Last Updated on March 24, 2026 by Deliciously Organic Editor
A classic pound cake is a staple recipe and I’m excited today to bring you a grain-free pound cake recipe that tastes every bit as good as the original!
I’ve been doing some thinking about what kinds of sugars to use in my baking. I’ve been using coconut sugar as my go-to for many years and I like that it contains extra minerals and doesn’t have a very high glycemic index.
But coconut sugar isn’t as sweet as some other sweeteners, so you need to use a bit more coconut sugar to create the same sweetness when you compare it to a sugar like organic cane sugar.Â
I crunched some numbers and realized there’s not much of a difference in the amount of fructose when comparing organic cane sugar and coconut sugar.Â
Coconut sugar is 70-79% sucrose. Sucrose is made up of half fructose. Coconut sugar is 38-48.5% fructose which is just about the same as cane sugar.Â
When you take into account that cane sugar and coconut sugar contain about the same amount of fructose, and you need to use a bit more coconut sugar to get the same level of sweetness as cane sugar, there’s not much of an advantage to reaching for the coconut sugar.Â
So, in my opinion, if I’m going to bake for a special occasion, and the recipe doesn’t require an obscene amount of sweetener, there’s not much harm in reaching for some organic cane sugar.
And, make sure to always get organic cane sugar. Regular conventional sugar comes from GMO sugar beets. Reducing our intake of GMOs and glyphosate is very important for good health.
This pound cake is a fun dessert to make during the fast-approaching holiday season. You can serve it alone, or with a dollop of whipped cream and berries.
Pound Cake Recipe (Gluten-Free)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 70 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 5-6
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten-Free
Ingredients
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup organic cane sugar (see post above)
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup arrowroot flour
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and adjust the rack to the middle position. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer, and beat for 5 minutes on medium-high until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time with the mixer on low.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond flour, arrowroot, coconut flour, baking powder and sea salt. In a separate measuring cup, combine the whole milk and extracts.
- With the mixer on low, add 1/3 of the flour mixture then 1/3 of the milk mixture. Continue to alternate between dry and wet ingredients until all ingredients have been added and combined.
- Pour the batter into a buttered 1 1/2 quart loaf pan. Bake for 60 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes, and then invert the cake out onto a serving plate. Cool completely. Serve.
Notes
I only test the recipes on my site with the listed ingredients and measurements. If you would like to try a substitution, you are welcome to share what you used and how it turned out in the comments below. Thanks!
Photography credit: Becky Winkler
I saw your note about substitutions, but just wondering if you *think* almond milk might work in place of cow’s milk or does it more than likely need to be whole milk – maybe from a thickness standpoint?
I haven’t tested this recipe with any substitutions, but almond milk could be a good option.
Can you substitute olive oil for the butter in this recipe?
I don’t recommend baking with olive oil as it has a low smoking point and will oxidize at higher heats. I also haven’t tested this recipe with substitutions, so I don’t know what would lend the exact same texture and flavor.
Olive oil smokes at 390 so baking with it is perfectly fine! I would think the flavor would come through though on such a delicately flavored dessert.
I made this recipe with almond milk and it was delicious!
Possible to do only 1 stick of butter instead of 2? And maybe add more eggs or more coconut milk? Just don’t want all that butter! It’s a lot!
I haven’t tested the recipe with substitutions, so I’m not sure what would work.
I’m going to try it with coconut milk since it has more fat.
Yassss Carrie!! I’m so excited to try it for my daughter who loves pound cake, but has recently gone GF. This will make her so happy. Thank you for producing such great recipes!
You’re welcome! 🙂
I would love to try your recipe, but, the ingredients include whole milk and cane sugar (both of which I’m sensitive to). I have tested substitutions before with other recipes – at great expense – only to find they didn’t work and everything had to get tossed. On a fixed income, that’s pretty rough to take (LOL). So, although you mention trying substitutions for ourselves in this recipe, would you be able to (with your baking knowledge) let us know if the use of coconut sugar and coconut milk, almond or cashew milk could work here?
I appreciate your help,
Pam
I discussed the sugar issue in the post, and for the milk, while I have lots of dairy-free recipes, I haven’t tested this recipe specifically with a non-dairy substitute. With that said, coconut milk might be a good alternative.
Thank you so much for the quick reply! I thought maybe the (full fat) coconut milk might be the best since I use it all the time as a substitute for the heavy cream in your wonderful Creamy Chicken Vegetable and Tomato soup recipe (one of our favorites!). I know it works really well in that… just haven’t used it in baked goods. Thank you again for providing your thoughts! Can’t wait to try out the pound cake recipe!
In your experience, would coconut milk be noticeable in something like this? I have never been able to figure out why sometimes the taste of coconut is so strong and other times I can’t even tell coconut milk is in a recipe! 🙂
Hi Carrie 🙂
Thank you for this recipe, i made it last week and the cake is delicious!!!
my only question is whether it would come out fine with using less butter, it’s quite oily.
i stored it in the fridge and find that if eaten cold it’s better as that way the butter remains cold and doesn’t feel as greasy but wander whether i could simply use less butter next time?
my toddler loved it btw and ate it with every meal that day. as he’s not a big fan of sweets and is very slim i was just happy he liked it so much 🙂
Hmm…when I tested the recipe it didn’t come out oily at all. Did you make any substitutions?
Hi Carrie,
I can’t see my original post here but as you’ve replied to it today, i’m just replying back in a new post:
No, i actually didn’t substitute anything! i used Raw organic whole milk and pastured organic butter, i didn’t have Almond extract so i doubled on the Vanilla and it was really tasty!
But 16 spoons of butter is a lot, isn’t it?
I’d like to make the cake again this week and wander whether i could reduce the amount of Butter. i’m getting Raw butter and milk again today.
Also – a non recipe related question – how do you feel about consuming Dairy products in relation to Thyroid disease? i have been avoiding Dairy for about 5 years now (post breast cancer) and i avoid Gluten as well as legumes, but recently have started getting Raw dairy for my toddler and am thinking whether i could consume it too as it’s so delicious! what are your thoughts about that?
Thanks so much, best, Or.
I’m not really sure what happened when you made the cake. I haven’t tested it with less butter, so I’m not sure how it would turn out. Different brands of coconut flour also behave differently and can lend a dryer or wetter dough. I always test every recipe with Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour.
As for dairy when you have thyroid disease – we’ve found in our practice that unless you have a documented allergy to dairy, then consuming raw/cultured dairy can be a part of a thyroid-healing diet. Same goes for legumes….they just need to be properly soaked before cooking.
This bread is amazing! I made this for our small fellowship group meeting and everyone raved! Several people asked for the recipe! Will be making this again for sure.
*I used Swerve sugar substitute.
I’m so glad you all enjoyed it! 🙂
I use SWERVE sugar substitute for everything and it measures and tastes just like sugar without the blood sugar spikes. I buy the large resealable package from Costco and I think it’s the best thing next to sliced bread. I’m going to try this recipe today using SWERVE and unsweetened almond milk and make my own whip cream (1 cup heavy whipping cream, 2 tablespoons SWERVE, 1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract. Whip with hand blender for 2-4 min until desired consistency is reached). I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thank you for this delightful recipe. I’m very excited to test it out.
Definitely trying this! I can see it with fresh strawberry sauce and coconut whipped cream at breakfast, yum. I’ve made several of your recipes and they were so good and now permanently in our meal rotation. I love the plate with the slice of cake on it, where did you get that (if you don’t mind saying)? It matches my new kitchen tile floor perfectly!!
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed the recipes! 🙂 I actually have Becky from http://www.beckywinkler.com do my food photography now so I can focus on other things in my business. If you asked her over on Instagram, I bet she’d let you know! She’s @acalculatedwhisk over on IG.
Did you mean 1/2 tsp almond extract ? It just says 1/2 next to almond extract – Thank you.
For my sons graduation party, I made 2 of these cakes. One they way she wrote it with an icing on top (vanilla icing with palm shortening/maple syrup). My sons favorite dessert is Orange Juice cake. It’s a yellow cake mix with orange juice in place of water and an orange juice/powder sugar glaze. So, I decided to make this cake substituting the milk for orange juice and the almond extract for orange extract. I then followed this recipe for the glaze (https://beautyandthefoodie.com/paleo-orange-poke-cake/) Seriously, the BEST cake!!! Her original recipe is fantastic as well. My son and his high school friends (plus my family/friends) LOVED the cakes and had no idea they were grain free until I mentioned it. I seriously can not say THANK YOU enough to Carrie for providing us healthy, great tasting recipes. Oh, did I mention my husband has never like any of my “healthy” desserts except this one. He even said, “you can make this one again!”
Thank you for this recipe – this was absolutely delicious. The whole family ate at it up – even my husband (who can typically sniff out a grain free recipe from the next room) was happy. Yum!
I’m sensitive to almond flour. Could you recommend a different flour for the recipes that use almond flour.
I haven’t tested this recipe with substitutions, so I don’t know what would lend the exact same flavor and texture.
Has anyone tried it with an egg substitute? Thanks!