Everyday dinners
A nut-free gluten-free cake
An apple and cinnamon cake with a crisp sugar topping, made with gluten-free flour and no nuts.
Small pieces of apple and a little cinnamon give this simple cake its flavour. A scattering of demerara sugar makes a crisp top, so there is no icing to prepare.
The recipe uses no peanuts or tree nuts. For someone with a nut allergy, every ingredient and the preparation area must also be suitable; gluten-free labelling alone does not establish this.
The recipe
A nut-free gluten-free cake
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Total*
- 80 min
- Makes
- 10 servings
*Estimated development timings. Allow 20 minutes standing in the tin, then about 40 minutes cooling on a rack; this is additional to the preparation and cooking time.
Ingredients
Tick things off as you go.
For the cake
For the topping
Equipment
- Use a round, loose-bottomed cake tin measuring 20 cm across and at least 6 cm deep.
- Have baking parchment and a little kitchen foil ready.
- Use digital scales, measuring spoons and a measuring jug.
- You will need two mixing bowls, an electric hand mixer and a flexible spatula.
- Use a chopping board, a sharp knife and a vegetable peeler.
- Have a cake skewer and a wire cooling rack ready.
Let’s make it.
- 01
Prepare the tin
Check the ingredient labels before starting and clean the worktop, equipment and your hands to prevent gluten and nut cross-contact. Heat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan. Use 10 g of the butter to grease the tin, then line its base and sides with baking parchment. Check that the lining lies against the tin without large folds.
- 02
Prepare the apples and flour
Cut the peeled, cored apples into pieces about 1 cm across and weigh out 250 g. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and cinnamon until the cinnamon is evenly distributed and no small clumps remain.
- 03
Beat the butter and sugar
Beat the remaining 175 g butter with the caster sugar for 3–4 minutes, scraping down the bowl halfway through. Stop when the mixture looks noticeably paler and fluffy, with no unmixed butter around the sides.
- 04
Add the eggs
Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the measured flour mixture with each egg. Scrape down the bowl and mix until the egg is incorporated with no liquid pooling at the bottom. A slightly grainy appearance is fine. Do not taste the uncooked batter.
- 05
Finish the batter
Fold in the remaining flour mixture and the milk, then fold in the apple pieces. Scrape right to the bottom so there are no dry pockets. The batter should be thick and spoonable, with apple distributed throughout. Transfer it to the tin, level the surface and scatter the demerara sugar evenly over it.
- 06
Bake the cake
Bake on the middle shelf for 50–60 minutes, checking first at 50 minutes. The top should be golden, the centre should feel set and a skewer inserted into cake crumb in two central spots should show no wet batter; avoid testing only through an apple piece. If needed, bake for another 5 minutes and check again. Cover loosely with foil if the top colours before the centre is ready. The cooking estimate allows 55 minutes, but use these checks to decide when it is done.
- 07
Cool and slice
Stand the cake in its tin on a rack for 20 minutes, until the edges feel firm enough to support it. Carefully release the tin, remove the lining and leave on the rack for about 40 minutes more, until the centre no longer feels warm. Cut into 10 slices. Cool and refrigerate any cake being kept within 2 hours of baking; divide it into portions if needed to help it cool.
Ingredient checks
Use a gluten-free plain flour blend, not ordinary wheat flour, self-raising flour or nut flour. Check the flour blend, baking powder, xanthan gum, cinnamon and every other packaged ingredient for gluten-free suitability and peanut or tree nut warnings. Gluten-free does not mean nut-free. For someone with coeliac disease, prevent gluten cross-contact through clean equipment, fresh baking parchment and uncontaminated ingredients. For a nut allergy, also check manufacturer information where suitability is unclear and prevent nut cross-contact during preparation, cooling and storage.
Allergens: Contains eggs and milk.; No celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, fish, lupin, molluscs, mustard, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya or sulphites are intentionally included in the specified ingredients; check all packaged ingredients for these allergens.; For a nut allergy, use ingredients suitable for the person's allergy and avoid products carrying relevant peanut or tree nut precautionary warnings; an absence of nuts from the ingredient list alone is not a guarantee..
Make it work for you
Replace Braeburn apples with the same prepared weight of another firm eating apple, such as Granny Smith or Pink Lady.
If your gluten-free plain flour blend already contains xanthan gum, omit the separate quarter teaspoon.
Replace the demerara topping with 15 g caster sugar for a finer crust.
Do not replace the flour blend with almond flour, other nut flours or a single starch; they do not behave the same way.
For another day
Cool the cake and refrigerate it in a covered container within 2 hours of baking, keeping the fridge at 0–5°C; eat within 48 hours.
Freeze cooled slices promptly, individually wrapped inside a sealed container, and label with the date; aim to use within 1 month for quality, although this recipe's frozen texture has not been tested.
Defrost covered slices in the fridge and eat within 24 hours of full defrosting.
Exploding food
What goes in.
The ingredients, seen a little differently. This image is an illustration of the main ingredients; use the written recipe for the full list and quantities.
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