Gluten Free Wedding Cake Recipe

A gluten free white cake does not traditionally contain egg yolks. However, when egg yolks and buttermilk are combined, they create moisture you will not find in a traditional white cake. Use this gluten free wedding cake recipe for a wedding or any special event. This is another recipe from my upcoming cookbook, Carla’s Best 125 Gluten-Free Recipes.

Note: When my cookbook recipe testers made this cake, it resulted in different shades of cake each time. The size of your eggs, the size of egg yolks, and using cornstarch versus tapioca flour in the flour blend all contribute to variations in color. 

You’ll find this recipe and more in my upcoming cookbook, Carla’s Best 125 Gluten-Free Recipes.

Gluten Free Wedding Cake Recipe

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Yield: Makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake

Gluten Free Wedding Cake Recipe

Whether you wish to serve this cake at a wedding with traditional royal icing or with coconut frosting, or create a margarita or coconut cake, everyone will enjoy the flavor, texture, and moistness.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • 14 tablespoons (1-3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (or Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks, for dairy-free)
  • 2-1/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 large egg white, at room temperature
  • 2-1/4 cups Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour Blend Recipe, plus more for dusting
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk*, at room temperature
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons pure almond or vanilla extract**
  • Oil or gluten-free baking oil spray, for pan
  • Gluten-free frosting of choice
  • Buttercream Frosting (optional)
  • Gluten-Free Royal Icing, for decorations (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Oil two 8-inch cake pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Oil the top of the parchment paper. Dust the sides with flour.
  2. In the bowl of your mixer, cream shortening. Add butter and beat until combined and smooth.
  3. Add sugar and beat until creamy, about 2 minutes.
  4. Add eggs and egg white one at a time, and beat after each addition.
  5. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
  6. In a measuring cup, combine buttermilk and extract; set aside.
  7. Add one-third of dry mixture and half buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with flour. Beat on medium speed until it becomes satin-like in texture.
  8. Distribute the batter between the two pans. If you have a kitchen scale, weigh the batter in each pan to divide equally.
  9. Bake on the center rack of your oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until they no longer jiggle when lightly shaken.
  10. Transfer the pans to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Then remove and discard parchment paper. Transfer cakes to the wire rack to cool right side up, 70 - 120 minutes.
  11. Once cakes cool, frost*** and decorate as desired. Slice leftovers and freeze on a sheet of parchment paper. Once frozen solid, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze in zipper storage bags. Defrost at room temperature.

Tips

*To make homemade buttermilk or dairy-free, see the substitutes page.

**Vanilla lends tan color to cakes. If you are not concerned with the color, feel free to use vanilla instead of almond extract. Clear, gluten-free vanilla is hard to find.

***You can achieve cleaner slices when the cake is chilled for about 2 hours. However, some frosting recipes recommend avoiding refrigeration due to a buildup of condensation. Never refrigerate a cake for days at a time unless it is a sponge cake with plenty of moist filling and frosting. They stale quickly in the refrigerator.

6 Replies to “Gluten Free Wedding Cake Recipe”

  1. This recipe completely failed for me. The cakes went flat as pancakes. I am a baker and used proper methods. The ingredients are too expensive to try again. Disappointed.

    1. Robin, Since this recipe has been tested and made successfully by others, I can only assume that you did not use my home flour blend. It is a must – https://glutenfreerecipebox.com/gluten-free-all-purpose-flour-blend/. The blend contains gum, which provides structure for the cake. Without t, the cake will collapse.

      Also, since this recipe was developed a few years back, my preferable gluten Free wedding cake is this new white cake recipe – https://glutenfreerecipebox.com/best-gluten-free-white-cake-recipe/. It so moist and flavorful!

      Carla

  2. I am looking for a gluten free cake recipe to bake a wedding cake for my son and his fiancé. I have had some trouble with the Gluten Free Wedding Cake Recipe above. The tops of my cakes seem to get very brittle and separate from the cake in the oven. I insert the cake tester and there is air space between the top and the actual cake. The first time I made this recipe I thought maybe I overbeat the mix. My second attempt was better but it still had a crusty top. I also have a convection oven so I lowered the oven temp to 325. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong.

    1. Evelyn,

      You’re the second person this week that had trouble making one of my recipes using a convection oven. I don’t use the convection setting on my oven because many people do not have this option. You may try reducing the sugar a little so it doesn’t form a crust. In addition, It sounds like your cake is falling away from the crust. Does the separation occur upon cooling? If so, bake it longer.

      Meanwhile, I have a much better recipe now for white cake. It’s pretty amazing: https://glutenfreerecipebox.com/best-gluten-free-white-cake-recipe/. Be sure and click on the red link for the video to check out the texture.

      I hope this helps.

      Carla

  3. Hi Carla
    I love your recipes and recently joined your blog after I lost my copy of the gluten free white cake recipe. I made it for my wedding and I also make it every year as a present to my husband on our anniversary. I’m not seeing the original recipe for the white cake, is there any way you can provide me with it?

    Thanks !

    1. Hi Mirrah,

      I’m glad you enjoyed my original white cake recipe. I removed it because so many people had trouble making it successfully. Here it is:

      14 tablespoons (1 stick plus 6 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
      3 cups Carla’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Blend Rcipe: http://glutenfreerecipebox.com/gluten-free-all-purpose-flour-blend , plus more for dusting
      2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
      3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
      1 cup whole milk
      6 extra-large (or large) egg whites, lightly beaten
      1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
      1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
      1-1/2 cups sugar (or evaporated cane juice, for refined-sugar-free)

      Oil and dust with flour, two 9-inch round non-stick cake pans; or oil, line bottom with parchment paper, and oil top of parchment paper; set aside.
      Preheat oven to 350°F.
      In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; and set aside.
      In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla; set aside.
      In the large bowl of your mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (if you have one), beat the butter on high speed until creamy, about 30 – 60 seconds, scraping bowl as needed. Leave the mixer running and slowly pour in sugar. Beat until creamy, approximately 2 minutes in a KitchenAid mixer, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
      Alternate sifting in half of flour mixture and adding half of milk mixture, beating between additions on low speed, just until blended, scraping sides as needed. Begin with flour mixture.
      Divide batter evenly between prepared pans; firmly tap on counter several times to remove any air pockets; using a rubber spatula, drop several drops of water on top; smooth out the tops.
      Bakte for approximately 30 minutes or until skewer (toothpick is not long enough) clean or cake springs back once touched with finger.
      Remove pans from oven and transfer to a cooling rack for about 5 minutes. Invert cake onto your hand and reinvert onto a wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.
      Frost and layer as desired.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.