Gluten is, for many, something that they cannot (and do not want to) eat. The reason that gluten is so widely avoided is that it provides no essential nutrients whatsoever. People who suffer from celiac disease can actually have immune reactions triggered by gluten consumption. When people with celiac disease do consume gluten, they develop inflammation and their intestinal tracts can become damaged, as can other parts of their body when they consume gluten.

Choosing to go gluten-free can provide a number of health benefits, including eased digestive symptoms, a reduction in chronic inflammation, and increased energy, as well as weight loss.

In this article, we are going to present to you eight tips for making tasty gluten-free cakes. Cooking without gluten can be particularly difficult, which is why we have written this page just for you. Deciding to drop gluten from your diet is commendable – it is something that can benefit you tremendously, especially if you have celiac disease. But, when gluten is dropped from your diet, you will still likely want to snack out on cakes, right? (who wouldn’t, we don’t blame you). An absence of gluten does not have to mean an absence of cakes.

Here are eight tasty tips for making gluten-free cakes.

Cut Down On the Liquid

When you begin to bake and you use gluten-free cake mixtures, you will notice that they tend to appear much thicker than a regular cake mixture. A common problem associated with this is that people think that they need to add in more liquid, despite already having enough liquid in there. If this speaks to you personally, then my best advice to you is to follow the instructions, and notwithstanding thickness, do not add in more water. Your cake mixture is perfectly fine, presuming that you have adhered to the guidance given to you in the recipe.

Soggy Cakes, No Thanks

When people bake with gluten-free mixtures for the first time, they have a tendency to leave their cakes in the tin for too long, which with cakes that contain gluten is not a problem. With gluten-free cakes, however, they can become incredibly soggy if you leave them in the tin for too long. As soon as your cake is baked, remove it from the tin as quickly as possible. By doing so, you will ensure your cake does not become soggy, and instead, that your cake is delicious, thick, and, well, awesome!

Measurements

When it comes to gluten, you need to be very methodical with the way that you bake. Baking with gluten requires you to measure your ingredients precisely. There is no room for error with a gluten-free cake. Make sure you weigh everything precisely and have everything meticulously arranged in your kitchen. It may seem daunting at first, but once you get into the swing of things, it will come as second nature to you. Measuring things precisely is not as difficult as you might think it is. When you bake with gluten, please, measure precisely and do not make any mistakes in that regard!

Ingredients

When you are baking with gluten-free mixes, be sure to invest in the best quality ingredients that you can find. Rather than using extract, use vanilla beans, use good quality chocolate, cocoa, and anything else. The reason for this is to compensate for the change in taste and texture that you’ll experience with gluten-free mixes. It can take some getting used to, but once you’ve made the change, you’ll never want to go back. We become accustomed to things in life, and the texture and flavor of cakes are one of these things. Even so, making the change to a gluten-free mix will benefit you massively, we assure you.

Binding Agents

When you are using gluten-free mixes, you will, as you would with non-gluten-free mixes, need a binding agent. Most recipes need binding agents regardless. A very popular binding agent is xanthan gum. If you are baking smaller items, however, then you probably won’t need to add xanthan gum and can get away with adding nothing. With cakes, however, you will need a binding agent especially if you are using gluten-free cakes.

Cooling Down Period

When you are baking with gluten-free mixes, you will be pleased to know that you do not need to cool anything down, and instead, can bake with room temperature ingredients. If you try to cool down a gluten-free cake’s ingredients, you could potentially damage the cake, and thus, ruin your meal! Always remember that gluten-free cakes can be made at room temperature and do not need to be cooled, lest your cake becomes ruined.

Moisture

Gluten-free cakes should always be kept as moist as possible. Dryness is a problem with gluten-free cakes. So, in order to combat this, you could go ahead and add apple sauce or caramel for moisture, or alternatively, you could brush the cake with syrup when it is finished to retain moisture and add richness. Some people prefer to use brown sugar instead of granulated or caster sugar, and this is often a fantastic way for you to add moisture.

Size

To keep structure and avoid crumbling, some prefer to bake small cakes and muffins with gluten-free mixtures. This entirely depends upon the person and their own personal taste, though I would say that this is a good suggestion, this author’s favorite snack is blueberry muffins, so don’t take my word for it (I’m biased!) If you are just beginning to bake with gluten-free mixes, then you should give smaller cakes a try before you move onto big ones. Once you have perfected smaller cakes, you will be able to feel more confident when dealing with larger cakes. When you try to make larger cakes, there is always room for error and a chance that you could end up running your cake.

Baking cakes is a fun hobby and a delicious one at that. If you want to drop the gluten, but still bake and eat cakes, then we hope this page has helped you somehow.