5th May 2017 ·

Gluten Free & Dairy Free Victoria Sponge Cake

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My recipe for Gluten Free & Dairy Free Victoria Sponge Cake is absolutely foolproof. Plus it’s simple to make and tastes heavenly! This basic Victoria sandwich recipe can also be used as a base to make other gluten and dairy-free cakes by simply adding other flavours.

A two layered Victoria sandwich cake which takes up the right hand two thirds of the landscape frame. Ruby red jam edges out of the middle and the top is dusted with sugar.

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Gluten-free Victoria sponge cake is a recipe that has been requested so many times I’ve lost count. It’s so simple I’ve never shared it, despite making it all the time.

It’s very easy to make these simple gluten-free sponge cakes dairy-free as well. Especially since any good jam sponge is simple with minimal ingredients – just as this one is.

I use it as the basis of most of my gluten-free, dairy-free sponge cakes, flavouring each in any way that I like. If you’re interested to know more about that then head to my post called ‘The Secret To Great Gluten-Free Cakes‘

What is the difference between this dairy and gluten-free jam sponge and a traditional Victoria Sponge Cake?

The only difference between making a gluten-free Victoria sponge and a ‘normal’ one is the flour you use.

It’s important to read this article: ‘What Is A Gluten Free Flour Blend?’ before you start baking. It will save you lots of money on ingredients wasted on less than perfect results.

For this recipe, I use my wholegrain gluten-free flour blend, for the reasons outlined above. It never results in dry, tough or otherwise unpleasant cakes.

You can buy it from my shop here. This flour is very easy to work with and requires no additional expensive ingredients when it comes to cake making. Just use it in place of wheat flour in your favourite cake recipes.

A slice of victoria sponge shown on a plate. The thin end of the wedge is towards the viewer with a fork laid down, handle again pointing to the viewer. You can see the underside of the sponge and middle jam layer. The background is out of focus.

The simple Victoria Sponge Cake Filling

I always make my Victoria sponge with just a simple jam filling. You can of course use buttercream or whipped cream as well.

If you wanted to make a dairy free icing you could use my vegan icing without margarine recipe. Alternatively you could make a ‘butter’ icing with margarine following this recipe.

Worried about Baking Gluten-Free Sponge Cakes?

If you’re still worried about gluten-free cake making then you can watch me make it. I made it live on Facebook and you can see a recording of that here.

It was all a little chaotic but it shows how easy it is to make if you need that little extra push to do it.

A whole sponge cake shown with a slice partly removed so you can see the inside of the cake. You can see jam in the middle layer. A large plant is out of focus in the background.

Is a Gluten-Free Diet Bad For Your Health?

Yet again, the gluten free diet is being bashed as being ‘bad for your health.’ This time suggesting that those following it potentially miss out on the protective affect on the heart that whole grains have.

The large study was carried out over a long time period in the USA and was reported in the British Medical Journal.

The study concluded that “avoidance of gluten may result in reduced consumption of beneficial whole grains, which may affect cardiovascular risk. The promotion of gluten-free diets among people without celiac disease should not be encouraged.”

Once again, it is assuming that everyone on a gluten-free diet eats highly processed products. However, there are lots of gluten free whole grains to chose from.

I have shown, through the development of my flour blends, that cooking and baking with wholegrain gluten-free flours is easy.

Therefore, this advice would seem ridiculous.

Rather than tell people to avoid the gluten-free diet, they should be advising people to eat the fabulous gluten free whole grains that exist.

What gluten-free whole grains are there?

There are so many wonderful gluten-free whole grains.

Examples include teff, quinoa, sorghum and buckwheat (to name a few).

I use teff, sorghum and buckwheat in my gluten free flour blend to provide maximum nutritional benefits combined with an effective wheat flour alternative.

A table setting showing a victoria sponge on a cake stand to the right and a teacup and milk jug to the left. A cake cutter lays to the front. The shot is eye height at the middle jam layer. The cake is not cut.

Do you need special equipment to make this simple gluten-free cake?

The short answer is no. You could make this cake with just a bowl, a whisk, some elbow grease and some round cake tins. And of course an oven.

I personally prefer making cakes the easy way with a bit of equipment. I always used to make cakes with a handheld electric whisk like this one.

However, I was gifted a Sage stand mixer a few years ago and have never looked back. It’s a brilliant machine with various attachments for whisking, beating and more. It makes light work of cake making and it means you can get on with tidying up while it does the job of mixing.

Since this simple gluten-free cake is a one-bowl recipe, you just load the ingredients into the bowl and set it beating with the K beater attachment.

The best thing about this machine is that the beater has a scraper edge to it meaning you don’t have to stop so often to scrape the mixture off the sides of the bowl.

Once the mixture has combined it’s a simple case of dividing it between two 18cm cake tins and putting them in the oven.

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Ingredients for Gluten-Free Jam Sponge

Dairy Free Margarine

If you are able to eat dairy, you can use softened butter here, but I find that margarine is brilliant for sponge cakes. It gives them a light, fluffy texture and prevents them from becoming dry too quickly.

Of course, you could also use regular margarine rather than dairy-free. This is a good way to keep your sponge cake fairly traditional too as I’ve found most traditional sponge cakes tend to use margarine.

Sugar

For a sponge cake, you typically use white, caster sugar. This cake is no different in that respect! You can use granulated sugar instead if you like – the only difference between the two is that caster sugar is a little bit finer.

I’m afraid that there isn’t a good low-sugar option here as while you can use an artificial sugar instead, this often results in a chemical, artificial-tasting cake which can be rather unpleasant.

Eggs

Eggs are important in cake as they help to emulsify the ingredients together and keep the cake moist. I used medium eggs to test this recipe, so it’s best for you to also use medium eggs.

If you don’t, then this will change the end result and may either make your cake too dense or too dry depending on what size you do use.

Gluten Free Flour

I used my own Free From Fairy self-raising flour which means that you don’t need any extra raising agents. This flour is a wholegrain flour blend that’s brilliant for baking with.

However, you could also use my Free From Fairy plain flour if you don’t have self-raising or it’s out of stock. Just add 1 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder to the cake batter to make sure that it rises just fine.

Vanilla Extract

I believe that all good cakes should have vanilla extract – particularly simple sponge cakes as these can be very bland otherwise.

I always add vanilla to my jam sponges as Victoria sponge cakes don’t have any icing – just jam and sometimes cream in the middle. This means that there are no rich, deep flavours coming from outside the cake. In such a simple cake, it’s important for every flavour to be just right

Pin the recipe for gluten free Victoria Sponge Cake so you don’t lose it:

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The Full Recipe