Rhubarb Upside-Down Yogurt Cake

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Sun is shining and birds are chirping from a tree outside our window. It might just be the ultimate day for a summer cake. We created this one for our youtube channel and never intended to post it here, but it was just too pretty not to. This is an upside-down yogurt and almond cake with rose shaped rhubarbs on top that are drizzled with a rhubarb and ginger syrup. The cake is gluten free and the addition of yogurt makes its consistency somewhat similar to a cheesecake. All in all it’s a gorgeous cake for summer gatherings. If you are not fond of rhubarbs or if they are out of season, you can try replacing them with other types of fruit. Plums, apples or even pineapple would work great. Check out the video below to see how it’s done. And if you don’t want to miss out on any of our videos, make sure to subscribe to our channel.

In other news, we have just heard that an advance copy of our new book Green Kitchen Travels is on its way to us, so expect a sneak peek soon. We can hardly wait. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Rhubarb & Almond Upside-Down Yogurt Cake
Serves 8

4-5 stalks (1 lb / 450 g) fresh thin rhubarb
4 tbsp honey
2/3 cup water
½ inch / 1 ½ cm knob fresh ginger, grated
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

2 cups / 500 ml / 200 g almond flour
½ cup / 125 ml / 75 g buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder

2-3 tbsp poppy seeds

1/2 tsp sea salt

100 g butter
1/2 cup / 125 ml honey or maple syrup

2 organic lemons, zest
3 eggs, separated
1 cup / 250 ml full-fat yogurt (we use Greek or Turkish yogurt)

Heat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Trim the rhubarbs and cut into 2 inch / 5 cm pieces on an angle. Combine rhubarb, honey, water, ginger and a scraped vanilla pod in a large pot over medium low heat. Cook for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is tender and slightly caramelized but still intact. Pick up the rhubarb pieces to cool off and save the syrup for later (you can strain the syrup if you prefer, we didn’t). If the syrup is too thin, you can let it reduce over heat for a few minutes more. If you want more syrup, you can add some extra water and honey and let it slowly cook for a few minutes more.

Combine almond flour, buckwheat flour, baking powder, poppy seeds and sea salt in a small bowl and set aside. Place butter, honey and lemon zest in a medium size bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until creamy. Add egg yolks and continue to beat for another minute. Add the flour mixture and fold everything together.

Clean the whisking blades and beat egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Slowly fold the egg whites and the yogurt into the cake mixture.

Put a baking sheet inside an 8 inch / 22 cm spring form cake pan. Arrange the rhubarb in a tight rose shaped pattern on the bottom of the pan. It will look extra beautiful if you place them in color order – with the dark red pieces furthest out and the light green ones towards the center. Carefully cover the rhubarb with cake batter. Bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until dark and golden on the top and baked all way through. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes before turning it upside-down on a serving platter and removing the sides. Drizzle the rhubarb syrup on top before serving.

95 Comments

  • Pavlina
    Just made this with peaches on top / bottom instead of rhubarb and added frozen blueberries into the batter. Otherwise did as per the recipe and it turned out delicious!! SO versatile and amazingly simple as always! Thank you David & Luisa xx
  • Astrid
    Just love your recipes 😍! Thank you for sharing! Keep safe! Astrid
  • Eva
    I made this with a few tweaks and was delicious! Replaced almond flour with self-raising flour, same amount (2 cups) and added half teaspoon of baking powder. Used 1 teaspoon of rosewater with rhubarb instead of vanilla, and orange zest instead of lemon. used 2 eggs instead of 3 (that was a guess based on not using almond flour). All worked out really well, and syrup def is finishing touch.
  • Andrea
    Is it possible to veganize this? Substituting a flax or chia seed egg for the egg and using nondairy yogurt?
  • I cannot wait to make this tomorrow - question, have you ever frozen afterward? I am not sure rhubarb is good to freeze. Thank you!
  • Sien
    Hi! I absolutely love rhubarb and want to make the most of this season :-) Do you think that coconut yoghurt would work just as well? I love full fat yoghurt, but I'm trying to avoid it (dairy) for health reasons. It's quite a change, because I'm used to baking, but with butter and milk and buttermilk and yoghurt, mmm. Any recommendations are very welcome!
  • Serri
    I made this with the rhubarb last weekend but wasn't thrilled with the rhubarb and honey flavours, so made it again with fresh rasberries in the base instead, Yuuuum! Love the almond meal, lemon rind and poppy seed combo, a very delicious and versatile cake!! Thank you for this!
  • Sylvie
    i made this cake tonight with rhubarb and strawberries, everybody loved it! so good, satisfying and moist. thanks for sharing your amazing recipes :)
  • Sophia
    I made a version with pineapple and it was delicious! I suspect it is a little bit sweeter then the rhubarb-one, but that's fine for a birthday cake. Love from Holland ❤️
  • This looks so good! I am allergic to almonds, do you think you could sub another flour for the almond flour like gluten free flour? Thanks!
  • Emilia
    Hello! I would really like to make this cake this week as it looks delicious, but wanted to make sure what exactly is meant by almond flour? Almond meal or the actual flour? Because I have come across certain recipes where the two were confused, leading to relatively disastrous results... Thank you, Emilia
    • Hi Emilia, yes we use almond flour in this cake. I think you could use almond meal as well but you might get a slightly less light cake than with almond flour. /D
      • Emilia
        Okay, thank you very much!
  • Michal
    Hi! Is it possible to use coconut oil instead of butter? If so then how much? Thanks, looks amazing!
  • anya clark
    Does it matter if one were to use thin honey instead of thick? also do you have any brand of honey/yoghurt that you recommend
  • Gabrielle
    How do you make this vegan?
  • shyer wern
    Hi! I stewed the rhubarb and it completely fell apart into a huge stringy mess! Was it that my fire was too big?? Or was my rhubarb just bad quality? Thank you for the beautiful recipes! The pictures are so gorgeous !
  • Manja
    Hi, Do you think it would be ok to make this cake a day ahead? Thank you.
    • Marita
      Hi, did you try to make it a day ahead? was wondering bout the same thing myself.
  • Claire
    I finally made this the other day! Subbed buckwheat flour for oat flour, lemon zest for orange zest and rhubarb for plums! Absolutely delicious!
  • Kirstin
    I made the cake last weekend with the first fresh rhubarb from our garden and it turned out delicious! I used spelt flour instead of buckwheat flour but otherwise made no alterations to the recipe. My cake pan was a little smaller (20cm diameter) and it turned out I needed a lot less rhubarb. The syrup tastes heavenly as well. I'm pouring a little amount into a glass of sparkling water - yummy!
  • Julie
    I've never scene rhubarb anything looking so pretty!
  • Samantha
    I just made this last night, it's delicious! I used pineapple, as rhubarb is not in season right now here. I didn't cook the pineapple before adding it to the cake pan, I just added a bit of brown sugar and butter to the pan. The cake has a really lovely texture, isn't too sweet and is very satisfying. This would make a nice holiday cake, I wonder what it would be like made with cranberries? Thank you for the recipe :).
  • Talk about creativity! Yummmm!
  • Louise
    The cake looks fantastic
  • Latifa
    I made this cake and it was sooooo yummy! Since rhubarb is now finished for the season, what other fruit do you think would be best to try with it? Thanks Latifa
  • Matilda
    Vad är det som händer med kakan när man separerar äggen? Jag tänkte göra kakan vegansk genom att använda chiagel eller "noegg", men då blir det väll mer som att man tillsätter äggen hela..? Tror du det kan fungera? :)
  • Julia
    I'm hoping to make this gorgeous cake tomorrow for afternoon tea with some girlfriends but I don't have any almond flour or even know where I could locate it in Melbourne. Can I substitute for something else? Thanks!
  • This looks lovely! I wonder, could buckwheat flour be made from grinding up buckwheat groats in a food processor? It's nearly impossible to find that particular flour here. Otherwise, would rye (or some other) flour work as a substitute for this cake?
    • Hi Lydia, I have never tried grinding buckwheat groats into a flour and would therefore not recommend it. I would rather replace the buckwheat flour with spelt flour (if you are not gluten-intolerant). Or rye flour, but that might turn out a bit compact? Or, if you want to keep it gluten-free, you could always use a gluten-free flour mixture. Good luck! /David
      • I'm not thankfully, so will try using spelt flour. Thank you!
        • Olga
          I actually made the cake doing just that- grinding buckwheat in a blender- and it turned out great! I also used plums instead of rhubarb.
  • Wow this cake looks delicious. Now I know what to do with all the rhubarbs my father brought me from his garden ;)

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