Gluten Free Pound Cake Recipe
Updated May 29, 2020, Published Feb 17, 2013
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Pound cake and I have a long history. My mother used to serve it to us often. We would have it for dessert one night and the following day toasted for breakfast. Those were the only days I didn’t have to reluctantly drag myself to the breakfast table.
As a teenager, there was many a time when I nursed a broken heart with a loaf of Sara Lee Pound cake. Somehow it was the only thing that was able to restore my will to live in those tumultuous teen angst times.
I once spent a couple of weeks in an extremely impoverished country where the quality of food was so poor that my appetite completely deserted me. For some reason everywhere I went in that country had pound cake, it sustained me for 14 long days.
Of course all of this was before I went gluten free. I was bound and determined to make a great, classic, gluten free pound cake.
I consider pound cake one of the essentials of baking. Like a fabulous pair of jeans, it can be dressed up or down to suit the occasion.
After much trial and error I perfected (if I do say so myself) good old fashioned, classic, gluten free pound cake.
The original pound cake recipe calls for a pound of butter, a pound of flour, a pound of eggs, and a pound of sugar – thus the name pound cake.
I played with these proportions a bit to make a lighter version that still has the classic taste and texture because let’s face it – a cake made with a pound of each of those ingredients would probably feed an army. While it is never a bad thing to have too much pound cake, I rarely have the need to eat a whole pound cake all by myself as I did during my achy heart-breaky teen years.
For the flour, I think it is important to either use a pastry quality gluten free flour blend or make your own with a combination of superfine or Asian white rice flour and sweet rice flour plus potato and tapioca starches. You also need a little xanthan gum in there. I use Asian rice flours for two reasons – first, they are milled more finely than other rice flours thus are not gritty; secondly, they are a lot less expensive. Look for them in Asian stores or online. Unfortunately gluten free flours that are made with beans are just not going to give you a classic pound cake. If you want to make up a big batch of flour that will work great in this recipe, hop over to my Gluten Free Lemon Sugar Cookies recipe, I tell you how to make it there.
For butter, I use the best unsalted, organic butter I can get my hands on. There are not a lot of ingredients in this cake so each one counts!
Same goes for the eggs, if possible use organic pastured eggs.
As far as the sugar goes, I prefer to use Wholesome Sweeteners Organic sugar; it is not as sharp as bleached sugar and imparts a mellow sweetness to the cake.
Start with all your ingredients at room temperature and don’t skimp on the time in the mixer. There is a reason why I say to cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes. There is a reason I say to add each egg separately and to beat well after each addition. I find that when people have trouble baking, it is usually because they don’t follow some basic rules and try to take shortcuts. While I am usually all for shortcuts in cooking, baking is another story.
Don’t be intimidated – use good quality ingredients and follow the directions and you too can have a long history and beautiful love affair with pound cake!
Gluten Free Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- Gluten free non-stick cooking spray
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine or Asian white rice flour
- 5 tablespoons superfine or Asian sweet rice, also called glutinous rice flour
- 6 tablespoons potato starch
- 3 tablespoons tapioca starch
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- ½ cup milk, at room temperature
- 1 cup organic unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup organic sugar
- 3 large organic eggs
- 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sweet rice flour blend, baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed for 5 minutes until it is very light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well and scraping down the sides after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well.
- With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture and milk to the creamed butter starting with half of the flour mixture then the milk then the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Remove bowl from mixer and scrap the sides and bottom of the bowl well with a large spatula. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Check after 40 minutes and if the top is becoming too brown, place a sheet of foil over to protect it. Let cool in pan for a full 15 minutes then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- The cake will keep wrapped in the fridge for at least 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Carol – if I use the flour blend from your lemon cookies, how much of that blend would be used in this pound cake? I assume the flour blend takes the place of the rice flours, starches and gum – but you would still use the Baking Powder
I use Authentic Foods all purpose flour, which is very fine also. Could I use that instead of all the flours you use?
Hi Nancy, I am not sure what makes up Authetic Foods all-purpose flour but if you like it, I am sure it will be fine!
Can you use only the gluten flour and not organic other things
Yes you can. Enjoy!
I’m new and I have bought Bobs Red Mill flours. Sweet whit rice,sweet white sorghum flour,potato starch, millet flour,almond meal/flour and coconut flour. What mixture can I use for pound cake? Please help. Thank you ,Jane
Hi Jane. You can use Bob’;s Red Mill flour is you like and add the xanthan gum. I personally do not care for the taste of beans that Bob’s flour has which is why I make my own. Coconut and almond flours work very differently so they wuill not be good substitutes in this recipe.
Carol – Can this be doubled and baked in a bundt pan?
Hi Lily, I have not tried it but I see no reason why not. You just might have to adjust the time a little, I would think it would bake in slightly less time.
hi, just wanted to let you know that I just tried this recipe with 1/3 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of maple sugar and it was delicious! Raised amazingly well and the flavor was perfect!
Thanks Katia – I love it when people tell me how they tweaked my recipes. Thanks for letting me know.
Hi, Carol… just found your site and I am so excited! Would love to make this for my husband, who thinks all pound cakes should be chocolate. Have you ever added cocoa to this batter, and if you have, how much did you use? Would you recommend any other ingredient adjustments? Thank you!
Hi Joanna. Thank you so much! OK, first let me say I have not tried this so it is just an educated guess – I would add 4 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder to the batter and then taste to see if it is still sweet enough for you. I don’t really think any other changes would be needed. Good luck!
Carol, I have your gluten free flour. Would this work in this recipe and what would I need to omit in the ingredient list above if I use it? I am fairly new to gluten free baking. Thanks so much!!
Hi Sherry,
You can leave out the Asian white rice flour, the Asian sweet rice (also called glutinous) rice flour, leave out the potato starch the tapioca starch and the xanthan gum. Then use 1¾ cups of my flour instead!
Enjoy,
Carol
You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I to find this matter to be really something which I believe
I’d never understand. It sort of feels too complex and very huge for
me. I am having a look ahead for your next put up, I will try to get the dangle of it!