Delicious and nutritious whole grain gluten-free carrot cake that uses buckwheat and oat flour and tastes so much like wheat, your family won’t know the difference.
My friend Chris Giordano, who devised this creative recipe, is well known around town for her delectable carrot cake. It is her baking specialty.
Then, she was diagnosed with Celiac and could no longer consume gluten. So, she got creative and devised this gluten free carrot cake that her family swears tastes exactly the same as her original carrot cake made with wheat flour. The key ingredient is freshly ground buckwheat groats.
Oat flour is also an important ingredient although freshly grinding oat groats is not necessary like it is with the buckwheat (to avoid bitterness).
The taste is so similar, in fact, that her family says they cannot tell the difference between her regular carrot cake and the gluten free carrot cake!
Chris is not just a whiz in the kitchen at home. She is also a homeschooling Mom who teaches traditional cooking classes for children in Tampa, Florida.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake Recipe
Gluten free carrot cake that tastes so much like wheat, your family will never know!
Ingredients
- 2 cups buckwheat flour must be freshly ground, preferably organic
- 1/2 cup oat flour preferably organic
- 2 cups buttermilk preferably organic and grassfed
- 1 cup butter softened, preferably grassfed
- 2 cups sucanat
- 10 oz crushed pineapple
- 3 cups grated carrots
- 4 eggs room temperature, preferably pastured or free range
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 8 oz cream cheese for icing, softened
- 1/2 cup butter for icing, softened and preferably grassfed
- 1 cup sucanat for icing
- 1 tsp vanilla extract for icing
- sprouted walnuts optional
Instructions
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Mix flour with buttermilk. Cover and leave on the counter or other warm place for 12 to 24 hours.
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Cream butter with sucanat. Beat in eggs, one at a time, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour mixture. Fold in pineapple (with juice, drain off a little) and carrots.
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Grease 3 – 9 inch baking pans with butter, coconut oil, or lard. Sprinkle some buckwheat flour on bottom and sides of pans. Bake in 350F degree oven for approximately 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool.
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To make the icing for this gluten free carrot cake recipe, blend cream cheese, butter, sucanat, and vanilla until smooth. This can take a few minutes as sucanat is granulated.
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Remove the first cake layer and place carefully on serving platter. Ice the top. Repeat with the second and third layers. Decorate the top and sprinkle the gluten free carrot cake with sprouted or soaked walnuts if desired.
Recipe Notes
*Please note this recipe will not work with buckwheat flour from the store as commercial buckwheat flour tends to be bitter tasting.
You may substitute raw soured milk for the buttermilk as desired. Do not use buttermilk powder.
I’m not a fan of pineapple in my carrot cake. Is it necessary? Could I sub apple sauce or pumpkin puree or almond butter?
I made this but with many modifications and it turned out well. I put in a 9*13 baking dish. It wasn’t clear in the recipe if both buckwheat and oat flours are to be soaked together?
Yes they are soaked together.
Hi, I am vegan and am hoping you can let me know how to substitute for milk and eggs? thank you so much.
There are no substitutes for dietary propaganda. Just eat milk and eggs … source ethically of course. I can tell you from personal experience that properly cared for cows and chickens are delighted to share their milk and eggs with humans. Get out on a grassfed farm where the animals are restoring the soil and the planet and see for yourself. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/plant-based-globalism/
Can you substitute the buckwheat flour and oat flour for all einkorn flour or spelt?
Thank you!
I’ve never made it that way, so I don’t know.
I made this for Xmas dessert, and it was delicious! The whole soaking the flour thing was odd, and it turned into a big doughball. However, when I mixed it with the wet mixture it actually broke up pretty easily. I used sugar instead of succanat (used proper conversions), added more spices, and used a different cream cheese frosting recipe. Anyway, this cake was so awesome! It was delicious and hearty, and people said they had no idea it was buckwheat. Fabulous recipe thanks for sharing!
Would love to know where they got the chocolate bunnies on top the cake.
Could/would you use cream cheese made from straining Kefir for the frosting in this recipe? Thanks!