Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cake Squares

Vegan pumpkin spice cake squares are a delightful and indulgent treat that will satisfy your sweet tooth. These moist, fluffy squares are bursting with the warm and aromatic flavors of pumpkin spice. Each bite is a delicious combination of pumpkin flavor and cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, with a hint of sweetness.

These cake squares take their flavour from canned pumpkin (available in most larger supermarkets these days) but you could boil up a sweet potato and use that in a pinch, or even, dare I say, use tinned, drained carrots. I love the flavour of pumpkin, and, dare I say, I’m happy to use it all year round, although I love the convenience of tinned. Fresh pumpkins are great and all that, but they are such a pain in the ass for prepping. I love to carve them for Hallowe’en, and really, that’s the only time I would recommend going to the trouble.

What Makes Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Squares so good?

This was one of the very first vegan recipes that I formulated myself, and I am (I think) justly proud of it. Despite being gluten free, the sponge has a delicious texture, not too crumbly, not too stodgy, and this comes from there being only half a cup of flour in the batter.

When I remade the recipe, I hadn’t made the squares for a couple of years, but I needed to make a gluten free and vegan cake for a friend’s birthday. I had to question whether I had written down the small quantity of flour down correctly, but when I stirred the wet ingredients into the flour, it mixed together into a beautiful cake batter.

Looking at the list of ingredients, it does seem like there is a lot there! However, it is mostly all store cupboard stuff, and if you have your own premixed pumpkin spice blend, please use this and omit my spice suggestions (I recommend using 1.5 teaspoons).

Do I Have to Use Gluten Free Flour?

No, not at all. Simply swap out the GF element for regular flour. You could also use a mix of self-raising flour with buckwheat, which gives a delicious nutty taste.

My favourite brand of Gluten Free flour has been Doves Farm, forever. It always performs perfectly, and behaves itself, like all good flour should!

Ingredients

• Canned Pumpkin, unsweetened
• Unflavoured oil (coconut oil, melted, is good)
• Plain or vanilla vegan yogurt
• Soft brown sugar
• Gluten-free Self Raising flour (or normal plain flour)
• Baking Powder and Bicarbonate of Soda
• Ground ginger, fresh nutmeg, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract
• Dates and pecans. These are optional, but add a caramel sweetness and toasty crunch that rounds out the spices and pumpkin flavours nicely. Omit the pecans if you have an intolerance to nuts or don’t like them.

Method

This brings me to the method. This is my non-patented blender method of making cakes or cupcakes. It makes baking cakes so simple and quick. Just sieve your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Blend up your wet ingredients and pour this over your dry ingredients, folding gently but thoroughly, and it’s ready for the oven!

Preheat oven to 180c.

Blend up wet ingredients and sugar in a smoothie maker (I don’t have a large blender).

Pour this over your sifted flour and baking powder, folding gently but thoroughly.

Now fold in the chopped dates and pecans.

Smooth into cake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Leave to cool before cutting into squares.

You could top with a cream cheeze icing to make this a really special treat, but I just dusted mine rather clumsily with icing sugar.

Try my other delicious Vegan Pumpkin Recipes

• Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
• A Classic Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin Pie Cheese

Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Cake Squares

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A deliciously spiced cakey treat, gluten free and vegan!

Freya

4.98 from 47 votes

Prep 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Equipment

• 8" lined cake tin, square

Ingredients

• ▢ ½ cup gluten free flour - self-raising
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Baking powder
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Ground ginger
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg - grated
• ▢ ¼ cup Coconut - melted (or canola oil)
• ▢ ½ cup Brown sugar
• ▢ ⅔ cup Pumpkin puree - canned
• ▢ ½ cup Yogurt - vegan, plain or vanilla
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ cup Dates - stoned, soaked in hot water
• ▢ ½ cup Pecans - chopped, optional

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180c.
• Sift the flour, spices, salt, bicarb and baking powder together in a large bowl.
• In a smoothie maker or blender, whizz up the oil, yogurt, pumpkin, brown sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.
• Add this to the dry ingredients and fold in gently but thoroughly until you have no pockets of flour left.
• Fold in the chopped dates and pecans.
• Pour into your prepared cake tin, and smooth with a spatula
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Let cool for 15 minutes on a cooling rack before removing carefully from the tin and leaving to cool completely.

Please note that where the recipe asks for milk, butter or yogurt, this refers to any plant-based version that you prefer.

Nutrition Facts

Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Cake Squares

Serving Size

 

50 g

Amount per Serving

Calories

154

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

5

g

8

%

Saturated Fat

 

1

g

6

%

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

1

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

2

g

Cholesterol

 

2

mg

1

%

Sodium

 

130

mg

6

%

Potassium

 

162

mg

5

%

Carbohydrates

 

27

g

9

%

Fiber

 

3

g

13

%

Sugar

 

19

g

21

%

Protein

 

2

g

4

%

Vitamin A

 

2843

IU

57

%

Vitamin C

 

1

mg

1

%

Calcium

 

59

mg

6

%

Iron

 

1

mg

6

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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