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Gingerbread Cake - Vegan, Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free

"Try this delicious 'new fashioned' gingerbread. It's moist, spicy and really delicious. Perfect for the holidays or a cozy treat any time of the year. Your family and friends will never know it's free of animal products, gluten, and sugar!"

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Why it works: Buckwheat and ginger share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 46 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

The recipe

24 servings
Prep15 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with a little of the canola oil.

  2. In a small bowl, whisk the flax seed meal with the 6 tablespoons water and let it stand for 5 minutes to thicken.

  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the amaranth flour, buckwheat flour, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, nutmeg and salt.

  4. In a second bowl, whisk the agave nectar, remaining canola oil, molasses, grated fresh ginger, lemon zest and the thickened flax mixture until smooth.

  5. Slowly whisk the 1 cup boiling water into the wet mixture until combined.

  6. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just until a smooth batter forms. Spread it evenly in the prepared pan.

  7. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move to a rack to cool completely before cutting into 24 pieces.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Buckwheat + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Amaranth + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the amaranth

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, buckwheat, coconut, cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  2. Allspicebetter flavor fit
  3. Turmericbetter flavor fit
  4. Amaranththe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, buckwheat, coconut, cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).