11 tricks to make vegan and gluten-free cakes rise.

Finally, after so many years, there are more and more gluten-free and vegan products on the market. 

Excluding packaged products, products in organic stores or vegan restaurants, they have cakes... Thin? Flat? Slippery? In short, they don't rise!

So I'm going to list 11 points that I personally follow.

11 tricks to make gluten-free cakes rise.

1. Use ingredients at room temperature.

Unless required by the recipe, use the ingredients at room temperature. So don't use them right out of the fridge or heated.

2. If not required, do not sift the flour.

The first few times I tried to make muffins, I couldn't make them rise. Then I realized that all the recipes I looked at, didn't sift the flour. So why do it?!

3. Mix the powders together first and separately mix the liquids.

How many times in my recipes is it present? All the time!

Only if there are eggs (so gluten-free recipe, but not vegan) you will have to separate the whites from the reds; whip the reds with the sugar and the whites with a pinch of salt.

4. Change the baking powder.

It may seem crazy to you, but since I buy baking powder in Slovenia (I practically stock up), it has changed the yeast of sweets. Why is the sourdough for sweets sold in Italy not yeast like the Slovenian one? I have no idea.

5. Gluten-free flour mixes don't always rise.

Some time ago, I found in a maxi offer a mix to prepare gluten-free and lactose-free chocolate cake. Reading the ingredients list, I realized that there was no yeast, but the instructions indicated that that preparation was used to create a low cake or brownies. I tried... and the result was bad, probably because the dose of rice flour and tapioca was too low compared to cornstarch.

Generally, you have to take into account that the amount of flour should be higher than the starch. Make a 70/30.

6. If possible, change the vegetable drink with unflavoured sparkling water. 

For gluten-free preparations, it is advisable to use half a quantity of vegetable drink and half of sparkling water.

For preparations with glutinous flour, it is advisable to use only sparkling water.

The sparkling water (also called carbonated) will give more "momentum" to the dough allowing it to rise.

7. To mix the ingredients, use a hand or electric whisk. 

The whip will allow you to incorporate more air into the compound.

8. Preheat the oven and then lower the temperature without opening it.

Especially in gluten-free preparations, the cooking times are longer. Then preheat the oven to 200 degrees (example), bake and after 30/40 minutes lower the temperature to 160 degrees until cooked through. The cake should dry. Turn off the oven and put a mix in the door to let in little air as it cools.

9. The pinch of salt always takes. 

The pinch of salt always takes and for some recipes even more than a pinch. This is more of a feeling of mine, but without the pinch of salt, something is missing.

10. If possible choose an icing sugar or a liquid sweetener.

11. Try to use an electric oven and not a gas oven. 

You should know that all my recipes carry molds for small cakes. Because until a year ago I had a 90-centimeter gas oven (there were basically 3 lasagna pans), but that oven didn't create the right moisture to make the cakes rise. So I bought a small ventilated electric oven. The kind that also has the function of roasting with a skewer and can hold a small chicken is perfect for raising sweets with its ventilated program.

Yum