Keto Cake
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My keto birthday cake recipe is light, fluffy, and perfectly moist. With a gorgeous crumb and creamy frosting, it’s the perfect dessert for any occasion! 2 grams of net carbs.
I have a short list of cake recipes that I can whip up at a moment’s notice, and my classic keto cake recipe is one of them. With the same delicate crumb and sweet vanilla flavor as regular ol’ birthday cake, it’s my go-to whenever I need a dependable low carb dessert that does not feel like a compromise- I promise!
Why I love this keto cake recipe
- The perfect texture. I need my cakes to be moist, fluffy, and with a creamy frosting, and this keto cake ticks all the boxes. Many keto cakes can turn out gritty or taste metallic, but not this one!
- Multiple frosting options. I’m a weirdo who prefers vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, but I also tested a few traditional frosting options for you.
- Nobody guesses it’s keto. I’ve made this cake for a few parties where just one person was following a low carb diet, but everyone came back for seconds of the cake- it really does taste like the real thing.
- Naturally gluten-free. No flour or grains are needed.
Table of Contents
Key Ingredients and Notes
- Almond flour and coconut flour. I use a mix of almond and coconut flours to achieve a moist, fluffy texture, which is difficult to achieve with just one flour. With the almond flour, opt for blanched almond flour, which prevents the cake from being gritty or sinking in the middle.
- Butter. I recommend unsalted butter, because I like to add the salt myself, as some brands can be a little inconsistent. Coconut oil can work, but the texture will be a little more ‘bready’ than ‘cakey’.
- Allulose. I recommend using allulose over other keto sweeteners because it dissolves like white sugar and doesn’t leave the cake with a gritty texture or a metallic aftertaste.
- Eggs. Room-temperature eggs work best, as they don’t firm up the butter when added. I usually just remove them from the fridge about 10 minutes before I start baking.
- Milk. I used unsweetened almond milk, but any milk works, and water can also be used in a pinch.
- Baking powder, salt, and vanilla.
Keto frosting options
There are plenty of ways to customize the keto birthday cake with different frostings. Here are some of my favorite keto frosting recipes:
- Keto cream cheese frosting. Beat together softened cream cheese, keto powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and a splash of milk.
- Cashew cream cheese frosting. Boil cashews for 5 minutes, then strain and blend with keto powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. I recommend cooking it for about 15 minutes to thicken.
- Whipped coconut cream. Beat together canned coconut cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla.
- Chocolate frosting. My favorite (and I’m in the minority here). Beat together softened butter, keto powdered sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, and milk.
How to make a keto birthday cake
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Prep. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line two 8-inch pans with parchment paper.
Step 2- Mix the dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
Step 3- Make the cake batter. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fully combined. Add the milk and vanilla and combine. Fold in the dry ingredients and beat until creamy.
Step 4- Bake. Pour the batter evenly into the two cake pans. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely.
Step 5- Cool and frost. Once cool, frost the cakes with your favorite frosting.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Don’t overmix the batter. Like a regular cake, overmixing the batter affects how fluffy and moist it turns out.
- Line the cake pans with parchment paper. These cakes a little fragile, and I find doing this guarantees the cakes release cleanly and makes cleanup much easier. A springform pan also works well.
- Don’t overbake the cakes. The tops should be lightly golden and spring back when touched. Remember, the cakes continue cooking as they cool down.
- Let the cakes cool completely before frosting. I’ve made the mistake of rushing this step before, and the frosting slid right off. A fully cooled cake is much easier to frost and decorate.
- Can I make this without eggs? I tried this cake without eggs, using an egg substitute. The texture was not super moist or fluffy but quite dense. If you don’t mind that texture, use a pre-formulated egg substitute (like Ener-G egg replacer) verus chia/or flax eggs.
Keto Cake (Vanilla Cake)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour 150g
- 1/2 cup coconut flour 56g
- 2 teaspoon baking powder 8g
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter unsalted, 170g
- 1 cup allulose 200g
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 serving keto vanilla frosting 240g
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line two 8-inch pans with parchment/baking paper and set aside. You can also use greased sprinform pans.
- 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 allulose 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.
this cake was pretty good! I was concerned because the batter was pretty thick and almost like cookie dough consistency, but once it cooled and I added frosting it came out pretty good. It’s dense but nit the densest almost/ coconut flour based cake over had. The kids even approved.
Cooked this yesterday for my sons birthday. As mentioned above it didn’t rise. Tasted great.
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!
Made this for my boyfriends Birthday, It was so nice. The lightest Keto Cake I’ve ever made and moist as an Otters Pocket 🙂
Yum!Made this for birthday, went down a treat.
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.
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 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. 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 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 🙂
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!
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 🙂
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.
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 🙂
In the US, we call them “Jimmies” or at least my grandma did, and she was born in 1888 (RIP, now). Thought it was a funny name for her to use, as my dad, her son, was nicknamed Jimmy, for James!
By chance how big of a slice
You can slice the cake as big or small as you wish!