This easy keto birthday cake is a low carb twist on the classic vanilla birthday cake! Made with almond flour and coconut flour, this moist and fluffy cake is the BEST low carb birthday cake recipe! 2 grams net carbs per LARGE slice.
Keto Vanilla Cake
When it comes to birthdays, we have a few keto birthday desserts on rotation. Our favorites are keto brownies, keto chocolate cheesecake and now, this easy keto birthday cake.
I’ve been meaning to make a keto friendly birthday cake for ages now. I keep putting it off, but with my birthday fast approaching, I wanted to do something special and have my cake, and making it keto too.
Growing up, my birthday cake was ALWAYS a vanilla cake or a white cake. I never really chose those fancy flavors and loved the simplicity of it. To keep the tradition alive, my keto cake HAD to be simple yellow vanilla cake.
Now, this keto cake may look incredibly fancy, but I promise you, it is SO easy to make.
No grains, no sugar, and no dairy whatsoever, but you’d never tell. I served this with all my non-keto friends and NO one knew it was low carb and sugar free. In fact, several of them have requested it for THEIR birthdays!
The texture of this birthday cake is JUST like any vanilla cake out there- moist and fluffy, with a tender crumb. The taste is gorgeous- sweet with notes of vanilla throughout.
Ingredients for a Birthday Keto Cake
Here is what you will need for this easy keto birthday cake. Please avoid substituting any of the ingredients, unless specifically stated. For such a fancy looking birthday cake, you’ll love this simple and easy ingredient list.
- Almond Flour– You must use blanched almond flour, otherwise the cake will be darker and denser. Blanched almond flour is often called superfine almond flour.
- Coconut Flour– Works with the almond flour to produce a super fluffy and moist cake. DO NOT omit this or substitute this for something else.
- Baking Powder– Leavens out the cake and helps it rise.
- Salt– Brings out the sweetness of the cake.
- Butter– I used vegan butter, to keep it dairy free. If you use vegan butter, try to use the stick variety (not spreadable) as it doesn’t have any added water or fillers on it.
- Sugar Substitute– You can use either monk fruit sweetener or erythritol. I prefer using monk fruit as it is most similar to white sugar.
- Eggs– Use room temperature eggs, not refrigerated.
- Milk of choice– Almond milk, coconut milk, cashew milk, etc. All will work.
- Vanilla extract– A MUST for any cake or baked food recipe.
How to make a keto birthday cake
This ingredient amounts provided for this low carb birthday cake recipe is to make a layer cake. If you’d like to make a single cake, simply halve the ingredients!
Start by greasing two 8-inch cake pans and set aside. Next, combine your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl or in a stand mixer, add your sugar substitute with butter. Beat together the two ingredients until creamy and fluffy. This usually takes around 8 minutes. Continue mixing while adding the eggs in, one at a time. Next, add the milk and vanilla extract and beat it into the batter. Finally, add in the dry mixture and beat all together until creamy.
Finally, you’ll transfer the keto vanilla cake batter evenly amongst the two cake pans. Bake the cakes for 22-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely, before frosting them and layering them up.
Frosting Ideas
Any vanilla or white frosting will work, or you can even go the chocolate route. Here are a few other ideas-
- Cream cheese frosting– Use any cream cheese frosting of your choice. Be sure to use dairy free cream cheese to keep it vegan!
- Cashew cream cheese frosting– My go-to frosting. It’s a little more time consuming but it’s so creamy, thick and rich!
- Whipped coconut cream– Simple and delicious!
Keto Vanilla Cake Tips
- Again, this makes a keto layer birthday cake. For a single cake, halve the ingredients.
- I highly recommend using a stand mixer or hand mixer to beat the ingredients. I tried mixing by hand and while it does work, I find the former have the fluffier texture.
- For a keto Funfetti birthday cake, add some sugar free sprinkles into the batter and on the frosting.
- Your cake must be cooled completely before frosting.
- Do not overbake the cake, as the cake continues to bake while it cools.
Is this a diabetic cake?
Please understand that I am not a medical professional. While I am knowledgable about diabetes and the diabetic way of eating (my father is diabetic), every person’s carbohydrate and sugar needs are different.
To see if this cake is suitable for a diabetic diet and can be considered a diabetic cake, please seek appropriate advice.
Can I make this without eggs?
I tried this keto vanilla birthday cake without eggs, using an egg substitute. The texture was not super moist or fluffy, and quite dense. If you don’t mind that texture, then use a pre-formulated egg substitute (e.g. ener-g egg replacer).
I haven’t tried this with flax eggs or chia eggs, so please let me know if you try it out- I’d love to hear how it works!
Storing and Freezing Tips
- To store: Leftover sugar free birthday cake should be stored in the refrigerator, to avoid any potential spoilage. Keep the cake covered in a sealable container. It will keep well for at least 5 days.
- To freeze: If you don’t plan on eating the keto birthday cake within 5 days, freeze the leftovers! Place slices of the cake in a freezer friendly container, or in large portions. Birthday keto cake will keep well frozen for up to 6 months.
More Keto Friendly Desserts
Keto Birthday Cake (Vanilla Cake!)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter use dairy free, if desired
- 1 cup granulated sweetener of choice * See notes
- 4 large eggs ** See notes
- 1/2 cup almond milk can use any milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 serving keto vanilla frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line two 8-inch pans with parchment/baking paper and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, add your almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder and salt and mix well. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream your butter and sugar until fluffy, around 8 minutes. Add the eggs in, one at a time, and beat well until fully incorporated. Add the milk and vanilla extract until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat until creamy.
- Divide the batter evenly amongst the two cake pans, and smoothen out the tops. Bake for around 22-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely.
- Once cool, frost the cakes with your favorite vanilla frosting.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi there, love your recipe and would love to make it for my birthday coming soon. Please what type of sprinkles did you use?Or normal one is fine? Thanks
Good quality ones, I think they are called ‘Jammies’ are the best, as they don’t bleed into the dough 🙂
can I use coconut oil if I refrigerated it and it becomes solid instead of vegan butter trying to keep it dairy-free? so can I use coconut oil instead of vegan butter?
I haven’t tried, but feel free to experiment and see.
I came back to comment again after trying the cake. Though it was a bit dense, the flavor was incredible! It reminded me of what an old fashioned wedding cake tasted like. Even my children really liked it! I will be saving this recipe and using it again!
Great to hear that, Lydia 🙂
Hands down the best low carb vanilla cake recipe, and I’ve tried many before. I used this recipe to make Battenberg cake and it turned out perfectly! It really does taste like regular vanilla cake. I used monkfruit blend and added a few packets of Stevia to cut the cooling effect. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the feedback, Joy!
Hello, I have tried this recipe multiple times now and I absolutely love it. The very first time I used rice flour because I didn’t have coconut flour and it worked pretty well but it was a little dense and it didn’t rise, So after that I have tried it at least another 4-5 times now with the coconut flour but still hasn’t risen using the Bob’s Red Mill brand.
Hi there, this doesn’t rise very much 🙂
Hi. I followed this recipe, and the cake was delicious. It looks just like the picture as far as color and texture, but it only yielded enough for two 6″ pans. I followed the recipe exactly. I’m confused how that happened.
The cake isn’t very thick if you use 8-inch pans, hence the frosting. 🙂
Hello! I saw the recipe called for vegan butter but can I use regular? Also, should I use salted or unsalted?
Thanks so much! Can’t wait to test this recipe out!!
Of course! Unsalted would be best 🙂
hi can i use brown sugar for this?
Sure thing, it will just be a darker cake.
Hello!
I saw the recipe called for vegan butter but I can’t easily find it so instead can we use oil? If yes then,
Which oil?
Will it be the same qty as the butter?
Also I am Vegetarian so I don’t consume Eggs,What’s the bestest alternative?
Also Erythritol Qty would be the same as listed above or maybe more or less?
Also can we have an alternative to milk or maybe can we just obsolete it from the recipe?
Waiting for your reply!
Thank you
I haven’t tried it with oil, you can use standard butter. No alternatives for eggs.
Made this as Christmas cupcakes for my hubby. Loved it. Used the buttercream recipe for frosting. Got 12 large cupcakes. Cooking time was double. We tried one(shared) without frosting, luke warm, it was light, airy and perfectly delicious, but after cooling densed up a bit and had a slightly(very slight) bitter after taste that the lukewarm one did not have, I was wondering why. Used Blue Diamond Fine sifted Almond flour, Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour, granulated splenda, Land o Lakes spreadable butter w/Canola oil, Jumbo eggs instead of large, LC foods rehydrated low carb milk,Did not have heavy cream so used Splenda coffee creamer, Davis double acting baking powder, salt and vanilla extract. Next time I plan on having the heavy cream and softened stick butter. We are going to warm up the current ones and see if that has a reversing effect, the frosting will melt but will probably still taste good.
😀 Fantastic- Thanks for the feedback!
Cooked this yesterday for my sons birthday. As mentioned above it didn’t rise. Tasted great.
Is there other flours I can use if I have a tree nut allergy? Coconut flour is ok, but the Almond flour I cannot do. Is there a substitute for the Almond flour? Thanks!
Not that I’ve tried!
Can you use coconut sugar?
Yes 🙂
I want to make this as a cereal cake. Can I substitute some of the flour for ground-up cereal or should I just steep the cereal in the milk? Also, I have heard monk fruit has a cooling effect. Does this cake have that? If so can I use coconut sugar instead?
What would you recommend for time to bake for cupcakes?