This healthy black forest cake is a single serving and low carb cake loaded with cherries and chocolate! Moist and fluffy, it takes just one minute in the microwave or 10 minutes in the oven!
Keto Black Forest Cake
We love our mug cake recipes here. We’ve had a lemon poppy seed mug cake, blueberry muffin mug cake, and a simple lemon mug cake. With the cherry season right around the corner, it’s time for some cherry action to take the stage.
Cherry cobblers, cherry dump cakes, and cherry Bakewells are some of my favorite cherry desserts. However, nothing comes close to the chocolate and cherry combination.
This black forest cake was inspired by my favorite gluten free black forest cake. The texture is moist and fluffy, and has a light tender crumb. The taste is just like any black forest cake out there- Rich, sweet, and bursting with mouthfuls of cherries.
While cherries aren’t technically a keto and low carb fruit, the amount used in this low carb black forest cake is minimal, and only contains 3 grams net carbs!
How to make a gluten free black forest cake
The Ingredients
- Almond Flour– Blanched almond flour works much better than almond meal. It has a lighter texture, keeping this black forest mug cake super fluffy.
- Coconut Flour– Works with the almond flour to give a cakey texture. Do not omit or substitute for something else.
- Cocoa Powder– Use dark cocoa powder for a rich, chocolate flavor.
- Baking powder– Gives the mug cake some rise.
- Granulated Sweetener of choice– Both monk fruit sweetener and erythritol work. I prefer the monk fruit as it is most similar to sugar.
- Egg or substitute– Use a room temperature egg. See my tips below to make this a vegan black forest cake.
- Milk of choice– I used unsweetened almond milk, but any milk will work.
- Cherries– Fresh or frozen can be used. Be sure to remove the pips!
- Chocolate Chips– Optional, but gives a lovely extra dose of chocolate!
The Instructions
Step 1- Grease a wide mug or microwave-safe cereal bowl and set aside.
Step 2- In a small mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients and mix well. Add your egg (or substitute) and whisk into the batter. Using a tablespoon, add milk one tablespoon at a time, until a very thick batter remains.
Step 3- Transfer the cherry mug cake batter into the greased mug/cereal bowl. Fold in your cherries and chocolate chips. Microwave in 30-second spurts, until the mug cake is fully cooked.
Step 4- Remove mug cake from the oven and allow to sit for 1-minute, before enjoying.
Oven Instructions
If you don’t use a microwave or choose not to use one, you can easily make this cherry mug cake in the oven or toaster oven.
Simply preheat the oven to 180C/350F and follow the microwave directions. The only difference is to transfer the batter to an oven-safe ramekin (6-8 inches works best) and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Vegan Black Forest Cake option
You can easily make this gluten free black forest cake vegan by replacing the egg with either ground chia seeds (1 tablespoon) or unsweetened applesauce.
Please note that if you make the vegan option, your mug cake will not rise as much, and be incredibly moist in the center.
More healthy mug cake recipes
Keto Black Forest Cake (GF)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon almond flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoon coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1- tablespoon granulated sweetener of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 large egg or 1 tablespoon ground chia seed or applesauce
- 1/4 cup milk of choice * See notes
- 4-5 large cherries
- 1 tablespoon chocolate chips of choice optional
Instructions
Microwave Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix well.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the dairy free milk with the egg (or flax egg) and whisk with the vanilla extract. Add the mixture to the dry mixture and mix until just combined. If the batter is still crumbly, continue adding dairy free milk one tablespoon at a time, until a thick batter is formed.
- Grease a microwave or oven safe bowl and generously and pour the batter. Fold in your cherries and chocolate chips. Microwave in 30-second spurts until it is fully cooked.
- Remove and allow to cool slightly before topping with optional whipped cream and enjoy!
Oven Instructions
- Follow directions as above but bake in a preheated toaster oven or oven for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
Nutrition
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Love the chocolate cherry combo and I can’t remember when I was allowed to see pg-13? Maybe 10 or 11ish? I guess it depended on the movie!
True- I think they are slowly becoming more and more leniant though!
Oh yum! Chocolate and cherries are one of my favorite combos! I’ll be giving this a try. I can’t remember when my parents started allowing me to watch pg13. I’m pretty sure I was in middle school so 10-12 probably.
Such a good combo- A flavor lover’s dream!
Oh gosh we had those friends as well. When we visited them I was not allowed to touch any toys and when they visited us they made my room look like it was hit hard by a tornado and guess who was the one who had to clean up the mess alone later.
I have never been a fan of blackforest cake. It was always way too sweet and I just never warmed to the concept of whipped cream IN a cake. Topping it with whipped cream is a whole different thing though! I realize how stupid that sounds…
RIGHT???? omg.
Not at all- I think being able to manage the cream makes it that much more delicious 🙂
Haha we grew up with family friends too, two boys who were the same ages as me and my sister. I think we were all pretty good, though we usually joined forces to play pranks on our parents. They’d get us back, though, and they were always better at it than we were.
Lol. How am I not surprised :p
Hope you are being spoiled rotten today, buddy!
Hmm, I usually enjoyed company because my mom would make something delicious for dinner. The guests would often bring a dessert and because they knew we were kids it was often cookies or something with chocolate. I think my siblings were “those kids” when I was growing up. My little sister had this habit of wanting to be like me, but then telling on me for everything I did. Terrible, but she’s better now. Cherry jam would probably work for this too I imagine?
Yep, cherry jam would be great!
I never had others’ like that in my life, but my younger brother would always get me in trouble! And I LOVE Black Forest Cake and am wiping the drool off my screen right now.
😀 Your brother sounds epic! Haha, I can’t imagine Mandy every being a bad kid!
Oh, I totally remember my sister restarting my video games when we were younger. There’s nothing worse than playing for an hour or two, and then having your bratty little sis reset the game! Oh, and I love this cake. I mean I love all cake. But this one is even better than most since it’s 1-minute! I need cake now…see you later, mate!
Oh man. An hour or two? Pokemon was like……3 days!!!! That’s okay, I flushed her furbie once 🙂
Aah how funny! I definitely have memories of a childhood ‘friend’ (son of friends who happened to be in my grade) who always causes trouble. We never got blamed for anything luckily, but we were always stuck with him. I’m glad that Black Forest cake Hanse traumatized you too terribly 🙂
😀 hahaha thanks, Alysia!
Looks great!! I need more cherries in my life! Maybe I’ll plant a cherry tree.
Good luck with that 😀 I would die for a cherry tree!
Oh my, you’re bringing back baf memories. Don’t get me started mourning the loss of one of my Barbie horses again … Thanks for nothing to the girl who broke its legs and thought she could return it after she’d glued them.
While I’ll have to say Black Forest Cake isn’t complete without Kirschwasser and whipped cream 😉 yours still sounds good. I by far don’t eat the cherry + chocolate combination often enough.
It is a cake that needs to happen more often!
What a shame that you had to associate this delicious cake with those evil children. I must confess, I may or may not have been a little devil when I was younger too, at least during my preschool era lol. Anyways if this cake determined my gymnastics ability, I’d totally beat Simone Biles in the 2016 olympics!
Hahaha, you a devil? Never!!!
Let’s not jinx Simone Biles- She might fall off the beam three times (hopefully)
They restarted your Pokemon game!!??!!! That is serious stuff – no matter how bad things got when my brother and I were fighting we never ever would have done that. Those kids were pure evil!
I was lucky, my parents were pretty lax about ratings on movies. I used to watch action movies with my dad when I was 7/8 – all 18’s but I was never phased by anything!
Right?! It was horrible!
I have been wanting something with cherries for quite some time, and this cake looks yummy! I will try out the Monk fruit sweetener in this recipe.
🙂 We have the same tastebuds!
Something that I’d associate with annoying family members would definitely be the smell of those plastic bags that you’d use to carry takeout Asian food! I don’t know why but those always grossed me out! XD The black forest cake looks amazing. And yes, I agree, cake > people 😉
Omg. YES!!!!! The worst part? My mum would save them growing up!
OMG “THOSE family friends.” The ones who criticized my drawings, stuffed Pikachu, and birthday party theme? Yeah, looooooved them. *rolls eyes*
I was such a cry-baby about things though. If I felt like they were teasing me, you bet Miss Drama Queen took the stage.
Oh man. I can only imagine mini diva Alison popping out!