Rhubarb-Almond Cake With Strawberries & Cream

What's the occasion? It's rhubarb season —and a holiday weekend.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t mind sweltering for a couple of days this week when temps briefly hit the 90s. Frankly, it took me that long just to thaw out from the very chilly Spring weather we’ve been experiencing. And while I’m now back in a wool sweater and the forecast is for a cool, damp Memorial Day weekend, I’ve decided to embrace the moment and focus not on the thermometer but on the gorgeous seasonal produce popping up at the markets.

Toward that end, I decided to make one of my favorite rhubarb recipes—a moist, almond-flour-based cake lightened up with beaten egg whites and served (if you like) with strawberries and cream. It’s a truly delicious, very moist cake that’s also good for breakfast or with a warming cup of tea on a nippy afternoon in May. (It also happens to be gluten-free.)

A Beautiful Bonus

The recipe yields a beautiful byproduct: You’ll be left with a jar of begonia-pink, rhubarb-flavored simple syrup to use in seasonal cocktails. Remember this when you see that the recipe calls for 1½ cups of sugar. You will say to yourself, ‘“Wow, that’s a lot of sugar.” And then you’ll remember that half of it becomes the syrup (which doesn’t go back into the cake).

Rhubarb-Almond Cake With Strawberries & Cream

You can make almond meal by processing raw almonds into a powder in the food processor, or use Bob’s Red Mill, as I did here.

• ¾ cup water

• 1½ cups sugar, divided¹

• ¾ pound rhubarb, diced

• 6 tablespoons unsalted softened butter, plus more for greasing the pan

• 3 eggs, separated

• 1½ cups almond flour/meal (don’t pack it; it should weigh about 145 g.)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ½ teaspoon almond extract (optional; use it if you like the taste of marzipan, because that’s what it imparts)

For serving:

• Whipped cream

• Fresh strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch round spring-form cake pan and line with parchment paper, then lightly butter the parchment paper.

2. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil, immediately lower heat and add ¾ cup of the sugar. Stir to dissolve, add rhubarb, cover, and simmer 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place a strainer over a bowl. When rhubarb has cooked, carefully drain through strainer, reserving liquid for another use. Spoon rhubarb into a metal bowl or cake tin, smooth into a thin layer, and place in fridge or freezer for a few minutes to cool.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolks one at a time, then almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until combined, then scrape down the sides with a spatula. Add extracts and rhubarb and mix very briefly, until everything’s just combined, about 10 more seconds.

4. In another bowl², beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold³ gently into batter with the spatula, one third at a time. Stop when there’s no longer any obvious white fluffy stuff in the batter.

5. Transfer mixture to pan and bake on center rack for about 55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Place cake on a rack and let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Run a slim knife between cake and pan, then remove outer ring. Let cake cool completely before slicing. Serve with whipped cream and strawberries if desired.

1. Wow, that seems like a lot of sugar! (See “A Beautiful Bonus” note above.)

2. If you’re using a stand mixer with only one bowl (and you don’t have a hand mixer/beater), transfer batter to a different bowl, wash and dry the bowl that goes with the stand mixer, swap paddle to beater attachment, and beat the egg whites.

3. Watch Moira and David discuss how to fold in this clip from Schitt’s Creek. 😂

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