I am glad you enjoyed it. Sugar and rhubarb is an interesting balance to try to strike. Some people prefer really tart and others really want to sweeten it up. It is great when you can find the balance you enjoy.
Have made this several times. I cut the sugar a bit. Its a dense, moist, thick cake. Always turns out. I don’t always make the butter sauce. It doesn’t really need the extra sweetness.
I made this cake last night and it is delicious! The butter sauce adds such a great contrast to the tartness of the rhubarb. Definitely a keeper.
Mary – It is truly a favorite. I am glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing.
Although, the cake seemed to be cooked, it was super moist and had a gummy texture. Maybe my cups of rhubarb were more than level adding more moisture to the cake?
I don’t know how one stalk of rhubarb could ever equal 4 cups. It would have to be super long and super thick.
The butter sauce though is fantastic! I will use it on some other desserts. Not sure if I will try this cake again. I’d give the sauce 5 stars.
Candy – Not sure what happened for you. The cake gets great reviews. I would say try it again before giving up on it completely. Enjoy your summer!
Made this cake today, it’s sooo good. I made the cake into a poke cake. I waited till the cake had cooled for about 20 min. and cooled the sauce for 10 min before pouring it on the cake. Warm up the cake before eating.
Don – Ohh that does sound good to use the Butter Sauce that way. Thank you for sharing.
Made this today & it came out amazing!! I plan on making it again soon. Thank you, everyone really enjoyed it.
Michelle – Thank you for sharing that you enjoyed it!
Made this today. It seemed very very dry added another cup of milk was better but not cake like more like a cobbler. Per other comments I added about 1/2 of chopped rhubarb to the sauce. It was very good next time will add some pecans or walnuts
The extra milk likely worked to turn it into more of a cobbler than cake. It’s a fairly dry batter for the cake. I’m glad it worked out for you! I’m sure it will be delicious with nuts too.
I added rhubarb to the butter sauce….game changer, really love the extra rhubarb flavor
Cheri – That sounds amazing!
The recipe looks fabulous, but your print button is not working. It just takes you to the same posting in a different tab.
May Kay – That is odd. Thank you for letting me know. I will take a look at that today.
Are you supposed to precook rhubarb. If it is chopped will it cook in cake?
Bobbie – No need to precook. It will back up nicely in the cake.