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My keto carrot cake recipe makes for a moist, fluffy cake with tangy cream cheese frosting. Naturally sweetened and flourless, it’s SO easy to make and doesn’t taste low carb.
Craving more keto cake recipes? Try my keto lemon pound cake, keto coffee cake, keto chocolate cake, and keto strawberry cake next.
Table of Contents
Just because I’m watching my carbs doesn’t mean I’m willing to sacrifice my sweet tooth. Quite the contrary, I actually look forward to making my low-carb dessert recipes, especially my low-carb carrot cake.
Why I love this recipe
- Just 3 grams of net carbs. So no fears of kicking yourself out of ketosis.
- Perfect texture and flavor. Like my healthy carrot cake, this one is moist, fluffy, and delicious all on its own. The rich, creamy cheese frosting is just icing on the cake (literally!).
- Everyone will love it. No one will even guess it’s low-carb–I promise!
- Easy to modify. If there’s an ingredient you’d rather not use (or you don’t have it in your pantry), I’ll give you plenty of substitutions.
Key Ingredients
- Almond flour. I prefer using blanched almond flour over almond meal. If you only have almond meal, you’ll need to increase the cooking time to avoid the cake sinking in the middle.
- Baking powder and baking soda. The two combined give the cake fluffiness and rise.
- Spices. I used cinnamon and nutmeg, but you can also use apple pie or pumpkin spice.
- Salt. To amplify the other ingredients.
- Eggs. Preferably room temperature eggs. To make this egg-free, use flax eggs.
- Granulated sweetener. I used a brown sugar substitute, but any sugar-free sweetener will work.
- Vanilla extract. A must for any excellent cake!
- Oil. Any neutral flavored oil can be used, like vegetable, canola, or refined coconut oil.
- Carrots. Finely shredded carrots.
- Shredded coconut. Look for unsweetened shredded coconut flakes or finely milled coconut flakes.
- Shredded apple. While apples are not technically keto, a small amount is used to give extra moisture and sweetness to the cake. It’s a replacement for pineapple, which is extremely high in carbs. If you are worried about using apples, you can also use shredded zucchini.
- Walnuts. Optional, but it gives some delicious crunch throughout. If you don’t have walnuts, use chopped pecans.
- Cream cheese frosting. I used a simple keto frosting recipe.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
How to make keto carrot cake
Step 1- Prep. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F, and line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Lightly grease with cooking spray.
Step 2- Mix the ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sweetener until smooth. Add the vanilla extract. In a third bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients until combined.
Step 3- Finish the cake batter. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until fully incorporated.
Step 4- Bake. Pour the carrot cake batter into the cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Step 5- Cool and frost. Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, frost and layer.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Make an 8-layer cake. While totally optional, I like the look of a multi-layered cake. You won’t have to change any proportions; simply slice each cake into 4 thin pieces.
- Make a single-layered cake. Simply halve the ingredients.
- Don’t overbake the cake. It’ll continue to cook as it cools, so remove it from the oven as soon as a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Swap the frosting. Use keto vanilla frosting, or skip it altogether and just dust the cake with keto powdered sugar instead.
Frequently asked questions
If you don’t want to use carrots, use shredded zucchini (with moisture squeezed out) and add carrot extract. The carrot extract has no carbs or sugar but adds a delicious carrot flavor.
I haven’t tried this recipe with coconut flour, so I can’t vouch if it will work, but if you try it, you’ll want to use less coconut flour since it’s more absorbent than almond flour.
You sure can. Pour the batter into a muffin tin lined with muffin liners and bake them for 20-22 minutes.
More keto dessert recipes
- Keto bundt cake
- Keto pound cake
- Keto red velvet cake
- Keto chocolate chip cookies
- Or any of my keto desserts
Keto Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups keto brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup oil I used canola oil but any neutral flavored oil can be used.
- 2 cups carrots shredded, approximately 3 large ones
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup apple shredded, approximately 1 large apple * See notes
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
- 1-2 cups keto frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans with cooking spray and lightly dust it with almond flour.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine your almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, and mix well. In a separate bowl, using a stick mixer, beat together the eggs and sweetener until smooth and almost double in size. Add in the vanilla extract. In a third bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients, until combined.
- Fold through the dry ingredients into the egg/sweetener/vanilla mixture, until just combined. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.
- Distribute the cake batter amongst the two cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out mostly clean.
- Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes, before carefully turning them on to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, layer and frost, before letting it sit for 30 minutes, before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published April 2022, updated and republished February 2025
Flourless? First ingredient, oat flour 🙁
Hi! It definitely is flourless- They are rolled oats ground to a ‘flour’ so still flourless 🙂
This looks great – I’m waiting for the flourless version, have you posted it yet? Thanks!!
Hi Margaret- This is flourless 🙂 The ‘oat flour’ is rolled oats ground to a flour! Enjoy!
Approx how many servings does this make? And/or what size pan did you use? Would love to make these soon but I want to know how much to expect. Thank you!!
Hi there! I’m so sorry for not including it- I made around 9-10 solid slices- It really depends on how much you’d like to eat! As for pan size- I used an 8 x 8 for thick, hearty pieces 🙂
I haven’t found a protein powder with a flavor that I love. Most I just barely tolerate. So I get hesitant on recipes that use a lot of protein powder for the main flavor. Can you vouch for the ones you linked to? Are they yummy?
Hi Joanie! For sure- I LOVE casein protein powder because they don’t taste like grass- Have you tried Quest protein powders? They have single serve sachets so you can try it out! The vanilla one is SO good as a frosting 🙂
This looks fantastic. I’m ALWAYS up for cake.
Could I use a liquid sweetener (ie maple syrup and/or honey) in place of the granulated sweetener? If so, would I need to adjust the amounts/ratios of the dry ingredients?
Hi Kristyn! I’ve not tried it that way, but I don’t see it not working- You’ll need to play around with the flours a little bit- I’d add more oat flour 🙂
Can I substitute the oat flour for a paleo flour?
Hi Leela! I’ve never tried that before- I’m sorry! Let me know how it works! 🙂
I’m going to try a blend of almond and oat flours, with some tapioca starch mixed in for texture. It may work for people that are sensitive to a lot of oats. A bowl of oatmeal for breakfast ruins my entire day, but a little in granola bars is ok. The recipe sounds amazing, I wonder if you could also do zucchini instead of carrots? I’ll post the results as soon as I can in case anyone else is curious. Thanks!
Hi Danielle! That would be amazing if you can let me know- I’m currently working on a paleo/grain free option for this!
This would totally work with zucchini 🙂
My thoughts exactly when I make a bowl of oatmeal. Annnd I’m hungry again.
I have about 70 baby carrots from a recent Costco run…I wonder how many of these that could contribute to?
OMG. I once finished a whole bag of those.
Woah CAKE for breakfast? Diet has really become a matter of balance for me too. I can’t really do ‘high protein’ or high fat or high carb, because it throws off the whole system. I had Amanda’s mug cake for lunch the other day. Now, I know what’s next for breakfast, hopefully, soon. You literally have such a gift for making familiar baked goods, allergen friendly, and making them look EXACTLY like the original. This is incredible. 🙂
Please do- I think you’d really enjoy this, Emily!
I absolutely agree that you need a balance. I find that I work best with moderate amounts of everything–maybe I eat high everything because I eat so much sweet potatoes, dark chocolate, peanut butter, and Greek yogurt lol! Anyways, this carrot cake is DA BOMB BABY. I mean, carrot cake for breakfast??? Could you really top that?
YES. Just wait until next week. I have a freezer full for you 😀
Is this real life? Can I really have cake for breakfast and NOT go into a sugar coma at 8AM? And will it also keep me fuller for longer than the 30 minutes it takes me to get dressed for the day? Because that would be awesome.
Sign me up for this stuff! Though I may need to double the frosting…you know, for experimental purposes [or to spoon straight into my mouth].
YES! You’ll love this, it’s so good!
How is this even possible!!! Followed the recipe exactly and not only did the cake not turn out at allllll the icing just got thicker when I added milk to “thin out”. Actually so mad with wasting all my expensive healthy ingredients on this!!!!
Hi Mack- I’m sorry to hear it didn’t work out- I’m really not sure how this would have failed if you followed it exactly, it’s been made by many people since posting and even shared on social media- In fact, it’s gotten rave reviews so could you be more specific and I can try to troubleshoot? Or feel free to send an email!
It’s so fluffy I am gonna die!
I am uninspired with my breakfasts lately. Sometimes I even skip them and make a smoothie in the office. I need to find something that works better than this though. Just like you the most satisfying for me is a good mixture of fats, carbs and protein and when I neglect one of the three I usually tend to catch up on this on with what I crave later the day. And this can be ugly ;-P
I am with you on the coffee – but you know that already!
SO FLUFFY. But you shall never try it because you need to be my guinea pig and no more carrot for some time.
I love carrot cake, so I will be trying this soon! Instead of frosting, I will make a glaze with Swerve confectioner style sweetener.
Ohh such a good idea, Joanne! 🙂
Mmm YES PLEASE. I friggin love carrot cake – that’s what I usually get my mom to make for my birthday cake. Although cheesecake is always a contender too.
I tend to have oatmeal made with milk, egg whites, chia seeds, and cinnamon topped with banana and almond butter for breakfast. It has just the right mix of carbs, fat, and protein to keep me going!
Ohhhh what a pimped up bowl of oats. Why not the whole egg Chelsea? HUH? What did the yolk ever do to you. Mean mango.
^^^What she said. Think I can sneak carrots out of the d-hall for this?
Also, the more I learn about nutrition, the more I realize how complicated we make eating macros. BALANCE is something so hard to grasp for whatever reason. Sure, you might have more of one macro than others, but you really do need enough of all of them.
Love, I think you were smoking something naughty today.
Holy shitballs, Arman. I want this in my face IMMEDIATELY. I can’t believe it’s healthy!
Wash your mouth out with a lemon.
Just kidding, keep it coming! haha!