Cakes
Rhubarb Instant Pot Cake (or apple)
Rhubarb Instant Pot cake is ultra-moist, flavorful, straightforward to mix and even easier to eat. It's great with apples, too.
At a glance
What stands out: Rhubarb Instant Pot cake became an instant favorite in our family and we know you’re going to love it too! Ultra-moist and flavorful, it’s straightforward to mix. You won’t even have to turn your oven on to make this unique rhubarb cake.
How long it takes: 1 ½ hours
Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowl, electric mixer, 7 inch metal cake pan, Instant Pot
Servings: 8
We just adore rhubarb. It’s always been a favorite in our family. In fact, we always had a few rhubarb plants growing on the backyard. Our mom cooked it into a sweetened sauce that we’d eat it with spoons. Tart but sweet, rhubarb sauce is a great springtime dessert. We love that rhubarb sauce so much that it is one of the first recipes we posted on our site.
About this Rhubarb Instant Pot Cake
Rhubarb and cardamom go together evenly. Ever since we paired rhubarb with cardamom in these rhubarb bars, we've been smitten with the combination. Try it in strawberry rhubarb crisp, too! The unique taste of cardamom is difficult to describe, but it has a warm flavor with hints of citrus that goes great with other warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.
The cake is moist and rich. The cake is a dense cake, reminiscent of a great bread pudding. The rhubarb with the butter and brown sugar turns into a sauce that tastes like a rhubarb caramel. It’s reliable drizzled over the cake right before you serve a slice.
You don’t have to turn on the oven. This unique cake “bakes” in just over an hour in your Instant Pot. You don’t have to heat up your kitchen which is nice for for these warmer days we’ve been having!
Try It With Apples!
If you don’t love rhubarb (we feel like it’s in the love-it-or-hate-it camp with cilantro and beets) or if rhubarb isn’t in season, make this recipe with chopped apples instead.
Cake Pan
If you have a 6-quart Instant Pot, you’ll need a 7-inch cake pan to fit inside it. We bought this cake pan and it works evenly. You bake the cake tightly covered with paper towel and foil to prevent steam from making it soggy.
Suggested Toppings
This Instant Pot cake is great served with ice cream or whipped cream. Try making lightly sweetened from-scratch whipped cream with a touch of cardamom or cinnamon to evenly complement this cake.
Be sure to try our recipe for rhubarb cake, too. It’s a coffee cake topped with streusel, and it’s always a hit!
- Yield: 8
- Prep: 20 minutes
- Cook: 1 hour
- Total: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (2% or full fat recommended)
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom (if you prefer, an additional ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon can be substituted)
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
For the topping:
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (or ground cinnamon)
- 1 ½ cups chopped rhubarb (about 5 rhubarb stalks cut into ½ -inch pieces )
Method
- Spray a 7-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Spray parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat ½ cup butter until fluffy. Add sugar and beat again. Add eggs and egg yolk and beat until fluffy. Add yogurt and vanilla extract and beat to combine.
- Add dry ingredients on top (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ½ teaspoon cardamom, nutmeg) and mix them together gently before beating them into the wet ingredients, scraping down sides as needed. Set aside while you make topping.
- In a small bowl, combine melted butter with brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon cardamom, and chopped rhubarb. Spread mixture into the bottom of the prepared cake pan.
- On top of rhubarb mixture, spread cake batter into an even layer (batter will be thick). Cover pan with a paper towel and then wrap tightly with foil.
- In the bottom of a 6-quart Instant Pot insert, add 1 cup of cold water. Place covered cake pan on top of steamer insert and carefully place it in the Instant Pot. Cover the Instant Pot and turn valve to seal. Set Instant Pot to Pressure Cook (or Manual, high pressure) for 60 minutes.
- When the timer goes off, let the Instant Pot naturally release for 10 minutes. Carefully release remaining pressure (quick release) and remove the cake from the Instant Pot.
- Remove foil and paper towel and run a butter knife around the edges of the cake pan. Place a heat-safe plate that has a rim (not a cake stand!) over the cake pan. Holding the plate in place, carefully flip the plate and pan over. Slowly remove cake pan from cake.
Notes
Fruit variation: If rhubarb isn’t in season or you don’t like it, this recipe is also rich with chopped apples.
Cooking tip: If your cake pan is tall like ours, you can make aluminum foil “handles” for your steamer basket to make it easier to remove the pan when it is finished cooking. Wrap a double-thick piece of foil around the handles of the steamer tray to make them longer so you can use those to lift the cake out when it’s done cooking.
