Vegan and delicious, try this gluten free sponge cake recipe today! Easy to make, it uses aquafaba as egg replacer, it's soft and versatile, perfect for your gluten free layer cakes. Just like this Victoria Sponge that you can't miss!
Aquafaba is the precious cooking liquid of beans.
I love using aquafaba in gluten free baking, as it works both as a binding agent and it gives a lovely, soft texture to the final product. Also, you won't taste any legume flavor, promise 😉
Try this cocoa cake with aquafaba or this gluten free white bread loaf!
Ingredients
This vegan sponge cake with aquafaba calls for very simple ingredients.
Brown rice flour, a great, light gluten free flour, also neutral-flavored.
Almond flour (always make sure it is labeled gluten free), or you can use homemade ground almonds by grinding blanched almonds in a food processor or blender. Either way, almonds give e a softer texture to the cake.
Potato starch, or other gluten free starch like corn, rice or tapioca. It works as a binder and helps keeping the texture soft and airy.
Sugar, I usually go for brown sugar, but for this recipe caster sugar works better.
Aquafaba (whipped), the cooking liquid of chickpeas or other legumes. You can read more about it in this article.
Margarine or vegan butter, it will need to be melted and room temperature
Gluten free, plant based milk, rice or soy milk work better for their neutral flavor. But in this recipe almond or cashew milk will work too (they need to be liquid and not dense/creamy milks).
Vanilla extract and grated lemon zest will add lovely flavors. You can play around with flavors, especially if you are using two or more sponge cakes to make a layer cake.
All the quantities in the card below
Instructions
Here's how to make quick homemade gluten free sponge cake without eggs and without butter.
- Grease a pan or line it with parchment paper and set aside
- Pre-heat oven at 180° C / 350 F
- Beat the liquid aquafaba with a hand mixer on high speed, until stiff peaks form
- In a bowl, weigh and mix flours, starch, sugar, baking powder, salt and grated lemon zest and mix well
- Add the milk and melted margarine and mix with a hand mixer for 1 minute, making sure all the dry ingredients are well incorporated.
- With a spatula incorporate the whipped aquafaba, with soft gentle movements (do not use the hand mixer). You will get a liquid batter, it's ok.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- Let cool down completely before removing from pan
Baking in grams
I cook and bake in grams as they are more accurate (than cups) when measuring ingredients. This is especially important when it comes to gluten free and vegan recipes.
Also, I weigh both dry and wet ingredients in grams and most of the time I share one- or two-bowl recipes, to make everything easier for you.
A simple affordable kitchen scale is definitely a useful and worthy investment for your gluten free cooking.
So you will simply need to place the bowl on the scale and weigh ingredients as you go!
If you make this recipe or have questions, leave me a comment down here! And a 5 star rating if you have loved it would help me grow the blog 😉
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Ciao!
Sonia
📖 Full Recipe
Soft Gluten free Sponge Cake (Egg free, Dairy free)
Equipment
- 2 medium bowls
- 1 hand mixer
- 1 spatula
- 1 8 or 9 inch baking pan
- 1 kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 100 grams (¾ CUP) brown rice flour (gluten free)
- 100 grams (1 CUP) almond flour, or finely ground blanched almonds
- 100 grams (½ CUP + 2 tbsp) potato starch (or other gluten free starch)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 50 grams (¼ CUP) caster sugar
- 50 grams (4 tbsp) vegan margarine or vegan butter, melted, room temperature
- 100 grams (½ CUP) aquafaba (cooking liquid of chickpeas or other legumes)
- 150 grams (¾ CUP) gluten free, dairy free milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Instructions
- Grease a pan or line it with parchment paper and set aside
- Pre-heat oven at 180° C / 350 F
- Beat the liquid aquafaba with a hand mixer on high speed, until stiff peaks form
- In a bowl, weigh and mix flours, starch, sugar, baking powder, salt and grated lemon zest and mix well
- Add the milk and melted margarine and mix with a hand mixer for 1 minute, making sure all the dry ingredients are well incorporated (check for remaining flour at the bottom of the bowl)
- With a spatula incorporate the whipped aquafaba, with soft gentle movements (do not use the hand mixer). You will get a liquid batter, it's ok.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- Let cool down completely before removing from pan
- If desired, dust it with powdered sugar
- Double the quantities and bake into two separate pans, to make a layer cake
Emilye says
Hi Sonia!
I’d like to use this as a thin sponge cake for ice cream sandwiches. Do you think I could get away with not whipping the aquafaba, and just add it directly to the ingredients? I don’t need the sponge to be super fluffy. Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks 😊
Sweet Sensitive Free says
Hi!! I have only used liquid aquafaba in bread to make it softer, I haven't tested yet in cakes. It should still work as a binding agent, I can't say though if it might change the batter consistency and make it runny. Maybe try with a lower quantity and add more as you go and see if the batter remains a standard cake batter consistency and not too liquid. I wish I could be more precise, but I haven't tested it and I can only guess.