Vegan Gluten-free Pumpkin Cake (Oil-free!)
This is truly the best ever vegan gluten-free pumpkin cake! Not only that, but it is oil-free and the texture is perfection! It is also only 8 ingredients and topped with a delicious vanilla buttercream frosting with fresh pumpkin spices!
Servings: 16 slices
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (144g) superfine oat flour (See notes why this is important)
- 6 tablespoons (48g) cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice (I use my homemade blend, see notes for easy quick mix)
- scant 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (135g) canned lite coconut milk (See notes!) shaken well first
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (180g) pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons (40g) regular molasses, not blackstrap (see post info)
- 1/2 cup (120g) pumpkin puree
- Optional: Vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, freshly ground nutmeg and cinnamon (ONLY DO A HALF RECIPE)
NOTE
- I always recommend to use a scale for accuracy when baking, following MY gram weights listed, since we all measure differently. This greatly improves your chance for success and lessons room for error. You never need cups or to compare them to the weights, just use the scale and bowl and make sure to hit zero before adding each ingredient. My recipes are 100% tested specifically using my exact weights and your results will turn out as mine this way.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Yes, this cake is different and is baked at 400°F instead of the traditional 350°F. It makes a difference!
- Lightly spray an 8x8 baking dish (I used stone) with nonstick spray. The cake releases easily and beautifully this way. Otherwise, the cake will stick badly without it.
- To a large bowl, add the oat flour, cornstarch, baking powder, pumpkin spice and salt. Whisk well.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the milk, syrup, molasses and pumpkin until completely smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and whisk gently just until smooth and combined. Do not overmix. Oat-based batters can cause dense results if they are overmixed.
- Pour the batter into the dish and give it a good shake side to side to even out the top.
- Bake for just 23 minutes or until a toothpick is clean from the center. Each cake I tested was perfect at this time. A couple of dry crumbs are ok, but there should be no wet batter.
- Cool 1 hour before frosting (if using) or decorating with powdered sugar/spices. Slice and serve. Gluten-free cakes need to be completely cooled so that they finish cooking, or they can have an unbaked texture if sliced too early. So be patient!
- To decorate the cake to make it extra fancy, I topped it with my vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, freshly grated nutmeg and freshly ground cinnamon and it was just divine! But if you want to skip the frosting, a good dusting of powdered sugar, fresh nutmeg and cinnamon is still just as delicious! Or you could add my simple cream cheese glaze! Store this cake at room temperature sealed well, so it stays moist. It keeps well for up to 3 days.
Notes
PUMPKIN SPICE: I use my homemade blend, but if you don't already have the mix premade, you can just add the following to the recipe: 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/8 teaspoon allspice, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/16th teaspoon ground black pepper. Use a 1/16th of cloves if you aren't a fan, but don't omit.
OAT FLOUR: This flour makes the cake so soft. It needs to be finely ground so that the cake is nice and fluffy and not dense. This is why I always buy my oat flour, since it's never as fine by grinding it at home. I use the Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oat flour from Kroger but the Arrowhead Mills brand works well too.
COCONUT MILK: This is basically the ONLY fat in this cake, so since the cake is oil-free, this milk is very crucial to the moisture and texture being light and fluffy. You do not want to use low-fat milks or thin milks like almond, cashew, rice or soy. This cake is made with oat flour, which can be dense and chewy, so using soy milk, which is high protein, would make this cake excessively chewy. If you are allergic to coconut, I would suggest trying a homemade cashew milk instead, as store-bought cashew milk is mostly fillers and will NOT yield the same results. To make the homemade cashew milk for this recipe, add 1/2 cup raw cashews + 1 1/4 cups filtered water to a vitamix and blend until completely smooth. Don't drain. Then use only 135g for the recipe. I have not trialed this personally, but suspect it will work well, similar to the coconut milk. FYI, you do NOT taste any coconut milk in the cake. This is why I use the canned lite milk, as it's very creamy, but doesn't taste like coconut in the finished product, like full-fat would. I use the Sprouts brand "lite coconut milk", but another brand that works well is the Thai Kitchen lite. Please do not use the Polar brand, it is fillers and very little actual coconut and will ruin the texture of the cake.
MOLASSES: This is another magical ingredient in this cake for both depth of flavor and moisture. I use regular molasses, not blackstrap, as regular is sweeter and milder in flavor. You can find regular molasses at most grocery stores, even Walmart and Target. You do not want to use the blackstrap, as it's very bitter and much darker.
FROSTING: I topped it with my vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, freshly grated nutmeg and freshly ground cinnamon and it was just divine! The frosting just makes it the perfect crowd-pleaser and extra fancy, but if you want to skip the frosting, a dusting of powdered sugar, fresh nutmeg and cinnamon will still be just as delicious!