Gluten Free Apple Cake with Buckwheat Flour Recipe - Real Food Healthy Body (2024)

This Gluten Free Apple Cake is sweetly spiced, nut-free and egg-free. It’s super easy to throw together with pantry ingredients. Like all good apple cakes, it smells amazing while it’s baking in the oven.

The cake starts with a cake batter spiced with cinnamon and allspice. Cinnamon is a no-brainer with apples and allspice has become one of my new favourite spices. If you don’t have any ground allspice at home, a pinch of nutmeg or cloves would also be delicious with the cinnamon.

Then we stir fresh apples into the batter. I like to use red apples in this recipe, but any apples will work. Peeling the apples before chopping them up is optional. It just helps the apple pieces meld better with the cake batter.

I’ve been using unsweetened oat milk in my baking recipes lately. In this recipe, you can use any milk that you like. If using a non-dairy milk, I like to make sure it’s unsweetened. Have a read of the ingredients list, since some brands tend to add quite a lot of sugar!

Healthy apple cake recipe

I love using buckwheat flour in healthy cake recipes like this apple cake. It’s naturally gluten-free and arguably more nutritious than most gluten-free flour blends. You can find buckwheat flour at most major supermarkets these days.

To sweeten the cake batter, I use coconut sugar in this recipe. It has a delicious caramel-like flavor that goes so well with the spices. Like all natural sweeteners, it is still sugar at the end of the day. But my general philosophy on nutrition is to focus on eating nutrient-dense foods, without getting too obsessive.

I have only used 1/2 cup, or 70 grams, of coconut sugar in the whole cake. For me, this is all that is needed since the fresh apples also provide sweetness. If you don’t have coconut sugar, you could use brown sugar or raw sugar instead.

Ingredients for Gluten Free Apple Cake

Apples: Red apples are my favourite for this cake. But any variety of apple will work.

Unsalted butter: The traditional option for an apple cake. I like to use unsalted butter and add my own salt to the cake batter so that I can control the salt level.

Coconut sugar: Adds a delicious caramel-like flavor to the cake. I love the depth of flavor that it provides. But you could use brown sugar or raw sugar if that’s what you have at home.

Buckwheat flour: To keep the cake gluten-free. If you don’t need the cake to be gluten-free, it should work with all purpose plain flour. I haven’t tested this but would love to hear if you do.

Milk of choice: I used unsweetened oat milk. But any milk will work. If you’re using a non-dairy milk, opt for an unsweetened variety if you want to keep the sugar content down.

Baking powder: To give the cake batter some lift. Make sure your baking powder is within its best before date because it stops working properly when it gets stale.

Cinnamon: A must with apples, in my opinion! You could use ground ginger instead for a gingerbread vibe if you don’t like cinnamon.

Allspice: Works perfectly with the cinnamon. You can substitute a pinch of nutmeg or cloves instead if you don’t have allspice at home. Or simply leave it out.

Fine sea salt: To enhance the flavors in the cake. Highly recommended!

Vanilla extract: Blends well with the spices. Vanilla paste would be even better if you have it.

More buckwheat flour recipes

Check out these Buckwheat Jam Thumbprint Cookies if you have leftover buckwheat flour. They are one of my all time favourite cookies, with a shortbread-like texture.

This Vegan Sweet Potato Chocolate Fudge Cake is rich, moist and gluten-free thanks to buckwheat flour.

These Buckwheat Pancakes are also a great gluten-free alternative to regular wheat flour pancakes.

For a savory option, I like to make these Buckwheat Zucchini Muffins.

You can find more healthy baking ideas on the Baking Recipes page.

Gluten Free Apple Cake with Buckwheat Flour Recipe