Why Is a Rap Song About Rhubarb Cake Blowing Up on TikTok?

If you spend time on any corner of TikTok, you might’ve heard this extremely catchy song. In the German rap, called “Barbara’s Rhabarberbar,” a woman known as “Rhubarb Barbara” is renowned for the rhabarberkuchen (rhubarb cake) she sells at her rhubarb bar. A few patrons frequent the bar so often that they’re called rhubarb barbarians. The rhubarb bar barbarians then visit the barber and declare themselves the rhubarb barbara bar barbarian beard barbers (keeping up?) You can watch the full video with an English translation here. 

Since posting the video on his YouTube this past December, comedian and cabaret artist Bodo Wartke and his collaborator, music producer Marti Fischer, have racked up hundreds of thousands of views — but the song has really taken off on TikTok, where it’s become the background for a viral dance and plenty of puzzled translation videos. 

I had questions! Who is Barbara? What’s the secret to her rhubarb cake and why is it bringing all the barbarians to the bar? I was also intrigued by the idea of a rhubarb cake, since I mostly associate the jewel-like vegetable with rhubarb pie, that sweet-tart, buttery harbinger of spring. 

Sadly for rhubarb enthusiasts like me, this song wasn’t written in a bakery, but the origins are still pretty delightful. Wartke, a piano cabaret artist who has been working onstage for 27 years, began turning classic German tongue twisters into songs and publishing them to social media about a year ago with Fischer’s help. He says he finds many of the original tongue twisters on speech therapy websites aimed at helping stroke victims regain speech.

But, what is rhabarberkuchen? 

One thing we need to clear up: Contrary to the English translation on many videos of the song, including Wartke and Fischer’s official YouTube video, rhabarberkuchen is — repeat with me! — not rhubarb pie. 

“As a German I said, ‘This is not correct!” says F&W deputy editor Melanie Hansche, who grew up in the Bavarian Alps. “Kuchen” translates to cake, and Germans don’t really have a sweet-pie-baking tradition, she explains — but the translation isn’t exactly one-for-one, given the lexical gaps. 

“In places that speak German, kuchen refers to many types of sweet, sliceable desserts, typically enjoyed as a snack with coffee, from a simple cake to a crumble-topped cake similar to American-style coffee cake,” says F&W contributor and Great American Baking Show season 5 winner Martin Sorge, who recently studied baking in Germany. “Kuchen can also be made with a pastry-like base or a base of an enriched bread dough, the latter of which is very common. Some versions of rhabarberkuchen have a vanilla pudding layer, giving the whole dish a luxe rhubarb-and-custard vibe.” 

Of all the elements of a proper rhabarberkuchen, the streusel topping seems most non-negotiable. Hansche remembers her mom making “rhabarber-streusel-kuchen” — a crumb cake with a layer of poached rhubarb and a streusel made from flour, butter, and sugar — as part of a “kaffe und kuchen” (coffee and cake) afternoon tradition. She pointed me to these two examples for a taste of what Barbara’s cake might look like. 

Sorge offered a similar guess. “I like to think of [Barbara’s] as a light brioche-like bread dough topped with a bunch of chopped rhubarb, maybe some sugar, and then a healthy dose of streusel on top,” he says. 

In an email, Wartke said his favorite rhabarberkuchen was made by his grandmother when he was a child. Nowadays, he enjoys the slice at a local café in his Berlin neighborhood. 

But the most pressing question of all: Is Barbara a real person?

“Sure! Unfortunately, I haven’t met her yet,” he said. A spokesperson for Wartke said he and Fischer are working on a sequel to Barbara’s Rhabarberbar, which will be published in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, here are some rhubarb cake recipes to perfect.