Sticky gluten free ginger cake recipe - The Gluten Free Blogger (2024)

FAQs

Why is my gluten-free cake sticky? ›

These ingredients take longer to set than regular gluten-containing flour, meaning they may remain slightly “gummy” or sticky until they have cooled. That's why when you test your gluten-free cakes with a toothpick, even if it looks done, your toothpick might not come out completely clean!

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture.

Add extra liquid: Gluten-free flours tend to absorb more liquid than regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid to your recipes to compensate. This can help to keep your baked goods moist and prevent them from becoming dry and crumbly.

Some gluten free flours will produce a cake which is on the dry side. This might be due to the lack of gluten but can be for many other reasons. Lots of gluten free flour is rice based and this can result in a dry and slightly gritty texture.

The gluten in traditional flour is what gives dough its stickiness. Without it, gluten-free products can be dry and crumbly. There is a way to compensate for this however — use xanthan gum. Some bakers also use gelatin or agar.

The two proteins are called Gliadin and Glutenin

Gliadin is very sticky when wet and very extensible and imparts adhesive properties to gluten.

Let Your Batters & Doughs Rest

We recommend covering your batters and doughs and letting them rest for at least half an hour. Note: This will also help batters become thicker and doughs to firm up.

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

Cakes. Make your own blend of flours or ground nuts and flours. Adding sorghum or tapioca flour to a blend increases softness and absorbency, which is ideal for lighter cakes and pastries.

How do bakeries get their cakes so moist? ›

You may not have used enough raising agents. I do recommend experimenting with double action baking powders. Otherwise try using 25 percent more chemical raising agents (baking soda or baking powder) if you're converting a recipe to gluten free.

Sponge cakes—like chiffon and genoise—have similar cause for concern, as they will deflate if overmixed. Flourless cakes, however, or those relying on gluten-free flours, are some of the least sensitive to overmixing (if they don't rely on whipped egg whites).

If the gluten free flour you are using doesn't contain xanthan gum, then you'll want to include it in your list of recipe ingredients. Even more so if you're making cake, muffins, bread and pizza crust, as these recipes typically rely on the structure gluten provides.

So, in order to prevent your gluten free bakes from crumbling away to nothing, you need to replace the gluten with an alternative binder – and in most cases, that binder will be XANTHAN GUM.

If you'd prefer to leave your cakes intact, try and freeze the cake for at least 30 minutes. That should alleviate any problems with the stickiness getting in the way of frosting. Then proceed to crumb coat. That in and of itself will also alleviate any problems with the sticky tops.

The simple reason is that gluten free bread takes much longer than a regular loaf to bake and therefore a sticky crumb is generally the result of under baking (there could be other reasons but this is the first place to start troubleshooting).

Gluten-free batters can tolerate (and even benefit from) overmixing. In traditional baked goods recipes, you'll often read to be careful not to over-mix the batter.

Developing too much of the flour's gluten can make the cake rise beautifully in the oven, but sink as soon as you pull it out. The sinking part is what makes the dense and gluey streaks. This can be result of over-creaming the eggs, butter and sugar. To prevent this, cream the ingredients at medium speed.