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 was my first keto dessert. I always get a Publix Raspberry Elegance cake so I used this cake recipe, your cream cheese icing, and made a raspberry filling. It was amazing! You would not have known it was keto! Delish! Thanks for my new birthday favorite!
Hi! I upped the servings to 24… without looking at the cake pan size before I started adding ingredients! Now I’m about to bake but the cake pan shows two 8 inch still. Do you think I should use 9 inch pans?
Hi, do you use US cups or UK cups? Or, is there somewhere where you convert your recipes to grams? I live in Asia so cups are different sizes here! Thank you =)
We use US cups. If you google conversions, there should be some tools available 🙂
This actually works.I have tried and failed with lots of different recipes .
This is really easy to make and tastes amazing.
I used keto frosting and decorated it with sugar-free rainbow sprinkles for a special birthday cake –
The only issue was I struggled to convert to UK measures
Thank you
Will Almond flour work?
Nope!
I have (with good reason) been suspicious of keto recipes claiming to be just like the unhealthy original, but this was so much like a classic yellow cake that I couldn’t believe it. I put mine in the refrigerator to firm it up some and then it was even better. Even without frosting.
This is the best keto cake I have made so far! It’s so moist and fluffy. And it was so easy! Thanks so much!
Thank you, Mily!
Thank you for an awesome cake recipe! My husband and I recently switched to a keto lifestyle, and as a baker, I had to make so many cake recipes to create a moist, but crumbly, light cake. This is the first keto cake I’ve ever made, and I’m surprised by how wonderful it turned out, as written, no changes. I spent years trying to create this texture with normal, gluten filled ingredients, and here you’ve made it as easy as ONE recipe. This will be my go to, thank you!
Note: I am sensitive to the flavor of coconut, and I don’t personally like coconut. I would NOT recommend this particular recipe to anyone who does not like coconut. If you don’t mind it though, give it a shot!
Thank you, Ella! If you find coconut secret coconut flour, it has no coconut flavor at all 🙂 Same with refined coconut oil.
What would you recommend for time to bake for cupcakes?
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?
My family liked the cake. The coconut flavor is definitely there but subtle. It was moist. I baked in a 9×13 glass casserole dish. I did not use parchment since I was not going to remove the cake. I used cooking spray. I used Pyure sugar one cup. The cake was sweet enough. Definitely a cake I would make again and have bookmarked for the next birthday or special occasion. I personally am not a fan of artificial sweeteners, but it was fine in this recipe. (I am not the family member on keto)
I need to watch carbs and sugar, and have found an Almond Flour Chocolate Chip cookie that we love. So I wanted to find an Almond Flour Vanilla cake recipe that might substitute the very yummy white flour/sugar one I grew up on, without having my birthday kid feel like she is sacrificing flavor because of me. Your recipe looked the most like a regular Vanilla cake, so I went with you. It came out absolutely delicious! I let the pans stand after coming out of the oven at least 5 minutes, but the first one fell apart when removing it from the pan. By making that my bottom layer and using frosting as glue, no one would know! I waited much longer to take the second one out, and it made a perfect top layer. My birthday child RAVED about how good this cake was! I used Swerve granular sugar replacement (first time using that), Bob’s Red Mill Coconut flour and Bob’s Almond flour. Thank you, Arman! This WILL be a repeat!
Can you use coconut sugar?
Yes 🙂
Best keto vanilla cake recipe I have ever tried. I use this recipe to make keto tres leches cake and it never disappoints me. It an easy recipe and the flavor is amazing. I have tried other recipes and none of them are as good as this one. Try it!
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!