Food brings people together. When you’re dealing with your own dietary restrictions or those of your guests, wedding planning can get a little complicated. Gluten sensitivity impacts the entire wedding-day menu, especially the dessert. Thankfully, it’s possible to make a gluten-free wedding cake for your special day. With some knowledge and helpful pointers, you can have your cake — and eat it too.

Why Gluten Can Be a Literal Pain

We think of bread and baked goods as starches, but they do contain some protein. Wheat, barley, and rye contain a specific type of protein complex called gluten. It’s composed of prolamin and glutelin, two seed storage proteins that help supply nourishment to the plant as it sprouts and grows. Gluten helps bind ingredients together in baked goods, but it also lends a chewy texture to the final product.

Many gluten-sensitive individuals have celiac disease. This digestive and autoimmune condition causes intestinal inflammation. With celiac disease, gluten triggers inflammation because the body’s immune system thinks it’s a dangerous foreign substance and wages an all-out attack. This can cause severe damage to the intestinal lining, which prevents the proper absorption of nutrients from food.

Celiac disease may have genetic causes. The Celiac Disease Foundation explains that it tends to run in families. People who have first-degree relatives with celiac disease have a 10% risk of developing it themselves. Current research has discovered some possible connections between genetic mutations on chromosome 6 and excessive sensitivity to gluten.

How Gluten-Free Baking Works

Many other grains that don’t contain gluten work well in baking: rice, sorghum, and buckwheat flours, for instance. Both commercial and home bakers innovate to create delicious gluten-free baked goods. One example is this white cake recipe from Gluten-Free Baking, which uses specially mixed GF flour.

Gluten-free baking requires a few modifications to make it work. Since alternative flours lack gluten, they don’t contain a binding agent needed to hold the final product together. But other binding agents exist. Everyday Gluten-Free Gourmet lists xanthan gum, guar gum, and psyllium husk powder as some common choices.  

Gluten-Free Wedding Cake Options

Gluten-free baking has developed quite a bit in the last several years. Most decent-sized cities or major metro areas have some commercial gluten-free bakeries. Whether you want a traditional multi-tier cake, a single gluten-free tier, or something else entirely, you’ll have several options from which you can choose.

Gluten Free and More’s Debbie Duncan mentions that cost and feasibility are key when designing your menu. That’s especially true when you’re including gluten-free foods. An entire GF menu, cake included, may price out more than a mixed menu. The major upside is that you’ll help eliminate cross-contamination.

Multitiered cakes are ideal if you’re serving a GF menu to everyone. With cupcakes, you can select a wide range of cake flavors, icings, and add-ins. For the ceremonial cake cutting, you can ask your baker to include a single GF tier.

Alternatives to Wedding Cake

Not a huge fan of cake? As Martha Stewart Weddings’ gallery of gluten-free desserts proves, there are plenty of other gluten-free options to choose from. Macarons are a popular choice, along with cookies, pies, donuts, and tarts. Almost any single-serve dessert can be made in a GF version. Wedding Wire’s Whitney Teal also has more dessert suggestions, including peanut butter and chocolate balls, cheesecake, and brownies. The possibilities are virtually endless.

Weddings are deeply personal events, but they’re also celebrations with one’s community. When designing yours, you want to make everyone feel welcome. Accommodating dietary needs, including your own, is a key part of this effort. With so many gluten-free dessert options available, you’re sure to find cakes and sweet treats that you and your guests can enjoy.