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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}
I made this cake today for mother’s day with your strawberry frosting recipe and it was hands down one of the best cakes I’ve ever made gluten free or otherwise. My family all agreed.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! It will be a regular for my family.
Any thoughts on white rice flour vs. brown rice flour?
I’ve used both. I think brown rice has a little more flavor, but I’ve used them interchangeably in most recipes.
I made this cake and it was very dry. Have you any suggestions ?
I replaced 4 eggs with 6 egg whites and baked the recipe into 3 (6 in) pans for 30 minutes. A little too sweet; next time I will reduce the sugar to 1 3/4 cups.
Made this gluten free cake yesterday and topped with Swiss butter cream and fresh strawberries. It was a grand end to a birthday dinner. I was amazed at how light the cake was and not overly sweet. I have all the starch and floors because I make my own mix for baking. This will be around for many years to come.
Thanks for all the great reseach.
Donald,
Did you use your own flour mix or follow the recipe as written? Getting ready to make for a birthday celebration also!
Thanks
I followed it as written.
I have a gluten free flour that I brought from trader Joe’s. It contains brown rice, tapioca starch, and corn starch.
How many cups should I use of that flour?
I can’t guess how that would work, because I’ve never tested this recipe using that specific blend of ingredients. If you do decide to try it, you’ll want to add up all the listed flours and starches and sub in that one. Let us know how it works for you!
i made it with a cup for cup and used 2.5 cups and it worked great. the best recipe ever
I want to make this for my son’s birthday, but someone attending is allergic to almonds. Could I just substitute more vanilla for the almond extract? Or do I even need to substitute?
You can make it without the almond extract. Happy baking!
Thanks! I was also wondering, do you always make this the day of the party/event? Have you ever made it the day before? I’m planning on making it as cupcakes (you said it makes 40 standard, right?) and I typically would make those a day ahead of time and pipe frosting the night before. Will that work with this recipe? The party is at 10:00am.
This cake is amazing it’s so tasty
A delicious tasty cake! Truly you’d never know it was gluten free!
I also really like that it’s quite simple, from a flour perspective… no need to buy 82 different types of GF flour.
My new favourite white cake recipe- hands down
The cake was good but if u care whether or not it’s white, just know that it’s actually a yellow cake.
I checked mine at 20 min so I could keep an eye on doneness, and believe they were done somewhere between 25 and 30. I frosted them the next day with strawberry frosting. The first day the whole thing was dry, but second day had consistency of pound cake. It was fine,, but it wasn’t a delicate cake. I think next time I’ll go back to the GF King Arthur flour.
Made this cake for Father’s Day ( turns out yellow) used lemon flavoring – filled with whipped cream and lemon pudding dusted with confectionary sugar baked in square pan — Devine –best ?? White cake recipe. — no grit will be my forever go to for ?? White cake. Thanks. Maureen
Can I eliminate butter and salt? To make it more light and less salty
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You need the oil in the recipe. You can certainly skip the salt if you’d like.
Hi there! I’m making this cake for my niece and she needs a cake with low sugar. I was wondering if you have tried subbing out the sugar for stevia. Thanks in advance!
how did it go using a sugar subsitute? I wanted to try making this with Pyure, which you use 1/2 the sugar amount with. (so if it calls for 2c sugar you would use 1c Pyure)
If you’re baking it in a 9 x 13” sheet pan how lucky big do you bake it for.
Has anyone tried using sorghum flour instead of brown rice flour?
Need a quick response. Would the flavors of the almond and vanilla compliment coconut frosting?
I think this would be delicious with coconut frosting.
Can I ask what the recipe is for your frosting? It looks like it was made with strawberries instead of food die. I would love to know how you made it. It looks delicious and perfectly pink!
This is fresh strawberry frosting. It’s heavenly!
I made these tonight with slight adjustments. I used the Costco gluten free all purpose flour instead of mixing my own. I also only put in 1/2 t of almond extract instead of the whole 1 t since I do find almond to be more assertive than vanilla and wanted more of a vanilla taste. This recipe is definitely a keeper. One note is that I did make cupcakes instead of a cake and although the recipe says it makes 40, I only was able to make 26 cupcakes. So if you’re going to make these for an event and are planning on doing cupcakes, I recommend leaving enough time to make a second batch if necessary.
Hi i made this 3 times, i found that adding liquid ingredient at last stage vs adding half dry ingredient at last stage bring different batter consistency. Adding liquid ingredient at last stage result traditional batter lookalike, batter flows easily. Adding half dry ingredient at last stage result very thick batter with slightly gummy texture. Whats the best desired consistency for this recipe? Should it be super thick or quite runny? Sorry my English quite bad. Hope you get what I mean. Thanks