Strawberry Rhubarb Spoon Cake

Wrapping up my Portuguese strawberry obsession

Jun 17, 2026

Bom dia,

I hope this note finds you well, with all kinds of deliciousness cooking in your life.

Growing up in Southern California, our family never cooked with rhubarb. It needs a cold winter to thrive, and we simply never encountered it. I was introduced to it as a young adult after moving to the East Coast, where it seemed to appear everywhere in the spring.

Stalks were piled high at roadside stands alongside wooden crates of freshly picked strawberries, and friends would arrive bearing jars of strawberry-rhubarb jam or a just-baked cake.

For a long time, I didn’t understand the appeal of something that looked like red celery and tasted so sour—until I discovered how beautifully it transforms alongside other fruit, especially strawberries.

The organic strawberries and rhubarb available here in Portugal are exceptionally good. The strawberries are so fragrant their floral scent fills the room—deep red all the way through, intensely juicy, and bursting with flavor. So you can imagine how excited I was when I came across baskets of strawberries and crates of rhubarb sitting side by side at the farmers’ market this weekend. We’ve been eating the strawberries straight out of hand and adding them to our morning muesli.

Yesterday, I finally made the cake I’d been dreaming about for weeks. I call this a spoon cake because of its incredibly tender crumb. While still warm from the oven, it’s so moist it’s almost spoonable. As it cools, the butter firms up and the texture settles into something more cake-like. I baked mine in a 2.2-liter Le Creuset baker, but an 8- or 9-inch cake pan works just as well.

It’s moist and buttery, not too sweet, with a crunchy brown sugar streusel on top. It is, quite simply, delicious.

You can find the full recipe here.

Until next time, from my table to yours,