Absolutely. Just remember that rhubarb is a fairly wet fruit (or rather, it exudes quite a bit of water when it cooks), so your best bet for subs will be fruits with similar water content that cook at a similar rate - berries, peaches, etc. Canned pineapple would probably work well, fresh might not soften up enough. Bananas might require additional tweaks to the recipe.

I agree, that would be good for apples, pears, peaches, plums, berries. Bananas I'm not so sure about.....

It sounds really good, here I made strawberry cobbler, and I'm betting strawberries would be good in that cake too.

Annie

I think strawberries would be very good in it, Annie, but I sadly I can't eat them. I think I'll try it with apples next time, use a little less brown sugar in the topping (too sweet for me) and add chopped walnuts. I don't like to bake, but this I can do,

I don't like oily baked things - muffins come to mind. And I don't like sweets, in general. Plus I HATE working with flour. But as a vehicle for rhubarb I tried this recipe and the resulting cake was very light and tasty. So easy to put together that I'm going to try it again somehow.

LOL!! Really, I'm happy you found a cake that works for your dislikes as well as likes, but your last message is funny.

So, I've been waiting for someone to mention this and because they haven't maybe I'm wrong, but isn't rhubarb quite tart? I'd think if you substituted apple, even tart apple, it might be too sweet, though it might be okay with tart blueberries as is. You have to be careful in baking when you cut sugar, because of the chemistry, but I'm guessing if you cut a couple tablespoons from the cake and more from the topping it would probably be fine. Also, fresh pineapple can be weird in baking (enzymes or something), so it would be better to roast or grill it first, or use canned.

plllog - thanks for pointing that out. Rhubarb is inedible without sugar (who even decided it was edible in the first place). If I reduce the sugar in the batter when I use apples, will that affect the overall result? I'll report back.

Grainlady would have been able to answer that question, but I wouldn't greatly reduce the amount of sugar without finding a formula. Sugar is part of the liquid of the cake. You might be able to use less sugar and more eggwhite or yoghurt, but I don't know. Just keep in mind that you don't want sweet substitutes.

-- Okay. Here's a King Arthur (i.e., as trustworthy as anything) blog post about sugar reduction with thorough experiments by type. Their rule of thumb is pretty much what I'd said about the couple of tablespoons per cup. They say you can try reducing sugar by 10% with pretty much any cake, which they give as 5 teaspoons per cup (one fewer than I said). The next amount they did was 25% reduction, and concluded that wasn't for the casual baker to try.

This may be why the recipe works with rhubarb, however. If the sugar is needed for the cakiness of the cake, put something tart in with it. The yoghurt is tart too.

Hm... Actually, since we're talking flavor here, rather than glycemic levels or anything like that, I wonder if you substituted for the yoghurt something even more tart than plain yoghurt, like kefir cheese or Greek yoghurt thinned down a little (with whey or milk), maybe that would make room for the sweetness of a berry of apple?

I would simply look for a recipe using the fruit you want. Here is a similar recipe for Apple Yogurt Coffee Cake from the NY Times - but there are many others. One of the comments says they cut the sugar in half for this recipe and it turned out fine:

Apple yogurt coffee cake

Thanks for that link, Olychick. I went to the supermarket to get some more rhubarb to make the cake again (we liked it so much!) but they didn't have any more. There are several other stores I can check. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Seagrass, I want to mention that rhubarb freezes great. Easy. Just wash & slice in desired size and pop into bags and freeze.

Thank you! We have some planted, but it's too young to use. Hoping to harvest our own one of these years.

Seagrass, put an ad on Craigslist or Next door asking if anyone has extra rhubarb to share. I'll bet you'll find some, maybe even for free.

I wish you were closer, Seagrass, I have 40 pounds in my freezer from last year's harvest and more to cut right now. I gave the first cutting to the ladies across the street at the bed and breakfast, they have a small patch, but she likes to make a rhubarb/pecan quick bread and is happy to have any I can send across.

It does freeze well and quickly. Mine started slowly, it's about 10 years old now. The first five years or so I watered and mulched with chicken manure compost and fussed, but it seemed to not do much. Then suddenly, it went crazy, and now I get 40 or 50 pounds off a row of rhubarb about feet long! I go for 3 or 4 cuttings a year, and it just comes storming back, every time.

Here I've never seen it given away, but you sure can buy it cheap from the Amish farms and from people who have old farmsteads. Young people don't seem to grow it much.

Annie

Something to look forward to then, Annie. We've been disappointed with our rhubarb. Needs more time.

No luck on the rhubarb safari :o(

Aw, darn, I was hoping you'd find a nice mess. Want me to mail you a big box at the next cutting?

Annie

Rhubarb plants are known as 'heavy feeders' so be sure to use a nitrogen rich fertilizer.

We don't eat a lot of rhubarb-mainly use it in Lindac's Rhubarb Cake recipe-but I have several plants growing that I've divided off the original plant that was here when we bought this house. I grow it mainly for it's ornamental value and the fact that deer don't mess with it.

My best two plants are growing in very rich top soil that we trucked in and are in full sun. It does need supplemental water when it gets hot & dry and starts to wilt. Although you do have to be careful not to give it too much water when you're trying to get it established. I killed my first rhubarb when I tried to grow it in a heavy clay soil in Oklahoma where it got too much rain run-off from a roof.

We have sand and coastal fog. Cool night time temps. I think I'll search for frozen.

Your original recipe for the cake will be fine with whatever fruit you decide to use....with the 1 cup of sugar called for.....and I would not decrease the brown sugar in the topping....just use less for a sweeter fruit>
There are those of us who love that very sour pucker of rhubarb!!

Thanks to all for responding. I'm not one to bake much of anything except for cornbread. But we both love rhubarb. I have my grandmother's recipe for rhubarb custard pie which is over the moon delicious.

Wonder if our grandmothers got that hrubarb pie recipe from the same spot?

Seagrass, I was serious about mailing some, it's very sturdy and I mailed some to Nancy in North Carolina last year, arrived just fine. Send me an email at annie1992 at yahoo dot com if you'd like some.

Annie

Seagrass, I live in Central Wisconsin now. Aside from the two plants in great soil, the rest of my rhubarb is growing in super sandy soil and a good bit of shade and has to compete with tree roots. Those plants need supplemental water and fertilizer to keep growing through the summer. Generally cool weather. Some 'summers' we're lucky to hit 90 degrees for a couple of days! So don't give up on your plants. If the plants are still small, you could dig in some bagged cow manure & compost around the perimeter of the plants and/ or toss them a couple handfuls of high nitrogen fertilizer. Manure & compost preferable, of course. Also, some moisture crystals dug in to help retain soil moisture if rains aren't reliable.

In Oklahoma, rhubarb is mostly a spring crop because the heat and drought zap it. Here in Wisconsin, we can harvest from the plants all summer.

Edited to add...

Seagrass, Lindac....would you, pretty please, share the rhubarb custard pie recipe? I've never tasted it and keeping hearing/ reading how wonderful it is.

Just a mention...my grandmother made wonderful jams and jellies. My favorite of hers, hands down, was a mulberry rhubarb jam. My second favorite jam is blackberry...the mulberry rhubarb jam reminded me of a very rich tasting blackberry jam.