My friend, Terri, approached me with a baking challenge: Create a birthday cake for her father that had no sugar, eggs, dairy, soy, or gluten. I’ll admit that my first thought was “Yikes!” Fortunately, my second thought was, “Sure, we can do that.”
I was confident that I could make the cake without dairy and gluten. I never bake with soy, but that also meant that we couldn’t substitute margarine for butter. And my muffins use no eggs, so a blueberry muffin with stevia instead of sugar was my fallback. But Terri wanted a cake to take to Idaho when she visited her dad for his birthday. And people with food issues deserve to celebrate like everyone else. So, I decided that Big Mama’s Apple Cake would be a good candidate, as I had already successfully created a gluten-free version. However, the recipe called for butter or margarine, eggs, and sugar. Would a cake without three major ingredients work? And how would it taste?
Terri and I decided to pilot our recipe that substitutes vegetable oil for butter, applesauce and baking powder for eggs (a substitution I had used in other recipes; see substitution page), and stevia for sugar. Our first try yielded a delicious cake that crumbled easily and had a bit of an aftertaste from the stevia. We decided for our second try to grate rather than chop the apples and to increase the xanthan gum to aid in binding, and to add more cinnamon to cover up the stevia aftertaste.
The cake had to be travel-ready, so we baked it in a 9 x 13 pan that has a companion plastic lid. Of course, we wanted to taste it, so we baked a small amount in a tiny loaf pan. We were both thrilled with the results: a moist cake of uniform consistency that held together well with no hint that it was made with stevia.
Below are two versions: the version we created for Terri’s father (pictured below) and the original gluten-free version that uses sugar, eggs, and butter. Feel free to substitute for any or all of the ingredients. And please let me know how your creations turn out.
Big Mama’s Fresh Apple Cake—Gluten-free, Soy-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free, Sugar-free
1 and 2/3 cups sorghum flour
1/2 plus 1/3 cup arrowroot starch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 and ¼ teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup canola oil
48 packets of Truvia® (If you use pure stevia, use the amount equivalent to 2 cups sugar)
4 cups grated apples (Granny Smith) and all liquid from grating – do NOT peel (about 3 large apples)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup chopped pecans, fairly small (best to break apart with your fingers to retain the oil)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (conventional) or 325 degrees (convection).
Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.
Whisk sorghum flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, and cinnamon until blended. Core apples, but do not peel; grate. Combine all ingredients and mix together with a spatula. Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes in a conventional oven (convection oven: 325º for 35 minutes), or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool before slicing. Yield: 18-24 servings.
Big Mama’s Fresh Apple Cake—Gluten-free
1 and 2/3 cups sorghum flour
1/2 plus 1/3 cup arrowroot starch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
5 cups apples, diced (Granny Smith or other baking apple) – do NOT peel
2 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans, fairly small (best to break apart with your fingers to retain the oil)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.
Whisk sorghum flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda, xanthan gum, and cinnamon until blended. Core apples, then dice.
In Big Mama’s exact words: “Just mix all together. The batter will be real thick, but don’t let that throw you. Bake about 325º until toothpick comes out clean.” (Note: Do not use a mixer.)
Bake at 325 for about 40-45 minutes in a conventional oven (convection oven: 325º for 35 minutes). Use Big Mama’s method to sure it’s done. Cool before slicing. Yield: 18-24 servings.
(Note: A convection oven usually is set 25 degrees below the setting on a conventional oven; for these cakes, I baked only at 325 degrees, as 300 degrees is too low to get a good result when baking.)
I was confident that I could make the cake without dairy and gluten. I never bake with soy, but that also meant that we couldn’t substitute margarine for butter. And my muffins use no eggs, so a blueberry muffin with stevia instead of sugar was my fallback. But Terri wanted a cake to take to Idaho when she visited her dad for his birthday. And people with food issues deserve to celebrate like everyone else. So, I decided that Big Mama’s Apple Cake would be a good candidate, as I had already successfully created a gluten-free version. However, the recipe called for butter or margarine, eggs, and sugar. Would a cake without three major ingredients work? And how would it taste?
Terri and I decided to pilot our recipe that substitutes vegetable oil for butter, applesauce and baking powder for eggs (a substitution I had used in other recipes; see substitution page), and stevia for sugar. Our first try yielded a delicious cake that crumbled easily and had a bit of an aftertaste from the stevia. We decided for our second try to grate rather than chop the apples and to increase the xanthan gum to aid in binding, and to add more cinnamon to cover up the stevia aftertaste.
The cake had to be travel-ready, so we baked it in a 9 x 13 pan that has a companion plastic lid. Of course, we wanted to taste it, so we baked a small amount in a tiny loaf pan. We were both thrilled with the results: a moist cake of uniform consistency that held together well with no hint that it was made with stevia.
Below are two versions: the version we created for Terri’s father (pictured below) and the original gluten-free version that uses sugar, eggs, and butter. Feel free to substitute for any or all of the ingredients. And please let me know how your creations turn out.
Big Mama’s Fresh Apple Cake—Gluten-free, Soy-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free, Sugar-free
1 and 2/3 cups sorghum flour
1/2 plus 1/3 cup arrowroot starch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 and ¼ teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup canola oil
48 packets of Truvia® (If you use pure stevia, use the amount equivalent to 2 cups sugar)
4 cups grated apples (Granny Smith) and all liquid from grating – do NOT peel (about 3 large apples)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup chopped pecans, fairly small (best to break apart with your fingers to retain the oil)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (conventional) or 325 degrees (convection).
Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.
Whisk sorghum flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, and cinnamon until blended. Core apples, but do not peel; grate. Combine all ingredients and mix together with a spatula. Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes in a conventional oven (convection oven: 325º for 35 minutes), or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool before slicing. Yield: 18-24 servings.
Big Mama’s Fresh Apple Cake—Gluten-free
1 and 2/3 cups sorghum flour
1/2 plus 1/3 cup arrowroot starch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
5 cups apples, diced (Granny Smith or other baking apple) – do NOT peel
2 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans, fairly small (best to break apart with your fingers to retain the oil)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.
Whisk sorghum flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda, xanthan gum, and cinnamon until blended. Core apples, then dice.
In Big Mama’s exact words: “Just mix all together. The batter will be real thick, but don’t let that throw you. Bake about 325º until toothpick comes out clean.” (Note: Do not use a mixer.)
Bake at 325 for about 40-45 minutes in a conventional oven (convection oven: 325º for 35 minutes). Use Big Mama’s method to sure it’s done. Cool before slicing. Yield: 18-24 servings.
(Note: A convection oven usually is set 25 degrees below the setting on a conventional oven; for these cakes, I baked only at 325 degrees, as 300 degrees is too low to get a good result when baking.)
Whether you make the version that Terri’s father enjoyed or the version that is closer to the original, I am sure you will love this spiced cake that has been updated without any loss of flavor. And maybe this will also inspire you to take on and meet a baking challenge. The results are well worth your time!
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