Gluten-Free Vanilla Almond Flour Cake – One Bowl

This gluten-free vanilla almond flour cake is incredibly moist and has no cane sugar. The easy recipe mixes up in one bowl and is grain-free, dairy-free and gluten-free.

Be sure to check out more of my gluten-free cake recipes including my incredibly moist vanilla bundt cake and gluten-free dairy-free vanilla snack cake.

Ingredients

Blanched super fine almond flour – It is important to use blanched almond flour as opposed to almond meal. Almond meal is ground with the thin brown skin you find on whole almonds. Blanched almond flour has the brown skin removed so it is a creamy soft white color. For a certified gluten-free almond flour, use King Arthur Flour.

To help make this cake fluffy, the recipe includes three eggs in just a one layer cake. It helps with structure and wonderful rich flavor.

This cake is sweetened with just agave nectar (aka agave syrup) – there is no cane sugar. The agave gives the cake a slightly caramel-like flavor. If you don’t have agave, here is a quick and easy recipe for an agave nectar substitute that uses just brown sugar and water.

I found that the vanilla flavor got a little lost with almond flour. Almond flour has much stronger flavor than other flours like rice or wheat flour. So one tablespoon of vanilla was what it took to get the vanilla flavor front and center.

My preference is vanilla powder. It has no alcohol and gives pure vanilla flavor to baked goods. Cooks Vanilla Powder is great for recipes like white cake or frosting because it is a creamy white color as opposed to brown extracts. Vanilla bean paste is another great alcohol-free option. And of course vanilla extract can be used as well.

Unfortunately, vanilla has become extremely expensive recently. So if the real stuff is not in your budget, feel free to use imitation vanilla extract. You’ll still have a delicious cake.

Milk – I am mostly dairy-free so I use milk alternatives. Almond milk, coconut, oat, hemp, soy milk and other milk substitutes can be used. Otherwise, regular cow’s milk will work too.

Oil is my preferred way to add moisture to gluten-free baked goods. Butter may have slightly better flavor but, gluten-free cakes and cupcakes are more moist with oil. Sunflower, avocado, canola or any neutral flavored vegetable oil will work.

Cake Toppings

My preference is to keep layering on the delicious velvety flavor of vanilla. I top this cake with vanilla buttercream frosting or a tangy cream cheese frosting.

If you are a lover of chocolate, try my creamy chocolate buttercream frosting, vegan chocolate cream cheese frosting, or my easy 2-ingredient vegan chocolate frosting. For a beautiful chocolate glaze, try my dairy-free chocolate ganache.

Check out my full collection of frosting recipes for more flavors like strawberry buttercream frosting and my no-sugar sweet potato frosting.

How to Store Cake

This cake stays moist and delicious at room temp for at least 3 days. If you wish, it can be refrigerated (unlike may other cakes) and will stay super moist in the fridge.