Mary Berry Rhubarb Cake

If your rhubarb patch is looking a bit rampant right now, or you’ve spotted those fluorescent pink stalks piled up at the supermarket and wondered what to do with them beyond crumble, this is the cake you want. Mary Berry’s rhubarb and almond cake is one of those bakes that looks properly impressive but is really straightforward to make, and the almond sponge base makes it feel a cut above a standard fruit loaf.

I’ve been sitting on this recipe for a while, waiting for rhubarb season to feel right. Last weekend it finally happened. One of those grey but mild Sunday mornings that’s basically designed for cake baking, the kids were all doing their own thing, and I had an hour and a half to actually enjoy being in the kitchen without anyone asking where their PE kit was. So I went ahead and made the cake!

This rhubarb cake is one I’d recommend over the more basic sponge versions you’ll find all over the internet. The ground almonds in the batter make all the difference, giving the crumb a richness and slight density that holds up beautifully against the tart rhubarb. It tastes like it came from a proper bakery, but took about ten minutes of actual hands-on effort.

Forced rhubarb vs field rhubarb: what you’re actually buying

If you’ve ever wondered why the rhubarb you buy in January is that vivid, almost neon pink, and the stuff you get from April onwards is greener and more robust-looking, it comes down to how it’s grown. Forced rhubarb is produced in heated sheds in the dark, mainly in the Rhubarb Triangle of West Yorkshire, and it’s harvested from around January through to March. It’s slender, tender, milder in flavour, and that extraordinary colour stays relatively vivid even after baking.

Outdoor or field rhubarb, which is what you’ll be using for this cake if you’re making it in spring or early summer, is a different beast. The stalks are thicker, the colour ranges from deep red to greenish-pink depending on the variety, and the flavour is sharper and more astringent. It’s brilliant in baking, but it’s worth knowing that the tartness is more pronounced. The three tablespoons of sugar sprinkled over the top of this cake before baking do a lot of work to balance that sharpness, so don’t be tempted to skip them or reduce the amount.

Mary Berry’s recipe specifies slender young rhubarb, so if you’re working with thicker outdoor stalks, cut them on a slight diagonal to get pieces of a similar size, and consider halving any particularly chunky ones lengthways first.

Why the almond version beats a plain sponge every time

A lot of the Mary Berry rhubarb cake recipes you’ll come across online use a standard Victoria sponge base with the rhubarb folded through the batter. That version is perfectly nice. But this one, with 200g of ground almonds going into the mix alongside the self-raising flour, is noticeably better. The texture is moister, the flavour has more depth, and it ages well too. A slice the next day is just as good as one fresh from the oven, possibly better.

The other thing that sets this recipe apart is the technique. Rather than stirring the rhubarb through the batter, you press the pieces down into the top, then scatter three tablespoons of caster sugar over the whole lot before it goes in the oven. As it bakes, that sugar caramelises lightly around the rhubarb pieces and forms a slightly crisp, faintly sparkly top crust. It’s genuinely beautiful, and it means you don’t get the soggy pockets you can sometimes end up with when wet fruit is folded through a sponge.

What you’ll need

This is a one-bowl, all-in-one recipe, which is one of the reasons it’s become a firm favourite. No creaming butter and sugar separately, no folding in stages. Everything goes into the food mixer (or food processor) at once, and you beat it until smooth and thick. Simple.

For the cake:

• 200g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
• 200g caster sugar, plus 3 tablespoons for the topping
• 3 large free-range eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract
• 200g ground almonds
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 300g slender young rhubarb, trimmed and cut into roughly 2cm pieces

You’ll also need a 23cm springform cake tin. Don’t try to make this in a fixed-base tin. The baking time is over an hour and you really need to be able to release the sides cleanly once it’s cooled.

The recipe gives you the choice of vanilla extract or almond extract, and it’s worth thinking about which direction you want to go before you open the cupboard. Vanilla is the softer, more familiar option. It rounds out the flavour without drawing attention to itself, which lets the rhubarb do the work.

Almond extract is a different proposition entirely. It’s significantly stronger than vanilla and has that distinctive marzipan quality that plays beautifully off the ground almonds in the batter. If you go with it, be measured: a full teaspoon is fine for vanilla but with almond extract you might want to start at half a teaspoon, especially if you haven’t cooked with it much before. A little goes a long way and you don’t want it to tip into artificial-tasting territory. I used vanilla this time, but next time I’m going almond. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s the right call for this particular recipe.

On the all-in-one method

This is one of those recipes that makes you realise how often we overcomplicate baking. Everything goes in together, you beat it until smooth, and that’s your batter. No creaming butter and sugar until your arm aches, no carefully folding in flour in three stages. Mary Berry uses this all-in-one approach in a lot of her bakes and it consistently produces great results.

The batter will be noticeably stiffer than a standard sponge mix. That’s normal and correct. Because you’ve got 200g of ground almonds in there alongside the flour, it has more substance, and it’ll sit in the tin in a way that lets you press the rhubarb pieces into the surface without them just sinking straight through.

If you don’t have a food mixer or food processor, this absolutely works by hand. Use a large mixing bowl, make sure your butter is properly softened (not melted, just soft enough to squash easily), and beat with a wooden spoon until everything is combined and smooth. It’ll take a couple of minutes more effort but the result is the same.

How to make it

Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Grease your springform tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.

Tip the butter, sugar, eggs, extract, ground almonds, self-raising flour and baking powder into your food mixer or processor. Beat until smooth and thick. The batter will be quite stiff, noticeably denser than a standard Victoria sponge mix, and that’s exactly right.

Spoon the batter into your prepared tin. Don’t worry too much about getting it perfectly level at this point.

Now for the satisfying bit. Take your rhubarb pieces and press them down into the surface of the batter. I arranged mine in concentric circles because I’d seen other versions done that way and it looked lovely going in. Scatter the three tablespoons of sugar evenly over the top.

It goes into the oven for an hour and fifteen minutes. This feels like a long time for a relatively thin cake, but it needs it. The ground almonds mean the batter is dense, and the rhubarb releases liquid as it cooks, so the centre needs to be fully set before it comes out. Start checking at the hour mark and cover loosely with foil if the top is browning too fast before the centre is done. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean, making sure you’re pushing it into sponge rather than a piece of rhubarb.

Leave it in the tin for twenty minutes before releasing the sides and turning it out onto a wire rack.

How it actually turned out

So, so good! The top had that sugar-crusted, slightly caramelised finish I was hoping for, and the rhubarb pieces had softened into the sponge without disappearing completely. You still get that tartness in every bite, which is exactly what you want. Without it the cake would be sweet and a bit one-note.

The crumb is dense but not heavy, if that makes sense. It’s got more substance than a Victoria sponge but it doesn’t sit in your stomach like a doorstop. My husband had two slices before I’d even taken my photos, which I’m choosing to take as a compliment rather than a reason to be irritated.

Mine baked closer to the full hour and fifteen, and I did need the foil over the top for the last twenty minutes or so. Every oven is different, so keep an eye on it from the hour mark. If the top looks deep golden before the centre is set, just tent some foil over it loosely and let it finish cooking.

The cake came out of the springform tin cleanly, which was a relief. If yours sticks slightly at the edges, run a palette knife gently around the inside of the tin before releasing the clip.

Variations worth trying

This cake is good as a template as well as a standalone recipe. A few combinations I’d consider next time:

Rhubarb and strawberry: a classic pairing that works particularly well in late spring when both are in season at the same time. Use around 200g rhubarb and 100g hulled, halved strawberries. The strawberries add a little sweetness and their colour bleeds into the sponge beautifully.

Orange zest in the batter: grate in the zest of one orange when you add the other ingredients. It lifts the whole thing and the citrus note plays well against both the almonds and the rhubarb tartness.

Flaked almonds on top: scatter a small handful over the surface alongside the sugar before baking. They toast as the cake cooks and give you a bit of crunch on top of that caramelised sugar crust, which is very good.

Ginger: a teaspoon of ground ginger stirred into the batter gives you a warmer, spicier edge that works particularly well with the sharper outdoor rhubarb. Not a dramatic change, but a noticeable and very welcome one.

Serving it

This cake is good warm and it’s good cold. Warm, it’s more of a pudding, and a spoonful of custard or a dollop of clotted cream alongside makes it feel properly indulgent. Cold, it holds together better for slicing and works beautifully as an afternoon tea cake with nothing more than a cup of tea.

Storing and Freezing

This cake keeps well in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature. The sugar crust softens a little after the first day but the flavour genuinely improves as it sits, so don’t feel you have to rush through it.

It also freezes brilliantly, which is one of its underrated qualities. Once the cake is fully cooled, slice it and wrap individual portions in cling film, then pop them in a freezer bag or airtight container. They’ll keep for up to two months. To defrost, just leave a slice at room temperature for an hour or so, or give it twenty to thirty seconds in the microwave if you want it slightly warm. This makes it a genuinely useful recipe to have in the repertoire: bake it when rhubarb is in season, freeze half, and you’ve got a very good cake waiting for you on a grey Tuesday in October when fresh rhubarb is long gone.

If you want to freeze the whole cake rather than slices, wrap it tightly in a double layer of cling film and then a layer of foil before freezing. Defrost overnight at room temperature.

Questions people ask about rhubarb cake

Can you use frozen rhubarb in this cake? Yes, you can, though fresh is better if you can get it. If you’re using frozen, defrost it fully and drain off any excess liquid before using. Frozen rhubarb tends to be wetter and softer than fresh, so it’ll behave slightly differently in the batter, but the cake will still work.

Why has my rhubarb cake gone soggy in the middle? The most likely cause is underbaking. Rhubarb releases a surprising amount of liquid as it cooks, and because the ground almond batter is quite dense, it needs the full time in the oven to set properly. Always test with a skewer in the centre of the sponge, not near a piece of fruit, and make sure it comes out clean before you take the cake out.

Can you make this cake ahead? Yes, and it actually benefits from it. Bake it the day before you need it and store it in an airtight container. The texture settles nicely overnight and it slices more cleanly when fully cooled.

Do you need to remove the strings from rhubarb before baking? Not for this recipe. Young, slender rhubarb stalks don’t need stringing. If you’re using older, thicker stalks, you might want to peel any stringy outer fibres away, but for the tender spring rhubarb you’ll find right now, just trim the ends, cut into lengths, and you’re good to go.

Can you make this gluten-free? The ground almonds already provide a lot of the structure here. You could try substituting the self-raising flour with a gluten-free self-raising blend, though I haven’t tested this myself. Check that your baking powder is also gluten-free if you’re cooking for someone with a serious intolerance.

Is rhubarb cake better warm or cold? Both, honestly, just in different ways. Warm it’s more of a dessert, especially with cream or custard. Cold it’s a proper teatime cake. I had a slice cold the next morning with a coffee and it was excellent.

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