The Best Gluten Free White Cake

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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.

best gluten free white cake recipe

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.

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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!)

best gluten free white cake recipe

Gluten Free White Cake Recipe

  1. 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.
  2. Stir together the dry ingredients and set aside.
  3. Beat the eggs and the sugar together until creamy.
  4. Add half of the dry ingredients and beat again.
  5. Add the buttermilk, butter, vanilla and almond extracts and beat to combine.
  6. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
  7. Divide the batter between the greased cake pans.
  8. 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.
  9. Remove and let cool at least 30 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
  10. Frost as desired.
Gluten Free White Cake with Strawberry Frosting

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.

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The Best Gluten Free White Cake

4.64 from 102 votes
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.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 16 servings

Ingredients 

  • cups brown rice flour
  • cup potato starch
  • 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

This recipe makes (40) cupcakes. Bake cupcakes at 350°F for 18 minutes. If you are looking for a traditional white cake recipe, not a gluten free version, I recommend I Am Baker’s Perfect White Cake. The recipe has received amazing reviews from everyone who has made it.

Nutrition

Calories: 312kcal · Carbohydrates: 45g · Protein: 3g · Fat: 13g · Saturated Fat: 8g · Cholesterol: 73mg · Sodium: 216mg · Potassium: 224mg · Fiber: 1g · Sugar: 26g · Vitamin A: 440IU · Vitamin C: 0.2mg · Calcium: 65mg · Iron: 0.7mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @barefeetkitchen or tag #barefeetkitchen!

{originally published 4/1/14 – recipe notes and photos updated 8/17/21}

The BEST Gluten Free White Cake doesn't taste "gluten free" at all! get the recipe at barefeetinthekitchen.com

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Mary Younkin

Mary Younkin

Hi, I’m Mary. I’m the author, cook, photographer, and travel lover behind the scenes here at Barefeet In The Kitchen. I'm also the author of three cookbooks dedicated to making cooking from scratch as simple as possible.

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    • 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. 👌🏽

  1. 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)5 stars

  2. 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

      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.

    • Crystal says

      Have you tried a dairy free alternative for the buttermilk? If so, what do you suggest? Thanks!

    • Mary Younkin says

      Hi, Crystal! Unfortunately, I haven’t tried using dairy-free alternatives for this recipe before, so I wouldn’t be able to say how the cake would turn out. It would be worth doing more research; the buttermilk heavily influences the overall texture of the cake, so substituting for it would have to take the change in texture into consideration, too.

    • 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.

  3. 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.

    • 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.5 stars

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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?

  7. 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.5 stars

    • 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!

  8. 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?1 star

    • 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.

  9. 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.5 stars

  10. 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!5 stars

  11. Christine says

    This is the BEST gluten free white cake recipe and my go-to for birthday cakes and cupcakes. I’ve tried many gf cake recipes and mixes over the past nearly 20 years of being gluten free, and this is by far the best tasting and most importantly, super moist gf cake! Cupcakes freeze nicely as well.5 stars

  12. Marina says

    We just baked the perfect coconut layer cake using this white cake recipe! Incredible texture and taste, used 1 t vanilla and 1 t coconut extract to cake. Used cream cheese frosting with same extracts, topped with shredded coconut. Our family devoured thick slices in utter silence. Thank you for sharing this recipe. We have a favorite cake now!5 stars

  13. Marina says

    Oops, forgot to mention that we live at 6,000 ft, made it with zero substitutions, baked at 350 for 30 minutes, tested it and it was done. I’m glad I didn’t let it go 35-40. Used 8” nonstick cake pans.5 stars