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!
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. 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
PrintGluten-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
Made this for a pot luck and everyone thought it was delicious. I did use my own gf mix instead of brown rice with teff , sweet rice and oat flour. & subbed maple syrup for the honey (dietary restrictions) I also put a lemon cream cheese glaze on top. It was delightful with a lot of people asking for the recipe. Next time, I’ll try it with the brown rice. This is a real winner!
That’s so great to hear it came out so well and it was a hit! The glaze sounds like a delicious addition! Thank you for coming back to let me know and rating. I appreciate it.
I’ve just began using brown rice flour and love it. I don’t have a cake pan, so do you think this would work in a bread loaf pan or do I need to cut the recipe?
Hi Sara. The bundt pan holds twelve cups, whereas a loaf holds 8. So yes, I would try a 2/3 times batch.
I tried this recipe yesterday, success! I like using all brown rice, too many recipes are for a GF mix which isn’t the greatest. This truly is whole grain. And using the blender made the batter much lighter and the cake wasn’t heavy. Kudos to you and I’m anxious to try more of your recipes!
Can you use whole wheat flour? We don’t have a gluten issue but I do need to use recipes without sugar. Thanks!
It’s so funny. I have been using this recipe for eons, and I don’t have a gluten issue either. But it has never occurred to me to try it with wheat flour. I’m not sure what the substitution would be Stacey. Rice flour is on the heavy side, but not very absorbent compared to wheat. So my guess is that you could use 50% whole wheat and white blended together. Start there, and then adjust next time you make it. And please stop back if you do try it, I am sure there are other readers who have the same question.
What a beautiful cake! Perfect for fall. I don’t love winter, but I’ve always loved the change of seasons. It’s beautiful!
Fall perfection at it’s bready best 😉
You totally sucked me in with the beautiful description of life and the gorgeous pictures! Unfortunately, September does NOT mean cooler weather for me here in Florida, but I would love some and this delicious cake. =)
This looks perfect! I would never think it is GF. You are a great cook.:)
My brother in law ate a piece of it and had no idea! Thank you Olena.
Gorgeous photos! Love this cake for my allergy stricken Rosh Hashanah guests!
That would be perfect Amy! Thanks for coming by today!
I love that there is no refined sugar in this!! I have to dig out my bundt pan (if I even have it in SF) and bake this soon!
Totally worth digging for your bundt pan Cassie 🙂 Ha ha. Thanks for coming by and for the comment.
This cake sounds lovely! I’ve been wanting to try my hand at gluten free baking, but find it a little intimidating. Although I don’t have kids, fall has always been one of my favorite seasons. This year it is even more special since I’ll be getting married!
This looks like the perfect cake for September, I’m with you there 🙂 I love that you used brown rice flour. I haven’t tried baking with it before but now it’s on my list.
I think you’ll like it for sure. Thanks for dropping by today!
This looks absolutely amazing! Just looking at it gets me in the mood for fall. Perfect as we head into September. Since going gluten free I haven’t tried making a bundt cake. I will have to make this for my boys.
Great! I hope you do. And so you know, it freezes perfectly. Cut into slices, wrap them individually. The perfect “bread” for GF breakfasts on busy mornings.
It looks incredible, Katie. I love that you used natural gluten free brown rice flour instead of gf flour mix. A great recipe!
I have been making this recipe with rice flour since 2002, and it never occurred to me to try a GF mix in it. Though I love the rice flour, now I am curious. I should try it!
I love everyday tea cakes like this.. and I love that you used brown rice flour too. It’s not an ingredient I bake with often and definitely think I need to do so soon.
It was the first gluten-free flour I used, and it works great. I have never tried this recipe with my fave King Arthur GF mix, but I think I may before apple season is over.