The Best Gluten Free White Cake is tender and moist, while dense enough not to crumble at the touch of a fork, this is exactly what I want in a white cake.
Topped with creamy fresh strawberry frosting, or a classic buttercream, this cake has received more thumbs up over the past ten years than anything else I’ve baked. The flavor combination is absolutely perfect with both almond and vanilla flavors.
Gluten Free Cake Recipes
Several years ago, my best friend asked if I would make her a gluten-free white cake. In my relative newness to gluten-free baking, I assured her that I could do that. Ha.
It took me 6, maybe 7-8, different recipe attempts, (I stopping counting after I dumped the third mess into the trash.) The taste and/or texture was never quite right.
If you are familiar with gluten-free baking, then you likely already know that recipes for traditional chocolate desserts are fairly simple to convert to gluten-free most of the time.
This is evidenced by The Best Gluten Free Chocolate Cake, no one ever believes that one is gluten-free. Unfortunately, this is not true for all gluten free baking recipes.
Chocolate provides so much flavor that without it, the more “unique” flavors of the gluten free flour alternatives will often show through. This made it much harder to achieve a classic white cake flavor.
Gluten Free White Cake
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m rather picky about my gluten-free baking. (It has caused many an eye roll from my husband as I decide something just isn’t quite right, while he and my kids are happily devouring it. ha)
Because I am not restricted from eating the traditional versions myself, I often make both items side by side to taste the both versions and see if the gluten free recipe measures up. “Good enough for gluten free” isn’t something I ever want to share with you.
I’m thrilled to tell you that this is THE CAKE. This cake absolutely positively measures up. Over the past few years, I’ve made this cake with the exact recipe below countless times now and I’ve served it to over a dozen people.
It received rave reviews from every single person and they all questioned me more than once regarding whether or not it was really gluten free. (That, my friends, is a sign of gluten free recipe success!)
Gluten Free White Cake Recipe
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease (2) 8″ round cake pans with butter and line the bottom of each pan with a greased parchment circle.
- Stir together the dry ingredients and set aside.
- Beat the eggs and the sugar together until creamy.
- Add half of the dry ingredients and beat again.
- Add the buttermilk, butter, vanilla and almond extracts and beat to combine.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
- Divide the batter between the greased cake pans.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove and let cool at least 30 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Frost as desired.
Once you’ve fallen in love with this cake the way that we have, you can use this recipe to make a Strawberry Poke Cake, a Pineapple Crush Jello Cake, or this Strawberry Mousse Cake.
The Gluten-Free White Cake recipe works great as cupcakes for a gluten-free birthday cake. My middle son loves this cake with Fluffy Chocolate Frosting. The possibilities with this cake recipe are endless.
Check out all of the Gluten Free Dessert Recipes on this website!
Kitchen Tip: I use this sheet pan, this cake pan, or this cupcake pan to make this recipe.
The Best Gluten Free White Cake
Ingredients
- 1½ cups brown rice flour
- ⅔ cup potato starch
- ⅓ cup tapioca starch
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup butter melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease (2) 8" round cake pans with butter and line the bottom of each pan with a greased parchment circle.
- Stir together the dry ingredients and set aside. Beat the eggs and the sugar together until creamy. Add half of the dry ingredients and beat again.
- Add the buttermilk, butter, vanilla and almond extracts and beat to combine. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
- Divide the batter between the greased cake pans. Bake in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove and let cool at least 30 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost as desired. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
{originally published 4/1/14 – recipe notes and photos updated 8/17/21}
Lois says
This is a wonderful cake, and the strawberry icing is amazing!
Deepa Malini Devi says
Tried this cake with choc icing, for my son’s birthday and it was so good, that my husband asked me to make the same cake for his birthday ! This is indeed the best GF Vanilla cake I have made. 👌🏽
Mary Younkin says
Love hearing that, Deepa!
Monica says
Tried this recipe for a birthday cake, just came out of the oven super fluffy and moist. I’m hoping it holds til tomorrow:) I reduced the sugar by 1 cup and substituted 1/3 corn starch and 1/3 sweet rice flour for the potato starch. Still came out great. Definitely a thicker batter than usual, but baked up well. Made ten Mini cupcakes(baked 10 min) and a 8×8 cake (30 min)
Della says
My family loved this cake – both gluten-free and non dairy members plus the rest of them! I have been trying to find a gf white cake recipe that is similar to the wedding cakes that I made for them years ago. This is it! I only made one minor change. I pulsed the rice flour in my bullet to make it finer texture.
Mary Younkin says
That’s awesome, Della!
Teresa says
I’m excited to try this -Can you make this cake with just egg whites so it’s whiter in color?
Mary Younkin says
Teresa – Let me start by saying I have never tried this. If you go down this path and experiment with it know that eggs are important to the structure, texture, and flavor of the cake. It isn’t a matter of just taking out the yolks, you will need to replace that volume of liquid with something as well as adjust the sugar and oil. It is possible, I have just never experimented with it. Let me know if you try it and what works.
Linda kraner says
How is your white gluten free cake white if u are adding whole eggs? Linda
Mary Younkin says
The photos aren’t adjusted for color, Linda. It isn’t a bright white cake, but it is white. I prefer the taste with whole eggs, so it is worth it to me.
Christine says
My cake overflowed and came out light and crumbly. I did use 1 1/2 tsp guar gum in place of the xanthan gum and I live at 3500 ft elevation so not sure if that affected it. We were pretty disappointed as we were making this for a birthday.
Mary Younkin says
Christine – I am so sorry that happened. Not living at a high altitude I do not have high-altitude instructions for this recipe.
Rebecca H says
This is my go to white cake recipe! I’ve made it multiple times using Cup4Cup flour and it comes out light and fluffy. Definitely follow the directions and only mix until combined and no longer.
Bonnie Middleton says
Can I use a 9×13 pan?
Can I use monk fruit instead of sugar?
Mary Younkin says
I’ve never tried this with monk fruit, Bonnie. It will work fine in a 9×13 pan.
Kasie Oliver says
I want to try this recipe but I only have white rice flour. Will that work as well as brown rice flour? Can’t wait to try this for a baby shower.
Mary Younkin says
I would not recommend it, Kasie.
Annie says
Hi I’m nw to gluten-free baking if I use King Arthur measure for measure do I still need to add the two different starches?
Mary Younkin says
King Arthur’s flour is designed to be substituted for the all-purpose flour in a given recipe. I’ve never tested it with this recipe, so I can’t speak to how it might work. In theory, you’d substitute for all of the flours and starches and I’m guessing their mix has xanthan gum already. To be honest though, if you aren’t following this recipe as written, you might want to try the king arthur’s swap on a regular cake recipe.
Leslie says
I was wondering if you think I could substitute 1/2 cup of berry puree for 1/2 cup buttermilk to make strawberry or blueberry cake?
Mary Younkin says
I am not sure how that will work, Leslie. The fat in the buttermilk is important to the cake. Fruit purees are not the same as buttermilk.
RobM61 says
Hi, Mary. Do you scoop and swipe the excess flour when you measure or do you lightly spoon and level? I am testing your recipe as written, then I am going to test it again to see if it can be made vegan successfully.
Mary Younkin says
You can either spoon the flour into the cup or lightly scoop it, fluff the flour a bit with the knife, and then level it. Either way will work. I’ve made a dairy-free version of this cake with almond milk and vegan butter, but I haven’t tried it without eggs. Let me know how it works for you!
Pat says
I’ve made this twice as written and both times it just falls after I take it out of the oven. Very dense almost like a bar cookie. First time I baked in 2 9” pans for 38 minutes. Second time in same 9”pans but took out after 33 minutes since pans were larger than recipe suggested. What causes it to be so dense?
Mary Younkin says
Without being in your kitchen with you it’s hard to guess, Pat. However, my best guess would be that you may be overbeating the cake. The batter should be beaten just until the final ingredients are combined and not any longer. Otherwise, I’m at a loss as this cake shouldn’t be dense as you’ve described at all. There are a great many 5-star reviews on this recipe and we’ve been making it exactly as written for over 10 years.
Adrienne says
This recipe was easy to follow, and the cake had a lovely texture and flavor. I served it to extended family with a mix of gluten eaters and non-gluten eaters. Everyone agreed that it was the best gluten free cake we’ve had.
Mary Younkin says
YAY! That’s great to hear, Adrienne. I’m glad it was a hit.
Maria Kelly says
Is there a recipe for the pink frosting?
Mary Younkin says
There is indeed, Maria. It’s the fresh strawberry frosting recipe linked near the top of the post. Enjoy!
Charity Koenig says
This is my favorite white cake recipe now! White is my favorite kind of cake, and this is perfect – and I don’t even need to eat gluten-free! Can’t wait to have this for my birthday tomorrow!
Mary Younkin says
Glad to hear that the cake is such a hit, Charity. Happy baking, and happy birthday!