Today, let’s make a fancy-looking poke cake! Don't worry! It's an easy rhubarb cake with yellow cake mix! The gorgeous red sauce is the star of the show, and the yellow cake is simply the stage where it dances!
Rhubarb is shooting up and becoming plentiful! With the tangy stalks, you can create seemingly endless goodies, from jam to sauces, bread, pies, and desserts.
Here’s a strikingly gorgeous cake that looks great from every angle and tastes as amazing as it looks! This beautiful dessert begins with a cake mix and some rhubarb.
Everyone knows food tastes best when it's fresh. Ideally, that means whisking the food you grow from your garden to your kitchen as soon as possible.
Today, we hear a lot of buzz about farm-to-table or farm-to-fork. This simply means preparing and eating food as close to its source as possible, quickly after harvest, like great-grandma picked beans from her garden in the afternoon and cooked them for supper.
That would be amazing, but for most of us, it's not realistic. But if you are lucky enough to have a rhubarb bed, you can pull a few stalks, cut off the enormous leaves, take them straight to the kitchen sink for a quick wash, and then chop them for this glorious cake.
Rhubarb is super puckery and tart. I've heard of kids who pulled and ate it raw, right from the plant! Holy cow! I must have been a wimpy child because the very thought makes me shudder. That's why almost all rhubarb recipes call for added sugar.
You may notice my rhubarb is green. In the rhubarb world, red does not indicate ripeness like on a strawberry or tomato. It tastes just the same, even though it's not as pretty. The red jello in this recipe makes it look better, like red lipstick does on my practically invisible lips.
Start by making the yummy sauce/poke/topping. Put two cups of finely diced rhubarb in a saucepan with a cup of sugar. Let it sit for at least an hour to allow the sugar to draw out the juices.
Add the water and simmer until the rhubarb is tender and breaks up. Next, turn up the heat and add the jello, stirring until the sugar and jello dissolve completely.
Set the mixture aside to cool while the cake bakes, but save one-half cup of the sauce for the garnish. I poured it into a glass measuring cup because the lip is handy when you dribble a little sauce on top of your finished cake to make it extra pretty. 💗
Mix the cake according to the ingredients and directions on the cake mix box. Don't underbake the cake, because you're going to poke it full of holes! The edges should pull back a bit from the pan, like this. Please make sure the top springs back when you touch it lightly; a cake tester should come out clean.
Use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the cake while it's still hot. You are making little craters for the rhubarb sauce to soak down, down, down into the cake, infusing it with flavor!
Pour that pretty sauce as evenly as you can, making sure every crater gets some! Use a rubber spatula to encourage all that yummy sauce to seep down, down, down into the craters you made for it.
Now refrigerate the cake for two or three hours, until the jello is completely set. If you didn't do it earlier, remove the whipped topping from the freezer and put it in the fridge.
Then relax for a while—but make sure your tub of whipped topping isn't frozen. It's best to let it defrost in the refrigerator so it doesn't go flat when you try to rush it. Experience speaking here, friends. Do what I say, not what I do. Are you with me?
When the cake is cool and the jello is set, gently swirl the whole carton of whipped topping over the rhubarb poke cake to the edges. Lick the spatula. (It's required.)
The squiggly design on top is one part Simple Simon, one part Fancy Nancy. I've had the best results dribbling the topping from a small measuring cup with a pour spout. Make four or five lines of dribble lengthwise on the cake; it does not need to be perfect! Skips won't matter.
Now, lightly pull a table knife through the topping and the dribbled lines in the opposite direction across the cake—first one way, then in the opposite direction until you run out of cake. Isn't that simple and festive? This cute cake is a party when it's not even a party! This cake should be kept refrigerated.
This moist, delicious poke cake starts with a yellow cake mix, then is infused with a sweet-tangy rhubarb sauce. Smothered in whipped topping with an artful swirl of rhubarb sauce on top. The perfect summer dessert!
This cake needs to be refigerated but take it out a little bit before you serve it for the very best experience! It would make a great dessert for any of our American holidays! Go crazy and stud topping with blueberries and add some tiny American flags if you want to make it extra fancy!
In our world, summer means All-American pastimes! Here is a perfect summer cake! This beautiful rhubarb poke cake dessert is ideal for picnics and potlucks from now until the end of summer! Picnics, baseball, lazy lake days, and firelit nights on the patio with fireflies winking, cry out for this festive rhubarb poke cake.
Here are some other wonderful rhubarb recipes when your rhubarb starts producing heavily or the neighbor gives you some of hers! One Bowl Rustic Rhubarb Bread, Rhubarb Swirl Dessert, Easy Rhubarb Dump Cake, Easy Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam. Watch for more! I'm in a "rhubarb state of mind!"
By the way, rhubarb doesn't grow well in warmer climates, but you can often find excellent frozen red rhubarb in your favorite grocery store!
If you liked this rhubarb poke cake recipe, you are my people! If you did, please share it on your social media accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter! It would sure tickle me, and I would be ever so grateful!
If you haven't already, please look for me on Facebook and Pinterest, where I will share easy, delicious, family-friendly recipes every week!
If you enjoyed a post, I'd love it if you would leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review or a comment. It really helps my little business. ❤❤
Love GB (Betty Streff)
Sign up for my newsletter and receive a free gift! A printable sign that would look great in your kitchen, framed above your sink, or just placed anywhere to remind us how lucky we are to have dirty dishes!
Sign up now!