Gluten Free Jamaican Ginger Loaf Cake Recipe (dairy free) (2024)

FAQs

Can I use gluten free flour instead of cake flour? ›

Yes, but to reduce the protein content and make it more like cake flour, you should consider replacing about 5–10% of the all-purpose flour with corn starch. If you don't, the cake will still work, but it might be a bit less tender than if you had either used cake flour or ap+cornstarch.

While visual cues like the toothpick test and pressing the top of the cake will still help, the best way to determine if your baked goods are perfectly done is with a timer and oven thermometer. This is because gluten-free treats often look underdone and slightly wet inside after baking.

McVitie's Jamaican Ginger Cake is a warm hug for your taste buds! The rich, spiced aroma alone is a treat, and the cake itself delivers on flavour.

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.

Brown rice flour is about as close to a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour as it gets since it provides structure and a “wheat-like” flavor.

Xanthan gum (along with other thickeners like guar gum and arrowroot) acts like a binder in gluten-free baked goods to maintain their structure. Without it, there's a good chance that your brownies or muffin will crumble and fall apart.

Gluten-free flour blends don't have the same elasticity as flour containing gluten so often the cakes don't rise as much or will sink after rising. To combat the flat cake problem, I add ½ tsp of bicarbonate of soda to the recipe even when using a self-raising gluten-free flour blend.

Bulla cake, usually referred to as bulla, is a rich Jamaican cake made with molasses and spiced with ginger and nutmeg, sometimes dark-colored and other times light-colored. Bulla are small loaves that are flat and round. They are inexpensive and easy to make using molasses, flour and baking soda.

What's the difference between Jamaican ginger and regular ginger? ›

On the flavour front: Niki Segnit in her book 'The Flavour Thesaurus' says, 'Fresh ginger has a lemony, woody and earthy tone with a kick of heat. Jamaican ginger has a richness and an almost camphorous pungency that distinguishes it from the lemony varieties and brings it closer to cardamom'.

The flavor varies based on where it grows. Chinese and African ginger are very hot, while Jamaican and Hawaiian ginger tend to be milder and sweeter.

What's the best gluten-free flour for baking? Bob's Red Mill gluten-free 1-to-1 baking mix is my favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour blend for baking. It has a mild texture and plenty of "stick" thanks to a blend of sweet rice flour, brown rice flour, and sorghum flour, plus some starches and xanthan gum.

No, cake flour is not gluten-free. Cake flour falls under the category of wheat flours. Although it does produce less gluten than all-purpose flour, it's still not recommended for people with gluten intolerance.

Gluten is a protein and is found in all standard flours used for cake making. It gives cakes their structure and moist texture. Without gluten, cakes are drier, crumbly and have a shorter shelf life but there are a number of ways you can use to try and counter this.

Making a cake flour substitute is easy with the following two ingredients: all-purpose flour and either cornstarch or arrowroot powder. Start with one level cup of AP flour, remove two tablespoons of the flour, and add two tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot powder back in.