Many traditional cake recipes call for cake flour, which is light, soft and fine. Cake flour has less protein and gluten than all-purpose flour. However, it’s not completely gluten free. If you’re sensitive or allergic to gluten, you need to make sure that your ingredients are completely free of the wheat protein.
That means that you must find a flour substitute that produces a moist, soft texture. If you swap cake flour for other types of flour, you often need to adjust the other ingredients in the recipe to make up for the substitution.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to be a chemist or baking expert to figure this out. I’ve compiled some recipes for gluten-free cakes that have an impressively tender crumb and moist texture.
What You Need to Bake a Gluten-Free Cake
You’ll need a few kitchen gadgets to create the perfect gluten-free cake. Don’t skimp when it comes to using these items. They’ll help develop the perfect texture.
Some of the supplies that you need include:
• Medium to large mixing bowl – Make sure that your bowl is roomy enough to hold all of the ingredients, and allow extra space for mixing.
• Electric mixer – A stand mixer works well for making cakes. You’ll need to beat the ingredients for a few minutes. You can use a handheld electric mixer instead. Some people use a whisk, but that could get tiring quickly.
• Sifter – Sifting the dry ingredients is essential for creating the best texture.
• Parchment paper – Cutting paper the size of your cake pans helps release the finished cake.
• Cake pans – For most layer cake recipes, you’ll need at least two 8-inch round cake pans.
• Rubber spatula – Don’t waste any cake! Spatulas help you scrape out as much batter as possible so that you make the most of your budget and ingredients.
• Digital kitchen scale – Doling out dry ingredients using measuring cups can produce inconsistent results. Use a kitchen scale to measure your flour and other dry ingredients. This is especially vital if you’re creating your own flour blend.
A Note About All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
There are several all-purpose gluten-free flour products on the market. Some work better than others for baking cakes.
America’s Test Kitchen reports that the best gluten-free flour for cake contains white rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch and potato starch.
There are some pre-blended gluten-free flours on the market that contain these ingredients, such as Better Batter gluten-free flour. You can also make your own.
DIY Gluten-Free Flour Blend
Make your own gluten-free flour blend to use for cakes, and they’ll turn out great every time.
Ingredients
• 126 g superfine white rice flour – Rice flour with a coarse grind will result in a gritty cake. Choose a superfine flour for the best texture.
• 126 g superfine brown rice flour
• 63 g tapioca starch or flour – Tapioca starch and flour are the same thing. This ingredient creates some elasticity so that your cake is not too dense.
• 63 g potato starch – Potato flour is different than potato starch.
• 21 g potato flour – If you can’t find potato flour, you can grind up potato flakes.
• 12 g xanthan gum – This adds elasticity and stickiness to the dough.
• Pectin – Choose a brand that contains no added ingredients.
Whisk together all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure that the ingredients are combined well. This makes slightly less than 3.5 cups of all-purpose gluten-free flour that you can use for your cake. If you increase the recipe or don’t use all of the flour, store it in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
Best Orange Gluten-Free Cake Recipe
If you’re all about orange cake, this gluten-free recipe might just replace your traditional cake recipe.
• 1 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter, unsalted
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 Tbsp. of orange zest
- 1/2 Tbsp. of lemon zest
- 1/4 Tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup of avocado oil
Ingredients for icing
- 1 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 to 2 Tbsp. potato starch
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 2 Tbsp. of powdered sugar
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease the bottoms and sides of two 8-inch round cake pans. Place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of each.
3. Sift the flour blend, baking soda and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
4. Whisk in the salt, combining it well.
5. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer for at least 3 minutes. Scrape the residue off of the sides periodically, reincorporating it into the mixture. The ingredients should become light and fluffy.
6. Add the butter, lemon and orange zests, oil, butter and orange juice and mix all.
7. Separate the dry mixture into four portions. Add one portion at a time, beating to combine it fully. Repeat this process until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
8. Beat the combined batter for 1 minute on medium speed. It should be smooth, thick and pourable at this point.
9. Divide the batter equally into both cake pans. Smooth the tops with a spatula or knife.
10. Bake the cakes on the middle rack for a total of 30 to 40 minutes, rotating them halfway through the cooking time.
11. The cakes are ready when they are golden brown, don’t stick to the sides of the pans and look dry in the center.
12. To make the icing: dissolve the potato starch in orange juice and all other ingredient to a small saucepan on medium heat, continue stirring until it becomes a bit thick but still running.
When the cake is cool, you can frost it with the below of icing. If you purchase the icing, just make sure that it’s gluten-free. You can also make your own icing to control exactly what goes into it.
