Rhubarb “Big Crumb” Coffeecake
Updated April 2, 2026
Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes, plus cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
Butter, for greasing pan
FOR THE RHUBARB FILLING
½ pound rhubarb, trimmed
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon ground ginger
FOR THE CRUMBS
⅓ cup dark brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ cup melted butter
1 ¾ cups cake flour
FOR THE CAKE
⅓ cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 to 8 servings)
73 grams carbs; 110 milligrams cholesterol; 539 calories; 7 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 25 grams fat; 2 grams fiber; 231 milligrams sodium; 6 grams protein; 34 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. For filling, slice rhubarb ½ inch thick and toss with sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Set aside.
- Step 2
To make crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk together sugars, spices, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. It will look like a solid dough.
- Step 3
To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about ½ cup batter and set aside.
- Step 4
Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon rhubarb over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over rhubarb; it does not have to be even.
- Step 5
Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about ½ inch to ¾ inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from rhubarb), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.
Private Notes
Comments
Rhubarb, crumb and cake: The cake is excellent. I substituted plain, nonfat Greek yogurt for the sour cream and used Irish butter. The crumb topping was just okay; but it is not what I prefer in a coffee cake. Instead of being a sparkling, crunchy-sugary topping, the crumb tasted dense and drab from flour. With respect to rhubarb, a little more would be nice. So I'll definitely make the cake again, but with a different crumb topping and perhaps 3/4 lb rhubarb.
FAN-TASTIC! 10/5. You like rhubarb, butter and a great crumb topping? Make this cake! That said, I did make a couple of adjustments - I will preempt the posters who often chime in with, “you didn’t make the recipe as it was written.” No in fact I didn’t. For those still reading, I bake every week and have become comfortable “personalizing” recipes based on our Sunday family dinner crew’s taste buds. Here’s where that popped up for this delicious cake. Used cake flour (Swan’s) in all parts of this recipe. Highly recommended! Used 5 heaping T’s of fresh, finely grated ginger (a grater box with small plate) mixed in with the rhubarb and sugar prep bowl. Used the same amount of ginger, 5T, in the crumb topping and omitted the cinnamon. Used 2/3 C of sugar in the cake. Used the called for amount of brown sugar and halved the white sugar in the crumb topping. I used WAY more rhubarb than recipe called for. 2 C of it Then, for the WIN, I made the rhubarb compote (NYT) and served that to our over the cake with homemade whipping cream. Let’s just say that the not quite 2 year old who was present, popped out a giddy, loud, unprompted, “TANK YOU” raising both arms, clenching his spoon above his head after the first bite. The 9 adults all responded in kind and we taught him the word “WOW!” This cake was a quasi religious, all age, positive group experience. If you, like me, wait all year for rhubarb to come into season, do yourself a favor with this one!
I’ve made this five times and when I use Swans Cake Flour the crumb is perfection. Twice I only had King Arthur Cake Flour and the crumb was hard and floury. Use Swans- it’s incredible.
Very tasty cake but way too much flour in the crumb which caused it to not... crumb. A little fussy for the cake directions too. Mix the wet, mix the dry, add the wet to the dry, mix until just combined. Done. Very good even taking the lazy way. I'll go with just 1 1/4 cup flour in the crumb next time.
I recently made this and it was loved by all. I followed the recipe. My only deviation was adding a rhubarb ginger glaze to the finished cake. Very light glaze so as to not rob the cake of it’s delicious crunch
The cake was fine - a little sweet, and not quite as much rhubarb as I'd like. But it was also a lot more effort and mess than I expected. Four bowls: rhubarb, crumb mix, cake mix, and egg/sour cream mix, is a lot of bowls, and they're all needed at the same time. Couldn't find Swan's, but Softassilk cake flour produced a light cake and crumb mixture.