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.
I’ve made this thrice now, with keto chocolate cream cheese frosting – twice as 6″ cakes, and once in an 8×12 pan – always turned out great.
This is an awesome recipe! Baking is a science I do NOT understand, and removing gluten and sugar makes that science even more foreign to me. But I followed the directions (for the most part) and it came out really great!!
I wanted a small cake for an adult’s party at a restaurant, so I used Wilton’s 6″ springform pan, and this is where I veered off course and almost scrapped the whole thing. For a minute, the cake appeared to be both burnt AND liquid, but after googling a bunch: you can do this, but you have to cook it at a much lower temperature for longer. Also, you should PROBABLY make 3 separate layers instead of one 6″x3″ block of cake, but hey, live and learn. Just saying, you CAN make the cake this way, but you probably should not.
Long story short, I panicked and went with a boxed cake for the party but saved this keto cake in my fridge. I got into it at 2am and drizzled some keto cream cheese icing over it and…IT IS SO GOOD. It’s dense and moist and heck yeah, I’d make this again. I bet if I’d sliced it into 3 layers & added icing it would have blown everyone’s socks off. For now, I’m going to have this with coffee in the morning and pretend it’s a breakfast pastry.
THANK YOU for such yummy recipes!! <3
how do you store the cake? can it be made ahead of time? thanks
Very Very good. I made this for my daughters birthday but was serving a diabetic in the family as well. I read the disclaimer about consulting with a nutritionist . The cake was yummy! I made it in a 9×13. Thank you for the recipe!
Hi. Does this recipe work for cupcakes?
You can try 🙂
This was incredible. I did alter this recipe slightly though based on what I had on hand. Instead of almond milk I used buttermilk and added a half teaspoon of baking soda to the recipe (Baking soda and buttermilk work together to create carbonation in the cake). I also used extra vanilla extract, and instead of using a 3/4th cup of butter I used 1/2 cup of butter and 1/4th cup of canola which I feel contributes to a soft texture. I also used allulose as my sweetener of choice, but it’s quite expensive. These alterations are not necessary but worked well. I really enjoyed this cake and it’s hard to tell the difference between this keto cake and a standard unhealthy cake. Lovely!
Made without frosting to have with strawberries and whip cream. Outstanding!
Amazing. Thank you so much.
This cake was amazing! I made it into cupcakes and the whole family enjoyed them; even the non Keto folks!
I can’t have almond flour ,so used tiger nut flour instead. Also added coffee powder and walnuts, and coffee frosting. Delicious.
This has been my go to cake recipe since I found it. At times, I add a quarter cup of protein powder.
Made this for my husband’s birthday and it’s absolutely delicious 😋 definitely will be making again however I added a tablespoon of liquid Stevia to the mix and 2 extra teaspoons of vanilla extract with a little more almond milk and baked for 40 minutes. Turned out perfectly. Thanks for sharing.
Can this cake be baked and frozen ahead? Thank you.
Yes, for sure 🙂 Frost it fresh though!
Hi there. I really want to try this! Is it possible to fold in fresh strawberries into the batter and then bake? Thanks!
I haven’t tried, feel free to experiment and see 🙂
Hi. Great tasting cake, thanks for the recipe. Mine did not rise to look like your amazing photo though. I used Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour. I tried doubling the baking powder to help with the rise, not much difference. Any other suggestions on how to get it too rise? Thanks very much 🙂
Sure! Make sure the oven is preheated very well- To ensure it rises, you can increase by 10 degrees for the first 10 minutes then quickly reduce back to the original heat.