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It’s my birthday today… happy birthday to me! I’m keeping it super low key and spending the day with my family. Even though it’s just the three of us, I feel like the world is celebrating with me because it’s the most beautiful, sunny day outside. Bring on the cliche – all I want is to spend it outside with my daughter and husband. The older I get, the more those little moments are worth infinitely more than any extravagant celebration. And later, I’m making myself a sugar-free, gluten-free birthday cake! With my daughter’s help, of course.
Is it weird to bake my own keto low carb birthday cake? Well, I don’t care.
I made it a few weeks ago for my daughter’s birthday celebration, and it disappeared so fast that I barely even got to try a piece. One of my favorite things ever is surprising people with how delicious low carb treats can be. And, this gluten-free birthday cake recipe has been on my mind ever since.
Homemade gluten-free birthday cake is almost guaranteed to trump anything store bought, if you ask me. Even before I cared about healthy eating in the slightest, ready-made American cakes always tasted too sweet, plain, and artificial.
Maybe it had something to do with the delicious ones my grandmother used to make for me throughout my childhood. (I recreated her Russian “Medovik” honey cake in a low carb version last year – get the Medovik cake recipe here.)
As much as I love my grandma’s honey cake, I know many people just want a more classic gluten-free birthday cake recipe. So this time around, I wanted to strike a balance – making it more flavorful and moist than a boring store bought cake, but still creating a classically simple yellow vanilla cake. So what do you think of this sugar-free birthday cake version – mission accomplished?
Feel free to slather the cake base with your favorite frosting. I used a vanilla butter cream cheese frosting for mine, just because I’m huge fan of cream cheese frostings. Besides, a sugar-free birthday cake topped with cream cheese frosting somehow seems very fitting for spring.
That doesn’t mean you can’t get creative and use any frosting you like, though. I’ll bet chocolate would also be amazing!
Otherwise, for another delicious vanilla cake recipe, try this Gluten-free Vanilla Cake from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. I recommend using arrowroot powder with it instead of cornstarch, and the granulated sugar is easy to swap with a sugar-free sweetener. (See my sweetener conversion chart here.)
I couldn’t resist topping my gluten-free birthday cake with chopped pecans. Not only do I love them, but it was also the perfect sneaky way to hide my little secret – frosting cakes is not my strong suit.
The cake looked prettier with the nuts on top, and I didn’t have to obsess about making the frosting perfectly smooth on top. That’s a win-win. But, if your frosting skills are better, feel free to skip the nuts and decorate the top however you like!
Gluten-free Birthday Cake Recipe (Sugar-free, Low Carb, Keto):
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| Servings | Prep Time | Cook Time |
| slices | 20 minutes | 1 hour |
| Gluten-free Birthday Cake (Sugar-free, Low Carb, Keto) This gluten-free birthday cake recipe is so rich and moist that no one will guess it's low carb and sugar-free. It's easy to make with just 10 ingredients!
|
- 1 cup Erythritol
- 3/4 cup Butter (softened)
- 8 large Eggs
- 1/2 cup Unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract
- 3 cup Almond flour
- 1/2 cup Coconut flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp Gluten-free baking powder
- 32 oz Cream cheese (softened)
- 1/3 cup Butter (softened)
- 2/3 cup Powdered erythritol (adjust to taste; regular granulated *not* recommended)
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 9" round springform pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat together the erythritol and butter, until fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the almond milk and vanilla extract.
- Beat in the almond flour, coconut flour, and gluten-free baking powder.
- Transfer 1/3 of the dough to the lined pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until the top is lightly golden and spring-y. Repeat with another 1/3 of the dough, then again with the final 1/3 (making 3 layers total).
- Meanwhile, make the frosting. Beat together the cream cheese, butter, powdered erythritol, and vanilla extract, until smooth.
- Let the cake layers cool separately to room temperature before stacking. Frost between the layers, and all over the top and sides at the end. Top with chopped pecans (optional) if desired.
Net carbs per slice: 2g
*Optional pecans not included in nutrition info.
| Print recipe |  Yum |
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- LOW CARB MEAL PLANNING STARTER KIT: 7-day low carb meal plan, printable templates, shopping list, recipes, and more!
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Want to use a different sweetener? Check the natural low carb sweeteners guide & conversion chart!
Want more low carb, gluten-free ideas for party desserts? Try these:
Jennifer says
Beautiful cake. Happy Birthday.
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Jennifer!
Reina Gallegos says
Finally a low carb cake recipe. I love it. I plan to try it soon. Can you substitute other flavors for the vanilla? I thought of cherry, strawberry or lemon. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Reina, Those other flavors sound amazing! You can add any extract you like. A fruit topping swirled in also sounds delicious, but I haven’t experimented with that yet. Let me know how it goes if you try any modifications!
Noline says
Happy birthday for yesterday Maya.
With just the three of you, I assume you got to enjoy a piece of your birthday cake.
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Noline! I did get to enjoy a piece this time. 🙂
reddingmountain says
Just wanted to make sure the 32 oz. of cream cheese is correct. That seems a lot! Cake sounds amazing!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Yes. The frosting is mostly cream cheese and is enough to cover 2 internal layers plus the top and sides on the outside
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Yes. The frosting is mostly cream cheese, and is enough to cover 2 internal layers plus the top and sides. Some frosting recipes that use cream cheese have less because they use more butter instead, which you could also do. You can see from the pictures it actually ends up being a very thin layer of frosting, but you can use as much or as little as you like.
reddingmountain says
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. It is not a very sweet cake but he enjoyed it! I did add unsweetened coconut between each layer sprinkled on the cream cheese frosting and finally topped with coconut. We pressed pecans into the sides of the assembled cake. You can see a picture of mine on my blog at redaredding.com Thanks for sharing a great alternative.
Kristen Taylor says
Sounds delicious! (And very clever with the pecans!)… How many servings would you say this is to get it down to 2 net carbs each? (I’m thinking quite a few… maybe 16?)
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Kristen! The recipe is 24 servings, 2 net carbs each. These are narrow slices, but the cake tastes very rich and satisfying.
Dora says
Is it 1 1/2 tbsp of baking powder in the cake, or is it 1 1/2 tsp?
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Dora, It’s 1 1/2 tablespoons. The flours in the cake are pretty dense, so I found that quite a bit of baking powder was needed to help it rise.
Jami F. says
This looks amazing!! Have you ever tried making it in cupcakes?
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Jami! I haven’t tried that yet, but I think it should work. You’d probably need to reduce the baking time.
Nicole says
I’m confused. The cake ingredients say to use erythritol, but the cake instructions talk about powdered erythritol. Would you please clarify?
Thank you!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Nicole, Sorry about the confusion. The cake uses granulated erythritol and the frosting uses powdered. I fixed the discrepancy in the cake instructions. Thanks for asking!
Nadine says
Could you make this chocolate by adding cocoa powder? If so, how much do you think you’d need?
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Nadine, I think you could, but I haven’t tested it to determine the amount. Since adding cocoa powder would be adding a dry ingredient, you’d need to compensate by adding more of the wet ingredients as well. It’s on my list to do some testing for a gluten-free chocolate cake like this.
Laura Guadamuz says
I’m just curious if you could make this without the springform pan, I just have two rounds and if so what would be the baking time??
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Laura, Yes, you can! The springform pan just makes it easier to get it out, so make sure to grease well if using regular pans. The baking time should be about the same if you have 9″ pans; it will be longer if you have an 8″ pans. (The baking time is mostly affected by the thickness.) Just bake until the top is golden and spring-y.
Pilan says
Hi, I’ve decided to make a naked 2 tier cake with strawberry cream filling. I will sent you a picture when I make the cake next week
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Pilan! That sounds awesome – looking forward to seeing the picture! I actually just posted a strawberry lemonade cake recipe that was somewhat based on this one, too.
Pilan says
I tried your strawberry lemon. It’s to die for just plain too.
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Pilan! So glad you liked them both!
Lindsey Lee says
Thank you so much. Today was my birthday and I made this into cupcakes and made a chocolate buttercream frosting with erythritol. They were so good. Glad I was able to celebrate my birthday and stay low carb!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Lindsey! Happy birthday!! I’m glad you liked the cake and good to know it worked as cupcakes. The chocolate frosting with sounds delicious, too!
Debbie says
How long did you bake as cupcakes Lindsey Lee?
Michelle says
Hi Maya! I am so thankful for your site! My birthday is tomorrow and I just made your birthday cake – except with a new baking mix called Pamela’s Nut Flour blend. It is Almond flour, Coconut flour, flax, Pecan, and Walnut. For some reason Almond flour recipes make me feel awful after I eat them, so I’m hoping this one doesn’t do that. I had to use a little more almond milk since there is probably more coconut flour and I used 1-1/4 cups Erythritol. For the icing, I used 1 stick of butter, 3 bricks of cream cheese (24 oz), 1 cup of erythritol, and three tablespoons milk. It is perfect! Thanks so much for all your recipes!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Michelle! I’ve been wanting to try that flour blend. Good to know that it worked for this recipe!