Gluten-Free Applesauce Snack Cake
This gluten-free applesauce snack cake is one of those recipes I have made over and over again. It is made with brown rice flour (that means it’s whole grain!), sweetened with honey, and has a warm spice flavor. Plus, one of the best things about this healthy applesauce cake is that it’s made in a bundt pan, so it’s easy to cut into snackable slices!
I shared this recipe here back in 2011. I have updated some of the content to share it with you again today.
Table of contents
Why We Love This Gluten-Free Applesauce Snack Cake Recipe
There’s no better way to settle into the crisp and cozy fall season by enjoying a delicious treat! This healthy gluten-free applesauce snack cake always comes to mind at this time of year to kick off the baking season.
As soon as the first wooden “Pick Your Own Apples” signs start to appear on the side of the road, I become an apple-baking Pavlovian dog and make batch after batch of my homemade apple sauce. In turn, I end up making this applesauce snack cake too.
This healthy applesauce cake is sweetened only with apple and honey, making it a wholesome treat that the entire family will love. Cut your bundt cake into slices and put the kettle on for a cup of tea – it’s time for fall!
Key Ingredients
Applesauce
It’s remarkably easy to make homemade applesauce, and I suggest doing so for this recipe. If you need to use storebought, just make sure it’s unsweetened since applesauce is sweet enough as is, and we’re keeping the sweetener in this recipe natural.
Honey
Use honey as your natural sweetener (in addition to the applesauce); I recommend Orange Blossom Honey if it’s readily available.
Brown Rice Flour
This is an excellent alternative for gluten-free recipes. It has a slightly toasty and nutty flavor. Feel free to sue white rice flour if you cannot find brown rice flour.
Additional Ingredients
This applesauce snack cake recipe also calls for eggs, orange or lemon zest, avocado oil (or canola), baking soda, pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon), and salt.
Step-By-Step Instructions For This Applesauce Bundt Cake
Step 1: Preheat and Prep
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and coat a large twelve-cup bundt pan with cooking spray.
Step 2: Puree Wet Ingredients
Puree the eggs, zest, applesauce, honey, and oil in a blender or a food processor. Do not skip this step. This helps to incorporate air into the batter to help make the cake more fluffy. We find that a blender is best, but if you only have a food processor they will work too.
Step 3: Whisk Dry Ingredients
Then in a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a large bowl.
Step 4: Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients
Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients to gradually stir the dry into the wet until they’re all combined.
Step 5: Bake The Bundt Cake
Immediately spread out the batter into the prepared bundt pan and transfer to the oven. Bake until the snack cake is golden brown and springs back when it’s lightly touched, which should take 50 to 55 minutes.
Step 6: Cool and Enjoy
Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack. Let it cool completely, and then enjoy!
FAQs and Expert Tips
I have had mixed results with gluten-free all-purpose flours for this recipe, as have readers. Some homemade mixes work well as do some store brands. If you have a favorite brand that works well for you, try using it one to one in place of the rice flour.
Yes! You can add up to 1/2 cup of each. I have also used dried zante currents which are less sweet than raisins.
You sure can, however a large bundt pan holds 12 cups and a loaf holds only 8 cups so you’ll want to make a 2/3 times batch instead of the full amount.
Brown rice sugar is a much harder and gritter grain so it doesn’t absorb liquid that well. In this recipe, the applesauce is a great complement to the brown rice flour as a binder.
Macintosh is the best apple for homemade applesauce because they practically when cooked in water. You can eventually layer other apple varieties with the Macintosh, but these are a great place to start.
More Gluten-Free Snacks and Sweets
- My kids love pizza bagels, and here’s a Gluten Free Pizza Bagel recipe!
- There is a CRAZY big amount of topping on this Gluten-Free Apple Crisp and that’s oh so right!
- My kiddos will eat an inordinate amount of raw veggies, as long as I serve them with dip. This low-fat ranch dip has been the vehicle of choice since they were wee.
- Follow the Gluten-free instructions to make this Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread without any gluten in it.
- I’m wondering why Scotcharoos are just a Midwest thing. They sound so good!
- This Gluten-free Pound Cake with chocolate marbling looks amazing!
Additional Recipes To Try
- Maple Apple Cranberry Crumb Pie is sweetened with maple syrup, has a whole grain crust, and is loaded with juicy berries!
- I love this recipe for Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Praline Buntlettes and I think you’ll like them too! They’re mini bundt cakes that are bursting with seasonal flavor.
- Maple Apple Almond Cake is deliciously moist and spiced with all of the warm flavors of fall – it’s one of my favorite dessert recipes ever!
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Gluten-Free Applesauce Snack Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 15 servings 1x
Description
This gluten-free applesauce bundt snack cake is one of those recipes I have made over and over again. It is made with brown rice flour (that means it’s whole grain) and it is sweetened with honey.
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- Zest from 1 orange or lemon
- 2 cups unsweetened applesauce, preferably home-made
- 1/2 cup honey, orange blossom if available
- 1/3 cup avocado oil or organic canola oil
- 2 cups brown rice flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a large 12-cup bundt pan with cooking spray.
- Puree eggs, zest, applesauce, honey and oil in a blender or food processor.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a large bowl.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Gradually stir the dry into the wet and stir until combined.
- Immediately spread out into the prepared pan and transfer to the oven. Bake until golden brown and the cake springs back when lightly touched, 50 to 55 minutes.
- Let cool in pan 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Once warm to room temperature, slice and enjoy.
Notes
Variations To Try:
Feel free to use white rice flour or gluten-free baking mix instead of the brown rice flour.
Maple syrup can be used in place of honey. We recommend using dark robust grade A pure maple for baking.
Other fruit sauces such as pear sauce or pumpkin puree may be used in place of the applesauce.
Fold in 1/2 cup chopped toasted nuts and/or raisins into the batter before adding it to the pan.
Add powdered sugar on top for decoration.
Frost with a simple icing. Try the icing from this maple almond apple cake.
Adjust seasonings by swapping in baking extract or liquor for the zest.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 min
- Category: Snack
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/15th cake
- Calories: 160
- Sugar: 12.6 g
- Sodium: 214 mg
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 29 g
- Fiber: 1.4 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
This was soooo good!!! It came out super fluffy and cake like. Instead of 2 cups rice flour, I used 2/3 cup almond flour, 2/3 cup buckwheat, and 1/3 each sorghum and brown rice. I used only 1/3 cup of honey. I blended the wet ingredients in a Cuisinart for longer than probably expected and it got very frothy. I made muffins instead because I have no idea where my bundt pan is (20 min in a convection oven at 350 was perfect). In the future I may add some rasians and extra spices. Maybe some ginger. It would be delicious with a coconut cream topping, and maybe some walnuts. I made homemade apple butter but had some older applesauce I had to use first. I can’t wait to try it with the apple butter, or maybe 50/50 apple sauce and apple butter. So many possibilities with such a great base.
Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Please give me another suggestion for avocado oil. It’s not available where I live.
You can use any neutral cooking oil.
Taste was good, yet was VERY dense. I fear if I cooked it any longer it would have dried out (55 min). I checked it 3 times with a toothpick and kept coming out “wet”, yet the instructions don’t say to do that. Not sure if it’s supposed to be like this or not.
Did you blend the wet mix in the blender? This helps to incorporate air into the batter and really makes a big difference. Also, when I measure flour of any kind, I stir it well before spooning it into a dry measuring cup and leveling with a spoon. This helps to ensure that the flour is not packed into the measuring cup. When there is too much flour in the recipe it can turn out dense.
I want to make this and have one question: It has no xanthan gum, which I always substitute with konjac. Other recipes have one of these and I was wondering if it makes the end result different? I also make chia eggs too. I love that it looks simple and can’t wait to make it! Thanks, Monique.
I am glad you like this recipe. It is one I have had in my recipe book for 20 years before folks were commonly aware of the need to limit gluten. So I think if you stick to the recipe as written it should come out great. No need to add additional ingredients. Once you try it as is, maybe then try switching in your preferred baking ingredients.
Very delicious and flavorful! Made it for church members and did not bring home a drop. The honey made it sweet enough and not over powering. Will be making it again real soon.
I am so happy you found this one and that it was a hit! Thank you!
Just tucking into this now – I made it for my gluten-intolerant son. You wouldn’t know it was gluten-free apart from a tiny after taste. I did find tracking down brown rice flour a bit of a challenge (plenty of white around), but worth the effort – I had all other ingredients to hand as I used sunflower oil and Granny Smith apples. This cake has a beautifully light texture and perfect level of moistness so that it cuts perfectly. I’m hoping it will freeze well as it is a large cake for three of us. I will be making it again.
The orange rind and pumpkin pie spice made an odd pairing. Would eliminate the orange next time.
Is it possible to add raisins & walnuts to this recipe?
Yes you can. It will be best the day it is baked. I would add 1/2 cup of each.
Made this and it is delicious! My family loved it. I was very impressed with how light and fluffy it is. I’ve tried some other gluten free cake recipes and they turned out too heavy and dense or had an unpleasant grainy texture. Thanks for a great recipe!
Another Wow! The orange zest brings this applesauce cake to a whole new level. I haven’t found a recipe @healthyseasonalrecipes that we didn’t like. This is the first place I look to find a new recipe to try (and repeat).
Hi Linda. I am so happy that you found this one. It is an oldie but a goodie!!
We loved this recipe! Used coconut oil and also added a splash of fiori di sicilia which makes the fragrance amazing . Question – ours turned out much more crumbly than yours is in the photo. This is typical of GF baking but I’m curious if I were to try it again, what kind of adjustments would you suggest?
Coconut oil can make gluten free baked goods a bit more crumbly than when you are using something like avocado oil. You might want to try again, this time with avocado oil.
This is the most perfect Gluten free recipe that I have found for anything that I have tried to bake for my dear neighbor!! She has been so good to me and I went looking for an applesauce cake recipe to make for her and her boyfriend. She’s Gluten intolerant, he’s not. My grandson has a best friend who is diabetic and gluten intolerant and I’m going to make he and his family this cake for Christmas. This recipe is perfect. Wonderful taste, texture, and flavor!!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and me being lucky enough to find it just searching Google. I LOVE IT!!!!
Hi Glenn. Thank you so much for coming back to say that you liked it. I am thrilled to hear you did and will be making it again. I really appreciate that you took the time to come back and review and rate the recipe. That’s so helpful!
we put this in for 2 hours!! and it was still raw inside, I don’t know what happened, it also sank a lot
Hi Hope. That’s perplexing. I haven’t had that problem nor heard of it. Which brand of rice flour did you use, and how many cups did you use?
I made this for my dad’s birthday this past week–so delicious! I know you said it was more of a fall-time treat, but this is so excellent chilled in the fridge that it’s great for summer as well. It caused one of those “I can’t believe that _I_ made this!” moments, and the birthday man has requested seconds every time we’ve had it 🙂 Thanks so much for posting this!
That’s amazing! I love hearing stories like this. Thank you for coming back to review and rate!
Absolutely lovely! I love that you use brown rice flour instead of a GF mix. So many of them of them have things I’m allergic to in them, or are just hard to come by. I used homemade pear sauce (we have an apple allergy in the family), and added a bit of vanilla. It wasn’t too sweet (so many of these things are!), and it was easy to make. Added it to my recipe book, and I’m looking forward to perusing your other GF recipes!! : )
I love the idea of vanilla and pear. Sounds wonderful!