Gluten-Free Rhubarb Cream Cake

This Gluten-Free Rhubarb Cream Cake is beautiful and delicious too — honey-sweetened rhubarb is paired with piles of whipped cream and layers of buttery gluten-free cake.

Gluten-Free Rhubarb Cream Cake

I first made this gorgeous and delicious cake after a trip to the U.K. in 2017 where too much strawberry cream cake from Marks & Spencers was consumed. We’d moved to Australia soon after and I was thrilled to find more fresh produce than we’d encountered in Saudi Arabia.

Cream and fruit is advisable at any time of year, and especially during spring. I decided to recreate it at home, but made it gluten-free and used with roasted rhubarb instead of strawberries. Simple is as simple does but that’s sort of my cooking mantra.

This cake is wonderful to make in the spring and continuing on through the summer months. It would be lovely savored with a glass of cold bubbly for a celebration, with the windows open. Or even better, on a deck or packed along on a picnic with cups of tea (an al fresco tea party is always advisable). You could try roasted strawberry compote here instead of the rhubarb, or swap in raspberry jam if that’s easier. All in all, this is one of my favorites.

What You’ll Need

• Oat flour: A wonderful gluten-free whole grain flour for baking
• Sweet white rice flour: Works as a binder in gluten-free cakes
• Sugar or maple sugar
• Baking powder
• Fine sea salt
• Pure vanilla extract
• Unsalted butter
• Eggs
• Whole milk

How to Make Gluten-Free Rhubarb Cream Cake

There are a few steps that go into making this cake, but they are well worth it. I’ve outlined how you can make this cake below:

Make Rhubarb Compote

• Cook the rhubarb. Heat oven to 350 F. Place cut rhubarb in a baking dish, drizzle over the honey, and mix to combine. Roast until soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven, mix to fully break down the rhubarb, and set aside. You’ll need about 1 cup of compote for this recipe. Use the rest in yogurt, on toast … etc.!

Make Cake

• Prepare the pan. Place a piece of parchment in an 8-inch cake pan. Grease the parchment and sides of cake pan with butter.
• Cream the butter. In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each and scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, Beat in the vanilla extract.
• Whisk the flours. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oat and sweet white rice flours with the baking powder and salt.
• Add the flour mix to the wet mix. With the mixer on low, stir half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture until just combined. Stir in the milk until just combined, then add the rest of the flour, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
• Preheat the oven. Spread the batter evenly in the pan and let rest for at least 15 minutes. Then preheat oven to 350°F.
• Bake the cake. Place the cake in the oven and bake until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, the top is set, and the edges are slightly coming away from the pan, 40-50 minutes. Remove from oven and let cake cool completely in the pan on a rack, then invert onto a serving platter and peel away the parchment.
• Split the cake. Using a serrated knife, split cake in half horizontally; place the bottom half, cut side up, on a serving plate.

Assembly

• Whip the cream. In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form.
• Assemble the cake. Spread the bottom cake layer with the jam, then top with 3/4 cup of the rhubarb compote. Spread half the whipped cream over and top with the other cake layer. Spread the remaining 1/4 cup rhubarb over the top layer and spread the remaining whipped cream over in an even layer.

Tips for Success

• Bring ingredients to room temperature before using.
• Rest the batter. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes before baking. Gluten-free flours benefit from a rest so that they can absorb liquids.
• To make dairy-free: Substitute your favorite non-dairy butter and milk of choice

Substitution Suggestions

• Oat flour substitute: Swap sorghum or millet flour.
• Sweet white rice flour substitute: Try tapioca flour or arrowroot.
• Sugar substitute: Try honey or maple sugar for the sugar.
• Whole milk substitute: Switch for full fat coconut milk or your favorite non-dairy milk.
• Butter substitute – Swap in coconut oil.

How to Store

Store cake in the fridge, well covered, for 3 days.

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