Name: Gluten Free Marble Pound Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Ingredients: 230 g granulated sugar; 250 g butter; 4 eggs plus 1 egg yolk; 1 tsp vanilla; 120 g tapioca starch; 110 g brown rice flour; 100 g white rice flour; 50 g potato starch; 50 g almond flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 3/4 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp xanthan gum; 230 g buttermilk; 50 g cocoa powder; 30 g powdered sugar

A good gluten free pound cake is hard to find. It must be moist and tender but not crumbly, the flavor should be buttery but not too heavy, and the chocolate swirls must taste deliciously chocolate-y. This recipe checks all the boxes. Enjoy it for breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea or as a delicious afternoon snack. For a more decadent experience, top with a chocolate glaze, raspberry curd, or cream cheese frosting.

Table of Contents

Equipment

Stand mixer or hand mixer
5″ x 9″ loaf pan
Parchment paper

Ingredients

Butter
Granulated sugar
Eggs
Vanilla extract
Unsweetened cocoa powder – regular works well, but if you want an even more intense chocolate flavor, try Dutch processed cocoa powder
Powdered sugar
White rice flour
Brown rice flour
Tapioca starch
Potato starch
Almond flour
Baking powder
Xanthan gum
Salt
Buttermilk

Check out my page on Sourcing Gluten Free Flours for resources on buying high quality gluten free flours.

Detailed Methods

Preheat the oven to 350^oF and line a 5″ x 9″ loaf pan with parchment paper, then set aside.

While the oven preheats, prep your ingredients. Measure out the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.

Weigh out the cocoa powder and powdered sugar and whisk until no clumps remain. Add 80g of buttermilk and mix with as spatula until a thick paste forms. There should not be any clumps. Set aside.

Optional step: gently heat the buttermilk before adding it to the cocoa powder mixture to intensify the chocolate flavor. Be careful when heating the buttermilk. If you heat it too much it will curdle.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla together until combined and fluffy, scraping down the bowl periodically to make sure everything combines evenly. This takes roughly 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Make sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula one or two times during this process. Once all the eggs are added the mixture may look split (see below) but don’t worry, it’s normal! Your loaf cake will still turn out delicious.

Add the flour mixture and 150g of the buttermilk and beat until smooth. Be careful, the bowl will be very full when you add the flour and buttermilk. If needed, you can add half the flour and buttermilk, mix until incorporated, then add the other half.

Scoop roughly half of the batter into the bowl with the cocoa powder mix and stir to combine.

To make the marbling in the loaf, alternate scoops of chocolate and vanilla as if you were creating a 3D checkerboard (see below) until you run out of batter. After you make the first layer, make sure that you’re scooping vanilla on top of chocolate and vice-versa. Smooth out the top of the loaf.

Zig-zag a butter knife through the batter, first up and down across the whole loaf and then side to side. After you’ve finished, the loaf will have a pretty herringbone pattern across the top, like in the picture below.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check to see if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out wet, continue to bake, checking again with a fresh toothpick every 5 minutes until it comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Be careful of overbaking! If it’s baked too long it will be dry.

Remove from the loaf pan and allow to cool on a wire rack until barely warm. Slice and serve!