Sand cake is a gluten-free East Indian cake made of rice flour. Grainy and buttery, it’s the perfect tea-time snack! And it goes well with ice cream too!
I love sand cake. The soft grains melting in your mouth, the strong taste of butter… It tastes yummier than regular cake. And it’s so light and airy that you can’t stop at just one piece.
What is The East Indian sand cake?
Well, it’s definitely not cake made of sand. Sand cake is the traditional East Indian name for a cake made from rice flour or cornflour along with wheat flour.
But, there’s always a but, right? The traditional cake uses a mix of rice flour or cornflour with processed wheat flour. It’s easy peasy, but back to the ‘but’. My friend is on a gluten-free diet and can’t really eat too much wheat. So after a bit of experimenting, I perfect my version of the sand cake, without wheat. Yes, a perfect gluten-free rice cake recipe!
And it’s time to share it with you. Smile… Here’s my gluten-free rice cake recipe from scratch.
What Ingredients Do You need to make Sand Cake?
All you need to make this sand cake is butter, rice flour, eggs, vanilla essence or extract, fine sugar, baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
How to make a sand cake from rice flour?
Just 7 ingredients. Cool, isn’t it?
Anyways, here’s how to make this simple gluten-free cake with rice flour.
Mix the butter, vanilla extract, salt, and sugar together. Use a spatula or even an electronic beater. The salt is optional, but I always add salt. It just reminds me to thank Abba that we have the means to make cakes and eat them too.
Add in the eggs and beat. Nope, I don’t do that thing where you add in the yolks first and the whites later. I just add them all in together.
Next, and this is the important one. Stir in the rice flour and baking powder by hand. You can use a spoon if you want, but don’t beat it in. Just gently fold it in with a little TLC. This adds some air into the batter and doesn’t let it get all squidgy.
Next, add in your food colors. I made mine cyan in color, and filled in two small tins that I had already lined with butter paper and kept ready. That pink one in the background is my sister’s nutmeg cake. I’ll get you the recipe for that soon!
And after about 50 minutes in the oven at 210 degrees Celsius, the beautiful gluten-free rice cake is ready. You can see that some of the sugar has formed a crunchy layer on top. I love that. That only happens with the sugar on top. The sugar inside melts perfectly. So don’t worry about it.
We served my rice cake for dessert along with my sister’s nutmeg cake when we had guests over. And they loved it!
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There have also been times I’ve made rice cake madeleines with an almond-flavored fondant glaze. Yeah, I thought they were petit-fours, like tiny little pieces of cakes. But nope, the French baker friend corrected me and said they were madeleines.
Well, okies! Here are some of my erstwhile rice cake madelines! I can’t find the pics of after I had decorated them with icing. But these are from just when the almond fondant glaze is dripping on the tray below.
Cooking Tips and Tricks
- Avoiding use of maida or all purpose flour makes this recipe gluten-free.
- You can use powdered sugar, so you do not have to worry about the sugar granules melting.
- Adding a pinch of salt brings out the flavour.
- You can make it any colour you like!
- Add sprinkles on top for a burst of color!
FAQ’s about Sand Cake or Rice cake
How long can you store Sand cake?
You can store sand cake in an airtight container so it does not get dry; this will last in a refrigerator for about 4 to 5 days or in a freezer for about 3 months.
Why is it called Sand Cake?
This East Indian Sand Cake is called a cand cake for a very simple reason, because it has a grainy texture.
Can I use wheat flour to make this cake?
Yes, you can. The original sand cake recipe does make use of a mix of rice flour and wheat flour. You can use a mix of both like that recipe. Mine does not include rice flour since so that it’s gluten-free.
Do I need to beat the egg whites and yolks separately?
If you have the time you can do this, beat the yolks and add them and then beat the whites separately and then add them. However, if running short of time, do what I do, beat both together and add them in. Same difference!
Can you make sand cake without rice flour?
No, sand cake is so-called because of the grainy texture that the rice flour gives is. So you need at least a bit of rice flour to make sand cake.
What Else Can I Make With Rice Flour?
Rice flour can be used to make chitaps (gluten-free rice crepes), or as part of the mixture in foogias and orias.
What other Cake Recipes Can I Try?
Well, there are so many. You can try making a custard powder cake (I’ll add the recipe soon), coconut cake, semolina date and orange cake, bol de coc, date and walnut cake, chocolate chunk coconut cake, nutmeg cake and so many more.
Other Recipes You Might Like
- Coconut Cake Recipe
- Irish Pot Pies from leftover stew
- Pickling young garlic
- Have you tried a boilermaker?
- Unusual Cocoa and Walnut Fudge
East Indian Sand Cake – Riceflour Cake
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Ingredients
- 375 g Butter
- 330 g Rice Flour
- 6 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract Essence will also do.
- 360 g Sugar Fine
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1 pinch Salt
Instructions
- Mix the butter, vanilla extract, salt and the sugar together.
- Add in the eggs and beat.
- Gently fold in the rice flour and baking powder by hand or with a spoon. Don’t beat it or it will lose air.
- Add in colour if you want to.
- Add the batter to your pre-lined baking trays.
- Bake for 50 minutes at 210 degrees Celsius.
- Serve. You don’t have to wait for it to cool. It tastes yummy when warm too!
Please click to rate the recipe! Left you don’t like it, right you love it!
Nutrition (Per Serving)
Disclaimer: Nutrition Information per serving is estimated by a third party software based on the ingredients used, and is for informational purposes only. It will vary from product to product, based on methods of preparation, origin and freshness of ingredients. Please consult the package labels of the ingredients you use, or chat with your dietician for specific details.
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If you try this making this simple gluten free rice flour cake recipe, come back to let me know how it went. Happy eating!
I’m an East Indian foodie and travel blogger from Bombay, India. I love food, wine, and sharing my culture’s ethnic East Indian and traditional Indian recipes. You’ll find more info about me here!
The colors are lovely and I can see the graininess in the pics. I think I’m going to make exactly the same colors. Thanks for the recipe!
Nice! I never heard of sand cake before. You have some interesting cuisine in your culture. Saving the recipe for later!
Sand cake! That’s a fun name! Saving this recipe for Easter.
Sand cake! Really! I almost skipped it till I saw the recipe! Going to try this next week. I’ll let you know how it turned out.
Looks yummy! Will try soon!
This recipe is quite interesting, sounds yum, will try it soon. I need to buy rice flour!
Would love to try it, but I need to make it for someone with gluten and dairy allergies, so I have try with oil. Fingers crossed that it works! FYI I’ve made Swedish sand cake with all cornmeal before, no need to add wheat flour. It works.
Hi Mitali,
Although the traditional East Indian recipe from Mumbai calls for wheat, we don’t use wheat. So it’s already gluten free. If you want to make it diary free as well, use an oil such as rice oil which doesn’t smell. If you use peanut oil, it will smell different and add a sort of different taste to it. We’ve experimented on dad, so we know. 😉
Abby
I have a large stock of rice flour,I want to try this sand cake recipe, but you don’t say what size or shape baking tins?
Hi Jennifer,
In the images in this post, we’ve used one round tin of 7-inches diameter and one rectangular tin that’s 8-inch by 2-inches.
At other times, when we use square tins, it’s 2 each of 5-inch*5-inch. You can use this option.
Abby
I would love to try this sand cake recipe, but you don’t say what size baking tins
Hi Jennifer,
Replied to your comment above. 2 tins of 5-inch*5-inch will be perfect!
Abby