A warm and cozy gluten-free spiced applesauce cake spiced with a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom, sweetened just with a bit of maple syrup and balanced by a lovely trio of gluten-free flours.

Gluten-Free Applesauce Cake

This is a beautifully fluffy, not-too-sweet cake that satisfies both as dessert or a morning snack. I love using fruit when possible to sweeten cakes. The natural sugars in the fruit allows us to lower the additional sugar content (bananas are also stellar for this purpose, as shown in this banana-walnut cake). Applesauce is lovely here as it sweetens naturally and brings a bit of additional moisture to the gluten-free flours.

Using apple cider (or white vinegar if that’s all you have) in the batter creates a reaction with the baking soda to create a wonderfully high crumb in the cake. In my opinion, you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s gluten-free!

Gluten-Free Flours Needed

The gluten-free flours you’ll need are familiar ones: oat, sorghum, and sweet white rice flour. The whole grain oat and sorghum flours bring flavor and structure.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It’s not too sweet. I used maple syrup and unsweetened applesauce in this recipe to let the fruit flavor and natural sweetness work together to lightly sweeten the cake without making it too sweet.

The apple flavor really shines. Applesauce plus the option of using apple juice instead of milk make this cake full of the homey apple flavor we love.

It’s super cozy and comforting. Four spices are essential here as they balance each other to bring interest and warmth to the cake.

Ingredients in Gluten-Free Spiced Applesauce Cake

Sweet white rice flour
Oat flour
Sorghum flour
Applesauce: Use unsweetened applesauce
Maple syrup
Milk or apple juice: Use whole milk or a non-dairy milk of choice. Apple juice will bring even more apple flavor!
Eggs: Large eggs
Warming spices: Ground cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg
Baking powder and baking soda
Apple cider vinegar
Fine sea salt

How to Make Gluten-Free Applesauce Cake

For the full instructions, see the recipe card at the end of this post.

Prepare the pan. This recipe works best in an 8-inch pan but you can also use a 9-inch pan, although your cake won’t be as thick. Make sure to line with a circle of parchment paper.
Combine wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the applesauce, maple syrup, olive oil, milk or juice, and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then whisk in the apple cider vinegar until smooth.
Combine flours and spices. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Fold the flours into the applesauce mixture. Stir well to combine.
Rest batter. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes so flours can hydrate. Then preheat oven to 350° F.
Bake cake. Place the cake in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a rack. Cool in pan for 20 minutes then turn out on the rack to cool completely. Serve warm or room temperature.

Hint: You can use classic white vinegar interchangeably with the apple cider vinegar.

Substitutions

Oat flour – try millet flour
Sorghum flour – try almond flour
Sweet white rice flour – try tapioca flour
Sweetener – try honey in place of the maple syrup or half a cup of brown sugar
Make dairy-free – substitute your favorite non-dairy milk of choice, water, or apple juice

Storage

Store the cake, tightly wrapped, in the fridge for 5 days. To serve, bring to room temperature. You can also eat cold, straight from the fridge!

Tip

Use unsweetened applesauce in this recipe so you can better control how much sugar you’re adding. I like to use homemade applesauce but any store-bought plain, unsweetened, pure applesauce is fine here.