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

FAQs

How to make gluten-free more moist? ›

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.

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.

These recipes often call for longer baking times at a lower temperature compared to traditional recipes.

Add an acid: Try adding 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to your cake batter. It will react with the bicarbonate of soda to create extra rise and a more tender cake crumb. Add an egg: You could even add an extra egg which will help the cake to rise.

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.

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.

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.

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.

TOO CRUMBLY. If your baking is falling apart once baked this can be because you have used the wrong egg replacer, or not enough of an egg replacer. You want to make sure your egg replacer is acting well as a binding agent and binding all the ingredients together to give a firm result.

We'd t-oat-ally recommend Doves Farm's organic oat flour. While it's not the cheapest option, wholegrain flour is high in fibre and suitable for those following vegan and kosher diets. The flour has been milled from high-quality organic British oats and is ideal for making, cakes, biscuits, breads and pancakes.

What does baking soda do in gluten free baking? ›

Texture and Rise: Gluten-free baking often requires a bit of finesse to achieve the desired rise and texture. Baking soda's reaction with an acid can help achieve that necessary lift, while baking powder provides an extra boost when the batter or dough is exposed to heat.

However, you can actually mix a batter containing xanthan and/or guar gum to a point of diminishing returns. You can overwork the gums and end up with a stringy cake batter or rubbery cookie dough. (Having said that, doing this takes some work. Just don't take your aggressions out on a gluten-free cake batter.)

When combined with baking soda, it becomes a leavening agent (the stuff that makes baked goods puff up in the oven) by producing carbon dioxide gas. If you ever run out of baking powder, you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar for 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Gluten-free flour blends don't have the same elasticity as flour containing gluten so often the cakes don't rise as much or will sink after rising. To combat the flat cake problem, I add ½ tsp of bicarbonate of soda to the recipe even when using a self-raising gluten-free flour blend.

Ultimately, the toothpick test is just one data source to rely upon: with the trio—toothpick, edges, & centre—you can reliably know your gluten-free baked goods are, well, baked! If your toothpick comes out with wet batter on it, your cake definitely needs more time.

To add extra moisture to your gluten-free bread, incorporate 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise into the recipe. The oil and eggs will help to make the baked bread nice and tender. Olive oil is a healthy cooking oil that adds wonderful flavor to bread.

The gluten in traditional flour is what gives dough its stickiness. Without it, gluten-free products can be dry and crumbly. There is a way to compensate for this however — use xanthan gum. Some bakers also use gelatin or agar.

Bake, Then Bake Some More

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.