Recipe: The Easiest Gluten Free & Vegan Fruit Cake with No Added Sugar (2024)

FAQs

How to make gluten-free more moist? ›

Moisture – for some reason gluten-free cakes tend to get a little dry. Any gluten-free cake will dry out super-fast and get hard on the outside if it's not properly refrigerated and covered. I swear by always using buttermilk and adding a little more fat into the batter to compensate for the dryness.

Adding xanthan gum, to some extent, replaces the elastic qualities that gluten-free flours lack. This helps to reduce the risk of your cake crumbling and falling apart.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

So you can generally use the colour of sugar you prefer. The exception is the Gorgeously Golden Fruit Cake, as this cake is lighter both in colour and in flavourings than a traditional fruit cake and a dark brown/muscovado sugar could detract slightly from the final effect of the cake.

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

Add extra liquid: Gluten-free flours tend to absorb more liquid than regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid to your recipes to compensate. This can help to keep your baked goods moist and prevent them from becoming dry and crumbly.

Let Your Batters & Doughs Rest

We recommend covering your batters and doughs and letting them rest for at least half an hour. Note: This will also help batters become thicker and doughs to firm up.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

You may have added too much raising agents to your batter which causes it to rise too quickly and then sink as your batter doesn't have enough structure to hold the height or there isn't enough room for the cake to continue to grow.

We often reach for almond flour in baking recipes when we're looking for a light, fluffy, cake-y texture with neutral flavor, because almond flour has a milder flavor than almond meal, and tends to fluff up nicely when baked!

What to avoid for gluten-free baking? ›

Baking soda is a pure chemical compound, known as sodium bicarbonate. It is an alkaline substance and requires an acid to activate its leavening properties. When combined with an acid (such as vinegar, lemon juice, or yogurt), it produces carbon dioxide gas, which causes the batter or dough to rise.

A combination of maple syrup and honey works best for muffins and cookies; typically swapping out even amounts to replace sugar in a recipe will work. Agave nectar is also okay, but it makes baked goods less tender and does have a noticeably different flavor.

The fruits that work best to replace sugar include prunes, raisins and dates, along with fresh bananas. In order to do so, simply make a puree of these fruits so they distribute evenly throughout the treat.

For basic baked goods like sugar cookies or pound cake, using maple syrup or honey instead of sugar lends the finished product a little extra flavor. You'll need a little less of these sweeteners for your recipe—just ¾ cup of maple syrup or honey replaces a full cup of granulated sugar.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

Add more fat or liquid: It might just be that you need a bit more moisture in your recipe, especially if you're converting a regular “gluten-ful” recipe to gluten-free. Try adding anywhere from ¼ to ½ cup of liquid or fat to the recipe and see if that helps.

Lots of gluten free flour is rice based and this can result in a dry and slightly gritty texture. The Juvela gluten free White and Fibre Mix have been developed to be as comparable to gluten containing flour as possible.

Sugar tenderizes a cake by preventing the gluten from forming. Sugar also holds moisture in the finished product. Sugar crystals cutting into solid fats like butter help form the structure of the product by making small holes which are filled with CO2 when the leavening agents react.