Gluten-Free Peach Cake with Cinnamon Streusel

It was so hard to let this cake cool before cutting into it.

Dreams of Peach Cake 

Why is it when I bake a coffee cake I get all dreamy and gooey inside, like a knee-socked school girl in Latin class, riveted to the patch of peachy, fuzzy cloud against the swaying swatch of blue between the maple tree branches outside the classroom window, imagining love itself is out there, waiting, breathing, just beyond reach, ready to pounce. Like grace. When you least expect it, a gift arrives.

Often in a form you don't recognize at first.

Like a plaid shirt.

And hands that juggle.

The truth is, I didn't even know juggling was on my list.

My top criteria (scrawled in gel black ink one rainy night post divorce) listed kindness, a sense of humor, artistic.

It conjured images of tempered masculinity. Intelligence. Adept at conversation. Curiosity.

Likes women (a big one).

It mentioned nothing about juggling. Or fierce devotion to coffee. Or a willingness to wash dishes. It neglected to include the seductive power of coffee cake. The sexy allure of a cinnamon dusted chin.

So imagine my surprise when on our second date (post French roast coffee and dirt bomb muffins) he grabs three apples. And juggles. While whistling. I can't remember the tune.

Because my knees turned to pudding.

And now, almost twenty years later, I hear a key in the door. And my heart is grateful. It's him. The guy in a plaid shirt.

Bearing peaches.

More gifts.

And once more, I accept.


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Gluten-Free Cherry Clafoutis

Gluten-free dessert is solved. A luscious cherry clafoutis, no sugar.

Clafoutis a la Gluten-Free

My cherry clafoutis has a little secret. Well. Two secrets. Wait. Actually, three. At least. It's a clafoutis bursting with secrets. But first, I must mention something.

Are you listening, darling?

Put down your iPhone for a moment, will you? You can text later. When you're not driving. Or brushing your teeth- hazardous especially if one attempts texting while scrubbing one's used-to-be-pearly-enough whites (before the advent of dental bleaching) with a vibrating rechargeable toothbrush. Vanilla mint toothpaste can spatter in shockingly wide and impressive arcs, inflicting remarkable damage upon various household goods and personal items including tidy, stacked baskets of freshly folded jeans and t-shirts still cozy-warm from the dryer in the basement, I am sorry to tell you.

But I digress. Back to dessert.


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Flourless Chocolate Cake - Easy Gluten-Free Recipe

Flourless Chocolate Heaven-

Perfection for a Gluten-Free Diet

Dense, sexy chocolate deliciousness on a plate. This is such an easy recipe, especially if you use a food processor to do the work. Serve this to non-gluten-free folks with no apologies. None. Zip. Nada.

And for gluten-free folks? Hand out seconds (we deserve it, don't we?).

And the best part is- the recipe is inherently gluten-free and wheat-free. No substitutions. In fact, this is the same flourless cake I've been making for years. It never contained flour. The only thing I've tweaked post-celiac diagnosis is adding more coffee and vanilla.

Just because.

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Lemon Yogurt Cake

Luscious Lemon Cake...

From deep in the Gluten-Free Goddess archives, a lemon cake you may have missed... Ever since I saw Ilva's sumptuous Almond and Ricotta Cake I've been jonesing for something with lemon. The odd thing is- her cake doesn't even have lemon (strange the way our mind works and sweeps us away along memory traceries of scent and flavor) but I started craving a cake laced with citrus- not too sweet and not too light. A cake with character and heft.

The day I decided to bake, of course, I had no ricotta, but I did have organic plain yogurt and plenty of blanched almond flour. Inspired by Ilva's recipe, I tweaked her ingredients with those I had on hand and baked up a lovely simple cake that reminds me of a coffee cake I remember liking as a child, a bakery cake called Louisiana Ring made by Freihofer's- yet in truth, that cake featured a hint of orange rather than lemon.

There's that memory glitch again.

Some intuitive leap from taste to taste. An image, a smell can trigger a remembrance as vivid as the day you experienced it, enhanced, I imagine, by hindsight. This ability sharpens as you get older.

Time seems to condense into the senses (invoking forgotten details). You start believing the Buddha's theory about ten dimensions. You start savoring the smallest moments. Your husband hands you a mug of green tea, the steam rising in the late afternoon sun slatted through the bamboo window shade, and a loss from the past heals for a moment.

Next time I make this recipe I think I'll use oranges.

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Gluten-Free Chocolate Recipe Love

Celebrate love with these fabulous gluten-free chocolate recipes.

I've said it before. Chocolate is love. And any excuse to celebrate love (or chocolate) is high on my priority list. Here are some of my hand-picked favorite gluten-free chocolate recipes for Valentine's Day- or any day you feel like celebrating love.

Which, in my corner of the world, ought to be every day.

Cacao! conquers all.

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Karina's Chocolate Truffle Cake

Rich, easy, gorgeous truffle cake.

To celebrate a bright New Year, I say we bake a cake. A flourless cake. A cake so rich it tastes like a truffle. Not the infamous pig snuffled treasure. No, Darling. The chocolate truffle. That heavenly impostor, hiding in the guise of that woodsy French piggery fungi. Spoonfuls of deep, dark ganache rolled in cocoa powder (to look like dirt, of course).

And I didn't want just a chocolate cake topped with ganache, either. I wanted to bake the ganache itself. I wanted the cake to taste like a sweet and satiny truffle- I wanted the cake to live up to its name. Truffle Cake inspires expectations.

So I fiddled around with my Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe and rustled up a divine and creamy chocolate cake so special you'll want to share it with company. It's simply too good to keep to yourself. Try it. It's shockingly easy to make. Just give yourself time to make it ahead. It is at its best chilled overnight.

Silky satin chocolate cake with a dusting of dirt- I mean- organic cacao powder with a secret ingredient. Raw maca powder. Throw in a little superfood magic. Why not?


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Gluten-Free Applesauce Crumb Cake with Cinnamon

Coffee Cake to the Rescue

I decided to bake a cake. Because trying to wrestle gluten-free pie dough for an apple pie just seemed too fussy. Too complicated. Though in all honesty, that isn't the whole, unvarnished truth. The whole, unvarnished truth is, Yours Truly is more of a cake person than a pie person. It's true- pies have their charm. I've been known to inhale a slice or two of apple pie in my day. But here's the thing. And I'm going to be blunt.

Gluten-free pastry crust is simply not as flaky and tender and melt-in-your-mouth wonderful as wheat pastry crust. There. I said it. Fighting words, to some. And if you are among those true believers feel free to disagree. And go eat your gluten-free pie. I bless you with a thousand sprinkles of pie fairy dust. With love. And kisses. And pink ponies.

Respectfully.

Gluten, you see, is more than a pesky protein with a bad rep. Gluten is what makes pastry dough soft, flaky and tender. Gluten is what inspired bakers to bake all those years ago, firing up their hand-hewn brick-lined ovens. Gluten was their muse. Their seductive mistress. Gluten took them beyond three ingredient pancakes and palm-tossed flatbreads. Gluten fed their imagination. Inspired tarts, baklava, cupcakes. Napoleons. And yes. Apple pie. Because gluten is a magical ingredient (despite its bad press these days). We have to admit it. She's not an easy paramour to replace.

Perhaps some day soon I'll be tempted to experiment with a gluten-free wheat-free pastry dough. I'll be lured into believing I can recreate such delicate, fragile beauty. But not today. I'll bake this 'no apology necessary' Apple Crisp or this amazing Pumpkin Pie with Coconut-Pecan Crust.

For breakfast, I'll eat Applesauce cake.

Right now, I can live with that.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake

Gluten-Free vegan pumpkin cheesecake- creamy and dairy-free.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake, Darling

Quick question. It is officially October. The annual Pumpkin Love Fest has begun in earnest. So. I ask you. Is this the time to shun dessert in favor of green kale chia fiber smoothies and ginger laced cabbage detox soup?

I can answer that.

The answer is no.

As in N. As in O. NO. Nope. Nada. Not gonna happen.

Because I, my darling, am a temptress. I am not going to write about healthy Fall desserts today, or some virtuous fat-free bean brownie with chicory fiber, or three-bean dirt-brown chili that will keep you tooting fumes for a week. Instead, Dearest Gluten-Sensitive One, I am going to tease you. I am going to lure you- with a silver fork-worthy dessert recipe totally worth baking this all-too-soon-to-be-upon-us holiday season 2014.

This is a silky, creamy pumpkin cheesecake that begs for a party. Or a family rumpus. One of many last hurrahs as daylight dwindles darkly toward the Winter Solstice low point, flickering her last sigh Northward before the pale glare of January dawns in all her cold and sober glory (and I step- ever so gingerly- on the reality check scale). And maybe sigh. A little hint of a sigh.

Because even though it is pre-Halloween, pre-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas, pre-Hannukah (and all that pre-winter holiday jazz) I can already see that the annual jean shrinkage has begun. You know- that time of year when (mysteriously!) my favorite jeans come damp-dry out of the dryer a size too small. And that familiar jolly pie roll affectionately known as Doris is itching to start rolling her merry way up and out of my favorite black leggings. It's rather comical. And honestly, she makes me smile. I pat her affectionately.

Like a pet bunny.

Because the truth is I am not about to start counting calories.

Though I admit I may possibly probably definitely feel the need to cleanse my palette in the bright new year that lurks and leers around the post-holiday corner. Detox mulligatawny is surely in my future, come 2015.

If for nothing else, for the sheer love of shedding old stuck energy. A fresh start feels good.

If you do it with a big dash of humor.

And humility.

I know from experience that January will ignite the urge to clean out closets, chase those dust bunnies and walk off our collective Doris's. Or would that be Dori, for plural? We'll have ample time, come 2015, for detoxing and courting virtue with ginger laced green soup, and recipes that will encourage our lovely pinchable pie rolls to skedaddle. I promise. I'll be first second third in line with fresh whipped smoothies and cleansing soup recipes come January.

But this month? Nah.

There's a vegan pumpkin cheesecake recipe to share.



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Gluten-Free Coconut Layer Cake

Coconut cake heaven. Gluten-free and dairy-free deliciousness.

Let Us Eat Cake

Birthdays are complicated when you reach a certain age. Oh, don't get me wrong. You're grateful for another year. I mean. You're still alive and kicking, right? Waking up to a fresh start. Starting a spanking new year on the planet with one more number under your (slightly pinching) belt. A number that grants you a whisker more authority in the world. A tad more wisdom.

If you've been paying attention to the lessons life likes to offer up as experience, and not sleepwalking, that is. Not acquiescing to the expectations of others. Or choosing safety over the challenge of the new. Or worse- finding yourself somewhere, in some situation, or relationship, strictly for the sake of momentum, chafing inside a role you don't remember signing up for.

Birthdays can be markers like that.

Defining where we've been. And how far we've come. Or not.

It was my husband's birthday this weekend. And yes, I baked a cake. And as I stirred the batter and scooped it into cake pans, I thought about the other cakes I have baked for him. The chocolate cake in our first year of marriage. Children beneath our roof. Blue balloons and candles. The newness of each others' dreams. The shine of our ideas. The belief in what was possible.

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Gluten-Free Chocolate Layer Cake

A rich, devil's food style chocolate layer cake for the holidays.

Angel Food, Devil's Style...

Sharing food in winter is one of life’s quiet joys. As poet Edith Sitwell noted, “Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”

I contemplate her words and feel an ache that is dangerously flirting with longing. As we invest more and more of our (fleeting, precious!) time into our virtual lives, connecting not by touch or even by voice, but via endless shallow streams of social media- texting, downloading, uploading, scrolling through visual tidbits of other people’s lives (often strangers), privy to their breakfast, their political opinions, and goofy pictures of Fido and Kitty- I yearn to throw a party. To embrace the old fashioned ritual of baking from scratch, lighting candles, and inviting some human beings over for an evening of conversation and real time companionship.

Laughter and chocolate cake are good medicine, feeding not only our sweet tooth, but our sun deprived spirit as well. The spirit of connectivity, friendship and inclusion.

Yet for those of us living gluten-free (and dairy-free), the deep mid-winter season- with its twinkling celebrations centered around sharing food- too often feels the opposite of convivial. It feels gated. Off limits.

Look. Don't touch. Or taste. Smile graciously.

When you need not be hyper-vigilant about each and every forkful, the food centric holidays are, as the saying goes, a piece of cake. But to those of us with celiac disease and dairy allergies, a table heaped with food (glorious food) is a big steaming reminder of how different we are, a symbol of separation. Of not belonging.

This is when a gluten-free dairy-free chocolate layer cake is more than just dessert. It is a marvelous, beautiful thing. Bordering on luxurious.

Because to indulge (and share food) without worry is a true gift.

So pick a date. Text family and friends an invite. Or pick up the phone and call. Fire up your oven. Gather plates and candles.

Conviviality, connection, and cake await.


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Gluten-Free Banana Crumb Cake

Lovely for snacking. Gluten-Free Banana Crumb Cake.

A certain someone in our household has a sweet tooth. And- best of all- he not only likes to eat cake, he likes to bake it, too (apparently baking can be a form of meditation for some folks, a calming, distracting respite from toiling away in one's head for hours, excavating the various thematic elements underpinning character motivation, conflict and story arcs. All those juicy, gnarly, invisible threads and knots we movie viewers take for granted when we settle in with our gluten-free popcorn to watch a screenplay come to life.

Something I've learned, living with a screenwriter (aside from the fact that baking is therapy)?

Don't judge the script by the movie.

Because chances are the script was good.

Chances are the script was tight and wry and sharp. And moving. And funny. Chances are the script made you leak a well-earned tear. Or two.

Then came the notes.

From the director. From the actor. From the producer. And the producer's girlfriend. Her dentist.

So the script gets whittled. And weakened. And tweaked. Scenes are added to make a character more likeable (How 'bout we give him a dog- or a koi pond?). Then locales get switched (apparently producers believe New Mexican Pueblo humor translates without a glitch to Australia's Gold-Coast). The language once precise gets watered down with unimaginative phrases you've heard before (not every actor can improvise like Robert De Niro I am sorry to tell you).

Sometimes the collaborative magic of filmmaking works.

And sometimes it doesn't.

And baking ensues.

Lately?

We always have cake in the freezer.


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Frosted Carrot Cake Quinoa Bars

Frosted carrot quinoa bars. Gluten-free. Dairy-free.

Gettin' Fancy

My intrepid husband slash sous chef was craving a carrot cake style quinoa bar for a mid-morning snack. To be exact, he said, Hey. I'm craving a carrot cake style quinoa breakfast bar. You know. For breakfast. To which yours truly replied, Look who wants to get fancy. My chocolate chip quinoa breakfast bars aren't good enough for you? Now you need frosting? To which said long suffering husband replied, Frosting makes everything better.

Who am I to argue with that?

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Crumb Cake

A light, pumpkin coffee cake for your holiday brunch.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Coffee Cake

The Winter Solstice will be here soon. The holiday frenzy of gift buying and light stringing and cookie making is officially upon us. Everywhere I cast my gaze I am pummeled with messages. SHOP! BAKE! SPARKLE!

And that's okay.

Because I understand the hoopla. I know where this urge comes from. The itch to make a ruckus in the dark. To sing, brave and clear, cupping our tiny flames against Midwinter's long night.

The California sun hangs soft and low in the sky, as pale as ice cream. Hours feel clipped. Afternoons are shorter and shorter. Night creeps ever closer. Darkness will soon reign over light.

But only for a moment. One single, solitary, longest night of the year.

No wonder we gather to celebrate. The rebirth of light is no small thing. And a brand new year awaits. Front loaded with promise, and changes hoped for.

I had hoped to finally conquer gluten-free sugar cookies. But after tasting more than one middling batch (I also have to bake without butter, remember) I became more interested in reading a new book than wrestling with sugar cookie dough. Yes, I miss rolling out sugar cookies. And yes, I would be (more than!) thrilled to sign on here today and boast about the best gluten-free sugar cookie ever. But. It's not gonna happen. This week anyway.

I had two sad, cracked (and complaining) teeth yanked this week. (Celiac disease is not kind to teeth and bones. My childhood was riddled with amalgam and the torture inducing whine of belt-driven drills, cementing a lifelong terror of dentists.)

So that gave me the perfect excuse to nap. And read in bed.

I am reading Carolyn G. Heilbrun- The Last Gift of Time. I read a chapter on memory- and the seduction of nostalgia (a favorite subject of mine, you may remember). And I read this...

"Every time those of us in our last decades allow a memory to occur, we forget to look at what is in front of us, at the new ideas and pleasures we might, if firmly in the present, encounter and enjoy."

Carolyn (in her seventies when she wrote this book) urges us to stay present in the here and now as we age, and not drift into the mental trap of nostalgia and memories. I wholeheartedly agree. I love learning something new- every day- turning not to an assumption, a belief or a habit, but toward the thrill of a new skill, and new technologies (iphoneography is a new passion of mine- an art form in its infancy). Keeping myself open, engaged in the here and now means keeping things fresh. Letting go of the old, the stale past, the so-called good old days. Because as good as they were, they are not now. And as bad as some days may have been, today can be different.

Now is new.

And in this spirit, Steve and I baked a pumpkin crumb cake instead of recreating cookies. A new Christmas tradition, perhaps? Why not?

Cake for breakfast.

Sweet.


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Peanut Butter Banana Cake

My gluten-free peanut butter banana cake was inspired by a sandwich.

Karina's Peanut Butter Banana Cake Recipe- Low sugar

Recipe originally posted recipe May 2007.

I decided to experiment with a recipe that would be naturally sweet. Bananas came to mind. And then peanut butter. The classic combo makes for a tender, slightly sweet cake. Perfect with tea. Or a glass of ice cold rice milk. I even eat it for breakfast. It reminds me of the peanut butter-banana sandwiches I used to love.

Ingredients:

4 ripe medium bananas, mashed 
1/2 cup organic natural peanut butter or sunflower seed butter
1/4 to 1/3 cup or honey
2 organic free-range large eggs (or Ener-G egg replacer)
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut flour
1 cup fine almond meal
Dash of stevia powder
Dash of cinnamon or nutmeg, to taste
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt [if using salt-free peanut butter]

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. Line a 8 or 9-inch cake pan with greased parchment.

Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl: bananas through vanilla. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet mixture till smooth and sticky.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and place in the center of the pre-heated oven.

Bake until done - about 35 to 40 minutes - and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.

Cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving.

Cook time: 35 min

Yield: 8 slices

Freezes well, pieces wrapped individually. Yummy cold.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you. 

Notes:

Seed butters and other nut butters will work in this recipe as a sub for peanut butter.

For those of you who prefer sugar, you can sub 1/2 cup of packed golden brown sugar in place of stevia.

Ener-G brand egg-replacer is suitable for Passover; use in place of the baking soda/powder leavening.

Not only is the cake gluten-free and cane sugar free, Babycakes, it's grain-free and casein free, which makes it a suitable treat for all those autistic and Aspie angels out there.

Choose smooth peanut butter and finely ground blanched almond flour for the texture sensitive.

Gluten-Free Apple Cake with Cranberries

A gluten-free cranberry apple cake- with a sweet-tart kick.

Sweet and Tart 

No philosophy today. Instead, a cake. A beautiful gluten-free cake to bake for the holidays- or any day you feel like celebrating. So dust off your cake pan, Babycakes.

This is a moist and tender apple cake laced with a hint of cinnamon and studded with fresh tart berries. After seven eight nine years of baking various gluten-free incarnations of my tried and true Jewish apple cake recipe, this could be our favorite. Maybe it's the sweet-tart combo. The subtlety of flavors.

In a food culture obsessed with kicking up recipes with more for the sake of more (white chocolate peanut butter bacon swirled maple donut ice cream drizzled in dulche de leche coconut marshmallow syrup and dusted with sugared Meyer lemon zest and shaved cacao, anyone?) the clean and classic flavor contrast of apples and cranberries is somehow new again. Even, refreshing. 

I don't need dessert to taste like candy.

I like my cake to taste like cake. 

How about you?

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Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Apple Cake

A lovely gluten-free apple cake with coconut flour.

Wheat-Free Apple Cake with Coconut Flour

The weather here has hula-hooped back into summer. I kid you not. It is ninety-seven degrees here in Little Russia, my West Hollywood neighborhood. As in 97. That's three shy of one hundred, Bubbe. In September. And what am I doing? Baking a cake. Heating up the kitchen. It figures.

As soon as I buy apples and start daydreaming about my favorite fall confections, imagining clear, cool evenings and Eva Cassidy's haunting rendition of Autumn Leaves, September turns sultry and sends me back into the closet, peeling off my straight legged jeans and Converse All Stars faster than Gordon Ramsay can mock sashimi.

So I may as well share my latest gluten-free cake recipe with you. I mean, I suffered extreme heat for it. I hot flashed till I was squishy for it. I panted and sweat until I resembled an over-ripe heirloom tomato. You know, dimpled and dented. Flabby. A little misshapen. And well. Squishy. Not a pretty sight.

Not that I'm trying to induce guilt or anything.

Not me.

So go ahead. Enjoy this new apple cake recipe. Share a slice or two amongst yourselves. Don't worry about me here in hot little WeHo. Really. Go. Bake. Discuss. Have some coffee.

And coffee tawk.

xox


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Gluten-Free Banana Almond Bundt® Cake Recipe

Almond flour makes this banana Bundt® cake gluten-free gorgeous.

Almond Flour Cake Love

Baking weather has arrived. Are you feeling the urge? I am. It's Bundt® Cake time. Time for stirring up gluten-free cake batters with soft ripe bananas,  pumpkin puree, and applesauce, filling the kitchen with the warm sweet scent of cinnamon. Time to tie on your cute little apron and invoke your inner Domestic Goddess. Because the groovy-spooky Fall Equinox is right around the corner, I am sorry to tell you. Summer fun is fading fast, Sweetpea. Your tan lines are disappearing.

Your UGGs are calling.

So paw through your stash of rocket shaped Popsicle molds, drink umbrellas and pool party napkins. Get ready to retire the flamingo adorned lemonade pitcher (unless you happen to live in Boca Raton). Snake your way into the back dark corner of your kitchen closet.

Liberate the Bundt® pan you haven't used since Ground Hog Day.

It's dusty but it cleans up nice.


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Gluten-Free Blueberry Crumb Cake

Blueberry crumb cake- gluten-free summer goodness.

Coffee cake for the road.

Sometimes in life- when you least expect it- the stars are kind. Synchronicity smiles. And disparate pieces of your dreams bump up against one another and nestle snug into place. I'm referring, of course, to my dream of California. Summer by the Pacific, walking the beach, shopping the Farmers' Market, reuniting with my sons. Cooking. Writing. Haunting book stores and coffee shops.

I've been trying to get there for two years.

No, the house hasn't sold yet. But Plan B is under way. We found the elusive summer rental. Just when I thought it wasn't going to happen. A sublet in Santa Monica. In the nick of time. A lovely, light filled creative space. With a sweet kitchen. So I am back to making lists, mapping our drive south to Flagstaff, AZ, turning west to aim for the coast. I am lying in the dark alert, at 3 AM, pondering not the mysteries of the collective unconscious, not the properties of desire and effect, quantum attraction and Zen detachment, but favorite flavors of chocolate chip cookies. I am imagining herbed sandwich wraps (recipe soon!). Bags of salted popcorn. iTunes playlists. And this, a new blueberry cake recipe I felt inspired to bake. With a cinnamon crumb topping.

I think it's perfect to pack for a two-day road trip, don't you? Or even a two minute trip, scooting across the back yard barefoot to visit your best friend and neighbor. She'll make the coffee. Or iced chai. While you unrap the cake you get to eat, too.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing

Pumpkin Cake to the Rescue

Today I'm digging into the recipe archives (back to 2005!) to share an old favorite. My pumpkin cake recipe. We're so busy sorting, bagging clothes and boxing up books for donation, getting ready for the big move to Los Angeles (next Thursday!) that yours truly has not had time to bake.

But if I did? I'd whip up this moist and tender beauty of a cake.

Today it snowed. Our first snow of the season. After photographing the backyard oak and apple branches dusted in sugary white like some fairy confection I thought of James Taylor's line in Sweet Baby James. The Berkshires seemed dream-like on account of that frosting. And I decided to bake a cake. With cinnamon.

I tried to whistle my way back to the house, to pierce the soft silence that only snowfall can bring, but I am not gifted in whistling.

A crow swung low overhead and cawed, unimpressed with my feeble tune.

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My Best Gluten-Free Cake + Cupcake Recipes

Here are my favorite gluten-free cake and cupcake recipes on Gluten-Free Goddess®- from a lovely, company worthy coconut layer cake, to cozy cinnamon crumbed coffee cake, from rich and fudgy flourless chocolate elegance to sassy orange vegan cupcakes.

My Best Gluten-Free Wheat-Free 

Cake + Cupcake Recipes

Apple Cake with Cranberries

Apple Cake Muffins

Applesauce Crumb Cake

Banana Bundt Cake

Banana-Blueberry Muffin Cake

Banana Polenta Cake 

Banana Crumb Cake 

Banana Spice Cake

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Cherry Clafoutis

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Icing

Chocolate Gingerbread 

Chocolate Layer Cake

Chocolate Truffle Cake

Coconut Apple Cake

Carrot Cake made with Pamela's Gluten-Free Baking Mix

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cake

Coconut Layer Cake

Dark Goddess Cake

Flourless Banana Snacking Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Frosted Carrot Quinoa Bars

Fudgy Brownie Cupcakes

Lemon Almond Yogurt Cake

Maple Frosted Pumpkin Cake

Orange Creme Cupcakes

Peach Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

Pumpkin Cheesecake 

Pumpkin Crumb Cake

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

Quinoa Breakfast Cake

Rustic Strawberry Cobbler Cake

Sour Cream Apple Cake

Vanilla Cupcakes with Mocha Icing

Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake

Gluten-Free Goddess' Gluten-Free Wheat-Free Cake Baking Tips:

New to baking gluten-free wheat-free cakes and cupcakes? See my post Gluten-Free Cooking + Baking Tips for what to expect and how to problem solve.

Gluten-free vegan batter (without dairy and eggs) behaves differently than wheat batter. It is generally stickier, and thicker than standard batter.

Eggs are a boon to gluten-free baking. They add lift, moisture and lightness to heavy gluten-free flours.  If fat is a concern, use whisked egg whites instead of whole eggs, and an extra egg white.

Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven. If your cakes sink in the center you may be adding too much liquid to the batter, not baking it long enough, or your oven temperature may run a tad cool. Conversely, if the cake rises high and fast, then collapses, your oven may run hot.

For essential tips on baking gluten-free and dairy-free without eggs see my Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet, with trouble shooting strategies for baking success.