Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Cake

This light and fluffy Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Cake has plenty of ginger flavor and a luscious vanilla cream icing. It uses gluten-free all purpose flour as the base with molasses, brown sugar, and vanilla extract to enhance the traditional gingerbread flavors. It's made with oil and is easily dairy-free and vegan as needed.

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• Recipe Overview: Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf
• Why This Recipe Works
• Key Ingredients & Substitutions
• How to Make Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Cake
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• Expert Tips
• More Gluten-Free Holiday Desserts
• 💬 Comments

Why This Recipe Works

• Hot water keeps the molasses from weighing down the cake. Thinning the thick molasses helps it distribute more evenly through the batter so the loaf stays light instead of becoming dense.
• Vinegar helps the loaf rise. The vinegar reacts with the baking soda to give this gluten-free cake extra lift without leaving a noticeable vinegar flavor.
• Oil keeps the crumb soft and tender. I prefer a neutral liquid oil here; melted butter also works, but produces a slightly more muffin-like texture.
• It's been tested with egg-free options. Whipped aquafaba gives the

Key Ingredients & Substitutions

Gluten-Free Flour

I use Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour. For best results, use a rice-flour-based gluten-free all-purpose blend that already contains xanthan gum. Different blends can absorb liquid differently, so the texture may vary if you substitute another brand.

For the most consistent results, weigh your gluten-free flour.

Molasses

For best taste, you want to use a molasses labeled "dark", "robust", or unsulphured. I used Grandma's brand unsulphured molasses for my recipe trials. Wholesome brand has an excellent dark sticky organic molasses.

I don't recommend blackstrap molasses here because it is much more bitter and less sweet than regular unsulphured molasses and will change the flavor of the cake.

Why add hot water? Molasses is very thick and can weigh down a light gluten-free loaf cake. I stir it with hot water first so it mixes evenly into the batter and helps the cake stay light and fluffy.

Eggs

Using aquafaba, the liquid leftover in a can of chickpeas, makes the best egg-free substitution in this recipe. The taste and texture are nearly indistinguishable from the traditional with eggs.

How to use aquafaba in place of eggs:

1. Use a strainer to strain a can of chickpeas or white beans and collect the aquafaba in a small mixing bowl. You need 6 tablespoons (¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons, or 90 ml) of aquafaba for this recipe.
2. Whip the aquafaba until uniformly foamy using an electric mixer, preferably with whisk attachment. This should take anywhere from 30 seconds to about a minute for the 1-loaf quantity.
3. Replace eggs with aquafaba when the recipe calls for it, and follow the instructions as written. That's it!

For a simpler egg-free substitution, substitute 2 tablespoons of potato or cornstarch mixed into the dry ingredients and 6 tablespoons of water or milk mixed into the wet ingredients.

Vinegar

Vinegar interacts with the baking soda to help gluten-free baked goods rise. Otherwise cakes and quick breads can be too dense. Use apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar. You can't taste any traces of vinegar in the baked gingerbread cake.

You can omit the vinegar entirely, but the loaf cake will be a little denser.

Oil

Use a neutral flavored oil that is liquid at room temperature like vegetable oil or avocado oil. You can use melted butter as a substitute. With butter, the texture will be a bit more like a muffin than a cake and still very good.

More Ingredient Notes

• milk of choice - This recipe can be made with dairy milk or plant-based milk. I used unsweetened almond milk.
• sugar - Any granulated sugar will work. I used coconut sugar but this recipe works well with brown sugar or white sugar.
• icing ingredients - To make the vanilla icing, you need butter or dairy-free butter, solid coconut cream or cream cheese, vanilla extract, salt, and powdered sugar.

See the recipe card for full ingredients with quantities.

How to Make Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Cake

1. Prep the pan and milk mixture. Line a metal loaf pan with parchment. Stir the milk and vinegar together and set aside.
2. Thin the molasses. Stir the molasses with hot water until smooth, then let it cool slightly.
3. Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk together the gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
4. Mix the wet ingredients. Whisk together the milk mixture, molasses mixture, eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla.
5. Make the batter. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined. A few small lumps are fine-don't overmix.
6. Bake and cool. Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a rack and cool completely before icing.

When you make this recipe, please leave a rating and review below. I always appreciate the feedback! ❤️

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