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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.
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 4/1/14 – recipe notes and photos updated 8/17/21}
Will this work for a wedding cake?
I’m not sure where I went wrong here my cake turned out dense although moist I did cut the recipe in half with the cake was golden not white at all I was looking for a white cake recipe for my friends wedding. Mine did not turn out like the picture could it be because I cut the recipe in half .
I had the same problem! It tasted good but was very dense and yellow. I’ll probably try using egg whites only tomorrow.
I was so excited to make this cake tonight, but it was pretty dense and not nice and fluffy. I followed everything exactly as the recipe said. Maybe I didn’t mix it enough? I know that I just mixed it for about 30 seconds once all the ingredients were in. I didn’t want to overmix it, but I a wondering if I didn’t mix it enough. How long should I mix it once I have encorporates all the ingredients.
Sorry for the typo! Should read I was wondering 🙂
Hello! You’re a rock star at responding! I’m hoping to make my husband an ice cream cake for his birthday next week. I own the Betty Crocker Bake n Fill set. Would you mind looking at how that pan functions and letting me know if you think this recipe would work for it?
Is this recipe the equivalent of a cake mix or is it more like two in volume?
As a celiac I have additional reactive ingredients that I cannot consume. Do you have a suggestion foe a replacement for potatoes starch?
I made your recipe, making it dairy free as well. I used almond milk with acv instead of buttermilk and shortening. We loved the flavor but it was a little dry. It also had little bubbles on top. I might of over baked it I’ll try a little less next time. Any suggestions based on your experienced? I have a picture if needed. I will keep tweaking until I get it perfect since your recipe tasted the best so far.
I made this yesterday as a trial run for my daughter’s birthday party. It is amazing! Thank you!
Love this cake!! One thing the bottom was a little gummy. What went wrong or how can I avoid that??
This cake looks delicious as is! My daughter has nut allergies. What could I do in place of the almond extract? Replace it with more vanilla extract? Or leave it out completely? I don’t want to add a different flavor to it.
Hi there, I am so excited to make this cake. I don’t have potato startch, can I double up on the tapioca starch?
Unfortunately, it won’t be the same texture as described here. I tested this cake repeatedly until I was happy with the results. I’m guessing it will be significantly more dense with just the two flours/starches.
okay, you saved me a lot of time and money then. Thank you for replying back so quick. Thanks again!
Any suggestions on how to turn this into a coconut white cake?
If you add coconut extract and shredded coconut to the recipe, that should do it. I wouldn’t add more than a cup of shredded coconut, or you might affect the structure of the cake. I hope that helps.
I made this cake today. I added 2/3 cup of coconut and 1 teaspoon of coconut extract. I frosted it with coconut cream cheese frosting. It was delicious. Thank you so much.
Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know! That sounds wonderful.
This was the best cake ever! So moist and springy and delicious! Thanks so much Mary.
I made this for my daughter’s birthday she and my daughter-in-law are gluten-free. It was a smashing success! Even the 10 non-gluten-free people raved about, even my Hubby who is not a while cake person. I used homemade stabilized whipped cream for icing along with fresh strawberries. Thank you for sharing 😉
Hi I was wondering if you have tried substitutes for the dairy? I want to make this for my daughters birthday coming up but she can’t have dairy either. Thanks
I have not, but I think if you read through the comments, you’ll see notes where others have done that.
can ‘t do dairy what, rice milk or almond milk should I use?
I can’t have dairy would rice or almond milk work?
If you scan through the comments, I’m fairly certain that people have made this cake with almond milk. However, I don’t recall what was substituted for the butter.