Rhubarb Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping
Rhubarb Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping for brunch, tea time and dessert is rich and tender with tart fruit and a rich crunchy cinnamon butter topping.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature (and a little extra for the pan)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt I like sea salt
- 1 cup sugar ¾ if you use a sweeter fruit, like blueberries
- 2 large whole eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3-4 cups chopped rhubarb
Crumb Topping
- ½ cup unsalted butter cold- see notes
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Wash and chop the rhubarb.
- Butter the 9-inch pan.
- Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well in between. Beat for a minute or two until very creamy. Add the salt, vanilla, powder and soda. Add in half the flour and half the sour cream.
- Add in the rest of the flour and sour cream. Beat just until incorporated.
- Fold in the rhubarb with a spatula (it’s is a very thick batter).
Spread it into the pan. - To prepare the crumb topping, combine the cold butter, sugar, cinnamon and flour in the food processor and pulse until it’s incorporated and clumps form.
- Spread evenly over the cake. Bake for 50-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes our clean when inserted into the center of the cake. Let it cool before you cut it.
- If you cut it while still warm, it will be very delicious, but won’t hold together in pieces very well. Serve it warm with coffee or tea.
Notes
Makes one 9-inch square cake
Need to speed things along? Sauté the rhubarb in 1 tablespoon butter, sugar, and water until it just begins to soften. Then fold it into the cake. Now you can bake if for more like 30 minutes because rhubarb has so much water in it, it can really slow the baking time. Also, don’t want to dirty two dishes? Let the butter for the crumb topping come to room temperature as well and make the topping in the dirty batter bowl. The texture isn’t quite as perfect, but it definitely gets the job done and saves you some cleaning time.
Need to speed things along? Sauté the rhubarb in 1 tablespoon butter, sugar, and water until it just begins to soften. Then fold it into the cake. Now you can bake if for more like 30 minutes because rhubarb has so much water in it, it can really slow the baking time. Also, don’t want to dirty two dishes? Let the butter for the crumb topping come to room temperature as well and make the topping in the dirty batter bowl. The texture isn’t quite as perfect, but it definitely gets the job done and saves you some cleaning time.