The Best Fudgy Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the trick to baking with gluten-free flour? ›

Use xanthan gum or guar gum: Gluten-free flours lack the elasticity and structure that gluten provides, so adding a binder like xanthan or guar gum can help to hold the ingredients together and give your baked goods a better texture.

One of the most common gluten-free baking tips is “let your batter rest”. Letting the batter rest gives the gluten-free flours and starches more time to absorb the moisture. In theory, it will turn your dry, crumbly cakes into delicious, moist masterpieces.

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.

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.

Brown rice flour is about as close to a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour as it gets since it provides structure and a “wheat-like” flavor.

We recommend covering your batters and doughs and letting them rest for at least half an hour.

If gluten-free cakes aren't falling apart, they often turn out heavy and unpleasantly dense. That's because gluten creates little pockets of air, so baked goods turn out springy and fluffy; gluten-free flours and grains are lacking this crucial element.

Gluten-free goods tend to brown faster and take longer to cook through. So they need to be baked at a slightly lower temperature, for a slightly longer time. Every recipe is different, but in general, try lowering the temperature by 25 degrees and baking the item for 15 minutes longer.

Why are my gluten-free cakes gummy? ›

Gluten-free batters need a longer bake time.

Because gluten-free batters contain more liquid than traditional versions, they typically take longer to bake. If you remove them from the oven too soon, you may develop a gummy, mushy texture.

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.

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.

Xanthan gum is used to improve the texture and shelf life of gluten free products. It mimics gluten in terms of keeping the baked products moist and the texture soft.

Some gluten free flours will produce a cake which is on the dry side. This might be due to the lack of gluten but can be for many other reasons. Lots of gluten free flour is rice based and this can result in a dry and slightly gritty texture.

Gluten-free batters need a longer bake time.

Because gluten-free batters contain more liquid than traditional versions, they typically take longer to bake. If you remove them from the oven too soon, you may develop a gummy, mushy texture.

One of the first rules of gluten-free baking is managing your expectations; traditional baked goods lean on gluten for their texture and rise. Replicating this is challenging and the results might not be identical, but it can get pretty close with the right flours.

Xanthan Gum

Because gluten-free flours have less protein than wheat flours and are not capable of forming the same network required to stretch and surround starch granules, they need reinforcement. Xanthan gum strengthens these networks and also makes them more elastic.

Extra Leavening: Sometimes you may find that adding a bit more baking powder will help, when converting a recipe to gluten free. So, if a muffin recipe calls for 1 teaspoon baking powder, for example, I'd go ahead and add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon extra.