An EASY gluten free gingerbread cake recipe eluded me for years. I would revisit the attempt every so often and lose interest because it took too long or required too many ingredients.
If you know me or my recipes very well, you know that I absolutely love to bake, but that I can’t stand still long enough to make anything too awfully complicated or with too many ingredients!
In fact, until this recipe, I’d tried creating a gluten free gingerbread recipe several times and the one thing that kept me from publishing it was that it had so darn many ingredients!
That’s the very reason I devised my award-winning gfJules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour — so that I and others living gluten free wouldn’t have to dart out to the store every time a recipe called for a new funky flour (only to be disappointed because it tasted funky too)!
Then one day it hit me. Why not use my gfJules™ Graham Cracker/Gingerbread Mix to make gingerbread? It seemed like it should be possible, and think how much easier it would be?!
So I worked at it for awhile and even came up with a couple other ingredient alternatives so you could pick what suited your tastes and what was already in your cabinet!
You can even use your own sugar alternative like unrefined coconut palm sugar or brown sugar Swerve (zero net carbs so it doesn’t affect blood sugar and it’s non-glycemic).
An argument for eating more cake? Potentially.
I’ve also given you the base ingredients if you want to make this recipe from scratch and don’t have my gfJules Gluten Free Graham Cracker/Gingerbread Mix. I’m so happy with this recipe (I’d better be — I’ve made it a half dozen times in the past few weeks to get it just right!), and so very happy to share it with you this holiday season!
Happy, and easy baking!
Easy Gluten Free Gingerbread Recipe
Pumpkin pie spices permeate this classic gingerbread cake that smells as good as it tastes!
Ingredients
from Mix:
- 1 gfJules® Graham Cracker/Gingerbread Mix
- 1 cup brown sugar, brown sugar Swerve, OR unrefined coconut palm sugar
- 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (OR 1/2 tsp. allspice + 1/2 tsp. ground ginger + 1/4 tsp. ground cloves)
- dash of salt
from Scratch:
- 1 cup brown sugar, brown sugar Swerve, OR unrefined coconut palm sugar
- 1 1/2 cups gfJules® All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
- 1/2 cup certified gluten free buckwheat flour (Arrowhead Mills® Organic Buckwheat Flour), millet flour, OR almond meal
- 1 cup very fine white rice flour
- 1 Tbs. baking powder
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 tsp. allspice + 1/2 tsp. ground ginger + 1/4 tsp. ground cloves)
- dash of salt
PLUS LIQUID ingredients:
- 3/4 cup shortening or coconut oil (or, if using butter instead, reduce applesauce to 1 cup + 2 Tbs.)
- 1 1/4 cup applesauce (“natural” applesauce is less sweet)
- 3 eggs or egg substitute (like 3 Tbs. flaxseed meal steeped in 9 Tbs. warm water, OR 9 Tbs. yogurt, OR egg-free mayo)
- 1/3 cup molasses OR coconut nectar
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F (static) or 325° F (convection).
Cream sugar with shortening, beating until light (approximately 3 minutes). Add applesauce, eggs/substitute, molasses and vanilla. Mix until fully incorporated.
If baking from scratch, whisk together dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add dry Graham Cracker/Gingersnap Mix OR whisk the from-scratch dry ingredients in a separate bowl then add slowly to the sugar mixture, beating while adding the water until the batter is smooth. It will still be thick.
Oil a 9 x 13 baking pan (or smaller pan and bake longer) and spoon batter into the pan; smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out nearly clean. Depending on the size of the pan, the cake may need less or more time to fully bake (if it's thicker, it needs more time; thinner, it needs less). Cover with foil to finish baking if the top is browning or drying out.
Serve warm with whipped cream (or non-dairy version) or vanilla ice cream (dairy or non-dairy).
Notes
Serve fresh or once cooled, wrap in parchment paper, then aluminum foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature and cut into squares to serve.
I grew up having gingerbread cake on Epiphany morning to celebrate the fragrant gifts of the Three Kings. It is a cherished memory that I haven’t revived because I love the cake so much and didn’t want ruin it trying to copy it with gfree ingredients that would make it subpar. No worries, thanks to your mix, the tradition lives on. Not quite the majesty of those first gifts but a precious gift just the same to me and mine.
Oh Chari, this brings joy to my heart! I’m thrilled that you chose to give my gluten free gingerbread mix a try for this treasured recipe and that it worked out so well for you! It is a cherished recipe and I’m truly happy that it measured up! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know!
~jules
Hi! Thanks for your products – GF life got easier when I found you. 🙂 Re this recipe, perhaps I am missing something: Sugar is listed to add to the dry ingredients, but then the directions state to cream with the sugar. also, when I looked up pumpkin spice, it seems to be a mix of spices that you already list, plus cloves and nutmeg. Just wondering about that selection. That I again for all that you do for us GFers!
You are so very welcome! It makes me happy to know that I’ve been able to help in any way with your Gluten Free Life!
Regarding your question on this recipe, the spices somehow got divided onto other lines in the new recipe card layout — they were supposed to be options. Thanks for bringing that to my attention! I’ve fixed it in the recipe card now, so hopefully it makes more sense now! The sugar is to be creamed with the shortening or coconut oil and the remaining dry ingredients are mixed together if baking from scratch instead of the mix. I hope that helps to clarify it! Enjoy the recipe!
~jules
Hello Jules!
I made the gingerbread for Jack for his birthday. He loved it! It’s not really my favorite, but I couldn’t let him eat it all by himself !😃
It smelled so good while it was baking. Turned out great!
Take care!
Ginny
So glad you didn’t let him eat it all by himself, Ginny — you’re such a giver!!! Your slice is gorgeous, by the way! And yes, that gingerbread smell baking is one of the best things about the season!!! Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you and Jack! I know it’ll be a sweet one!
~jules
Can I make gingerbread out of your gingerbread cookie mix? I have 2 boxes left from my cookie stash and what to find something to do with it besides cookie’s
Thanks any help would be appreciated
Char Lavalette
Hi Charlotte – yes you can! Here’s the recipe for gluten free gingerbread using my mix!
~jules
Can I use a bunt pan. For the gingerbread
Mix one
Hi Marilyn, yes you can! Baking in a bundt, you’ll need to add more time to the bake though, so keep an eye on it and start by adding about 10 minutes. ENJOY!
~jules
Could this mix be used to make gingerbread cookies?
Oh absolutely, Jeri-Lynn! Here’s the link to the mix, it’s actually called my Gluten Free Graham Cracker Gingerbread Mix and the directions on the can are for making either the graham crackers or gingerbread cookies (so good!!).
~jules
I’m looking forward to trying this with your gingerbread mix today, but I cannot tolerate applesauce. What do you recommend I use instead? (I am also dairy free. )
Hi Janine, can you do pumpkin puree? That would be a worthy substitute!
~jules
This recipe is very forgiving! I did everything I could to mess it up and it still came out great! Making the scratch recipe, here is what I did: I was well underway and discovered I only had 1/6thish cup of blackstrap molasses. But I had lots of pure maple syrup so I added all the blackstrap I had plus 1/2 maple syrup. I was in a major rush and was being interrupted, so I added all the liquid ingredients at once. I did not cream the coconut oil and granular sweetener together first. I dumped everything in and then realized that was not right. I decided to forge ahead, I could always go shopping and try again tomorrow if I needed to! So, I beat everything on about 5 out of 7 for three minutes or so, then beat in the dry ingredients. There were many chunks of coconut oil and I didn’t worry about that. I baked in a glass pan with parchment paper. I also subbed Lakanto golden for the brown sugar, and added an extra cup of Jules’ flour for the rice flour. I had to bake it about 43 minutes, I checked frequently at the end but it didn’t want to set that final crumb. It finally did, and it was fantastic. I am thrilled I didn’t toss it after I caught my mistake. I can’t wait to try this again with the blackstrap molasses as written, and I may add a bit more cloves and ginger because I like spicy gingerbread. But this recipe was fabulous and really made me happy because I have not had time to bake for myself this holiday season, and the rest of the family has had their gluten desserts. I also love that it came out well with Lakanto, because I need to get off the holiday candy high! Thank you Jules!
That was 1/2 c of maple syrup that I added! I left off the units, sorry!
Oh Marcy, that’s wonderful to hear! I’m thrilled that you kept going and didn’t toss it, as well! Good info on the Lakanto Golden and so smart to make up the molasses difference with maple syrup! I may have to try it myself that way, next time! 😉
Also, I love that you subbed in my gfJules Flour for rice flour and the texture pleased you – many rice flours are gritty, so it’s a good sub when you really want a lighter cake. Happy Holidays!
~jules
I got rid of my “other” flours when I discovered your flour blend. I do have GF buckwheat flour…can I just use more of your blend instead of white rice flour?
Hi Michelle, yes! It makes it so much easier to know that you only need one gluten free flour! You can just use my gfJules Flour in place of the white rice flour here; rice flour is a bit gritty, which is why it’s used in gingerbread, but I’m happy with less grit all around. Hope you enjoy!
~jules
So airy without eggs! Gotta get your mix and whip this up!
I can’t wait to hear what you think, Brianna!
~jules
oh, YUM. it has been SO LONG since I have had a tasty slice of gingerbread!! yours sounds amazing – pinned to try soon.
I have never actually thought of a whole cake for Christmas. Thanks for the tip. We normally only used to bake millions of cookies.
Oh I do both! 😉 LOL!!
~jules