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With a warming, mellow flavour the whole family will love, my Gluten-Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake recipe has all the flavour of traditional spice cake. The only thing that’s missing is gluten!
Gluten Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake – Part of Our Family History
My family and I have been making Auntie Margaret’s Old Fashioned Spice Cake for four generations. It’s a real family favourite, and one of my most popular pins on Pinterest. One of questions I was asked most often was if there was a gluten-free version. Well, there is now!
After lots of experimentation, I’ve developed this delicious gluten-free version based one hundred percent on Auntie’s recipe.
A Truly Old Fashioned Recipe
Aside from eliminating the gluten, I stuck to Auntie’s recipe. As a result, the mixing method may seem a little bit different than what you are used to. The method was developed back in the days before electric mixers. Steps like whipping the egg whites separately and mixing the buttermilk with the baking soda were designed to give the cake a bit more lift. Even though I now use an electric mixer to make the cake, I decided to keep this method as part of the recipe. It really doesn’t take all that much longer, and it adds an authentic vintage flavour and texture to this delicious cake.
Tips for Making Gluten Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake
1. Use a 1 – 1 Gluten Free Flour for ease. I like Bob’s Red Mill 1 – 1 Gluten Free Flour best so far.
2. This is the kind of cake you can serve directly from the pan, but I prefer to use a loose bottomed cake tin. I like how the cake looks when I do this, and it means I can frost the sides as well.
3. This cake tastes great naked, but it’s extra special with the frosting I share in the recipe. My Almond Buttercream is so delicious, it is hard to resist eating it by the spoonful.
4. Best eaten on the day it is made, my Gluten Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake can be stored in a sealed container for up to 2 days. If you do frost the cake with the almond buttercream I share in the recipe, and you are storing the cake overnight, keep it in a cool place, but not the fridge.
Perfect for snacks, desserts, or afternoon tea, my Gluten Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake is also delicious served with a scoop of ice cream.
Gluten Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake – Printable Recipe
Gluten Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
- 2 eggs, separated
- 2¼ cups gluten free flour blend
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg freshly ground if possible
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup soft brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- For the almond buttercream:-
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 cups icing sugar icing sugar is also known as confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Grease and flour a deep 8 inch (20 cm) round cake pan or an 8 x 8 inch square pan. I often use a loose bottom pan to make the cake easier to remove from the can pan after baking.
- In a medium bowl or pitcher, whisk the baking soda into the buttermilk or sour milk. Set aside. The milk will foam up as it sits.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice and ground nutmeg. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Set aside.
- In another bowl (I use an electric mixer for this), cream together the butter and the sugar.
- Add the egg yolks and blend well.
- Now blend the vanilla and the buttermilk and soda mixture into the egg yolk mixture.
- Add the flour and spice mixture to the batter in two additions, beating well.
- If using an electric mixer, remove the bowl from the mixer. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter using a spatula until thoroughly blended. Do not beat.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, levelling the top a little with a knife.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool the the cake in the pan for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling completely on a wire rack.
- If you plan to frost the Gluten Free Old Fashioned Spice Cake, make the almond buttercream while you wait for the cake to cool.
- Cream together the butter and confectioner’s sugar using an electric mixer, until well blended.
- Beat in the almond flavouring.
- Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until a spreadable consistency is reached. You may not need to use all the milk.
- Wait until the cake is completely cool before you frost it.
- Serve the cake on its own or with a scoop of ice cream.
- Store in a cool place, but not the refrigerator. The cake tastes best if used within 48 hours.
Notes
Equipment
- 1 set of cup measures OR
- 1 balloon whisk AND
- 1 medium mixing bowl OR
- 1 electric stand mixer OR
did you make this recipe?
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More Gluten-Free Recipes
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I love that this recipe is just one layer, with only my grandson to share it with, Im not tempted to eat it all. It will be a great recipe to share with my daughter that always looks for low carb and low sugar. I gave it 5 stars!
Have a lovely weekend!
I’m so glad you like it, Karren, amd thank you so much for the stars! I hope your weekend is lovely too 🙂
Ooooohhhh, April! That Spice Cake! Love that it’s an old family recipe. Pinning for the holidays!
Thank you so much, Leslie, and thank you for pinning too!
Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. Pinned and shared. Have a lovely week. I hope to see you at next week’s party too!
Thank you for pinning and sharing, Marilyn. I appreciate it!
Thanks for sharing at the Fabulous Friday Linky Party April! Can’t wait to see what you share this week>>https://abiggreenhouse.com/the-super-fabulous-friday-linky-party-6/
Thank you, Erin!
Hi April
I have gluten free flours as one of my grandsons was glute sensitive for awhile. I’ll have to try this cake as it sounds perfect for the fall season.
Hi Pat, It’s great you have the flours on hand, and I hope you enjoy it! If you wanted to try a version with gluten, here’s a link to the original recipe 🙂
https://apriljharris.com/aunties-spice-cake/
Your gluten free cake looks amazing and I love your tea cup set too!
Thank you so much, Judee! The tea set belonged to my late Mom. ❤️
My son is highly gluten intolerant, so I bake GF often and we eat GF in our home. So I am super excited, as he will be, to try this amazing sounding fall cake!! Thank you for sharing this!! Gonna look through more of your recipes!
I’m so glad you like it, Mariel, and I hope your son really enjoys it! I hope you are also able to find some other recipes on the site that you will all enjoy as well 🙂
I’m not a huge baker but followed directions and it’s half the size. You said Soft Peaks on egg whites then fold it in. The Buttermilk looked great and dry mixture so any advise to PUFF it up! My flavor was there and smells great I’m a lover of SPICE CAKE
PS I even bought a 9” pan like what you suggested today
I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor of the cake, Margie, but I’m sorry it didn’t puff up. Gluten free cakes can be tricky, and any cake can be affected by so many things, from the weather to ovens that vary in temperature. It’s possible your baking soda might have lost its oomph – baking soda and baking powder both age, and if the soda had been open for a while it may not have been as lively. Did it foam up well when you mixed it with the buttermilk? I hope this helps a bit, and again, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t puff up as it should.
It did foam nicely and I used fresh baking soda. I thought maybe I over or under peaked the egg whites or folded it in to much. Everything else was exactly perfect. Any advice on egg whites?
I gave some spice cake to a friend and he loved the taste also even said it’s not too dense. But I thought your picture wasn’t like mine.
Hi Margie,
It can be difficult to get things to look exactly like in the pictures, especially with gluten free bakes. I’ve made the original cake (with gluten) so many times and this gluten free version so many times in recipe development, I have had a lot of practice! Also, I think we are very hard on ourselves. If your friend said the flavour and texture were good, then I am sure it was. I’m sorry you were disappointed though.
Regarding the egg whites, the freshness of the egg can affect how much air you can whip into them. It can be helpful to have the eggs at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before whipping. When I update the post, I will add the note about the eggs being at room temperature.
Best wishes,
April
I didn’t follow the directions properly and it still came out great! I separated the eggs but I don’t think I whipped the egg whites enough. And it wasn’t possible to fold them in because of the texture of the batter, so I used an electric mixer. I also added some baking powder and salt since other recipes had them. I used a 9″ spring form pan. It rose over the top like a souffle. It was delicious!! And I loved the texture of the cake. More spongy than crumbly.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe, Marie! Thank you so much for your lovely comment 🙂