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Ever wished for a keto cake that tastes as fabulous as it looks, without all the carbs? With my vanilla low carb cake recipe, you absolutely can! It’s got three moist layers, that classic yellow cake flavor, and creamy cream cheese frosting. Plus, I love that I can make the batter all in one bowl. I think this is the perfect keto birthday cake. Make it with me for your next special occasion!
Why You Need My Keto Cake Recipe
- Moist, fluffy, and sweet – To me, the best keto cake is about the texture, as well as sweetness without any weird aftertaste. So many of them are dry! This one is extremely moist and fluffy, with a light, tender crumb, and a sweet vanilla flavor. What you won’t taste is any bitterness or cooling effect — I can’t stand those!
- Keto friendly and gluten-free, but also family friendly – With only 2 grams of net carbs per slice, this cake fits perfectly into your keto lifestyle without feeling like you’re missing out. But with a large cake like this, I think it’s just as important that you won’t be the only one wanting to eat it. My family and friends happily do!
- Great for any occasion – I first made this recipe as a keto birthday cake, but have since served it for other holidays as well. It’s a great keto dessert for any celebration you have coming up.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Here I explain the best ingredients for my low carb birthday cake recipe recipe, what each one does, and substitution options. For measurements, see the recipe card.
Keto Cake:
- Low Carb Flours – I use both my Wholesome Yum Blanched Almond Flour and Wholesome Yum Coconut Flour for this recipe, because the texture turns out so much better than using one of them alone. The almond flour is particularly important because many brands are too coarse and will leave your cake grainy, and in fact this is why I created the Wholesome Yum version. YMMV with other brands! Steer clear of almond meal as well, which is the worst for texture. If you want a cake that uses just one of these flours, browse my other almond flour recipes or coconut flour recipes for other options.
- Besti Monk Fruit Allulose Blend – My go-to sweetener for every low carb cake I make, and there’s a reason. Not only does it taste and bake like sugar, it keeps your cake super moist. I’ve tried so many other sugar substitutes, and the result is much more dry (sometimes even gritty) with most brands. If you still want to use something else, check my sweetener conversion chart to get the right amount.
- Unsalted Butter & Salt – I add salt separately to control the flavor, but feel free to just use salted butter. If you’re dairy-free, coconut oil is a decent stand-in, but keep in mind, it’ll change the flavor and texture a bit. Oh, and you’ll need to find a dairy-free option for the frosting, too!
- Eggs – You need a lot because of the coconut flour. I have a list of egg substitutes here, but with the number of eggs in this keto cake recipe, I don’t think they would would work here.
- Almond Milk – You can use store bought or my homemade almond milk, just make sure it’s unsweetened. You can also swap in other keto-friendly milks, like coconut milk beverage (the liquid kind from a carton, not the thick kind from a can) or watered down heavy cream.
- Vanilla Extract & Baking Powder – I like this brand of vanilla and this non-GMO baking powder.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Cream Cheese – Go for the full-fat stuff if you can; it’s richer and just works better with the keto cake.
- Besti Powdered Monk Fruit Allulose Blend – Unlike other powdered sugar alternatives, this one dissolves completely (read: no gritty texture!) and is truly as fine as powdered sugar. Others can crystallize, too, so I highly recommend using this one.
- Butter & Vanilla Extract
Free Printable: Low Carb & Keto Food List
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Frosting Variations:
Not a fan of cream cheese frosting? You can make my keto buttercream frosting for something more classic, or keto chocolate frosting if you want a contrast to the vanilla. Throw on some sugar free sprinkles for a little extra fun!
How To Make Keto Cake
I have step-by-step photos here to help you visualize the recipe. For full instructions with amounts and temperatures, see the recipe card.
- Cream the butter and Besti. Use a hand mixer to beat them in a large mixing bowl, until fluffy.
- Add the wet ingredients. Beat in the eggs, almond milk, and vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients. Beat in the almond flour, coconut flour, and baking powder. The batter will be pretty thick — this is normal!
- Bake until golden. Divide the batter among 3 lined cake pans (I prefer springform pans for easy release). You won’t be able to pour it, so just spoon it in and smooth the top. After baking, let your cake layers cool completely.
- Make the frosting. While you wait for the cakes to cool, beat together the cream cheese, butter, powdered Besti, and vanilla extract in a large bowl, until smooth.
- Layer, layer, layer. Place one layer on a cake stand or platter and spread frosting on top. Repeat with the other two layers. Finally, frost the top and sides of your keto cake.
- Top with chopped pecans. My cake looked prettier with the nuts on top, and I didn’t have to obsess about making the frosting perfectly smooth. But, if your frosting skills are better than mine, feel free to skip the nuts and decorate the top however you like!
This low carb cake is tall, very rich, and filling, so I usually slice it into very thin slices for serving, but did slightly larger ones for these pictures. Here you can see the texture once you slice into it:
My Recipe Tips
- Use room temperature ingredients. Especially the butter, eggs, and almond milk. Your butter won’t cream properly if it’s cold. And if your eggs or milk are cold, they’ll solidify the butter as soon as you add them.
- Be careful not to overmix the batter. Overmixing can make the cake dense instead of light and fluffy, which is definitely not what we’re going for.
- Don’t forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl. I always recommend this, but especially here since we’re making this batter all in one bowl. If you don’t mind extra dishes, you could mix the dry ingredients separately first to reduce the amount of scraping you have to do.
- This keto cake is fragile, so I recommend springform pans. They make getting the layers out so much easier! You can use regular cake pans if that’s what you’ve got, though.
- Don’t have 3 pans? You can definitely make this keto cake recipe in 2 pans instead, or even a larger 9×13 pan for a sheet cake, like a reader asked me recently. (The baking time will vary, so you’ll need to check on it.) I don’t recommend waiting for layers to bake one at a time, though. I used to do this, but the baking powder isn’t effective in the batter sitting that long, so no longer do it.
- Rotate and swap the positions of the pans halfway through baking. Since you’ll have 3 pans in the oven at once, they’ll bake more evenly if you do this. Be quick, so you don’t let too much heat out!
Keto Cake (Very Moist, Easy Recipe)
By
This easy keto cake recipe is so rich, sweet and moist, that no one will guess it's low carb (2g net carbs per slice). Perfect for birthdays!
Ingredients
[ See substitutions ]Tap underlined ingredients to see the ones I use.
Keto Cake:
Cream Cheese Frosting:
Instructions
[ See step photos See my tips ]Tap on the times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer.
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Line the bottoms of 3 9-inch (23-cm) round springform pans with parchment paper.
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In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat together the butter and Besti, until fluffy.
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Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the almond milk and vanilla extract.
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Beat in the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt.
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Divide the batter among the 3 prepared pans and smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until the top is lightly golden and springs back.
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Meanwhile, make the frosting. In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, powdered Besti, and vanilla extract, until smooth.
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Let the keto 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 you like.
Did you make it? Leave a review or tag me @wholesomeyum on Instagram!
Maya’s Recipe Notes
Serving size: 1 slice, or 1/24 of entire recipe
- Tips: Check out my recipe tips above to help you avoid dense cake, keep your batter smooth, and options for different types of pans.
- Store or make ahead: You can make the whole keto cake birthday cake in advance and refrigerate until the day-of, or just store any leftovers. Either way, your cake will last up to 3 days in the fridge.
- Freeze: You can freeze this cake for up to 3 months. Place freeze it uncovered on a sheet pan first, uncovered to protect the frosting. Once solid, wrap in several layers of plastic wrap and foil to freeze long-term. Before serving, unwrap the layers and thaw in the fridge overnight.
- Note on nutrition info: The optional pecans are not included in the numbers below.
I provide nutrition facts as a courtesy. Have questions about calculations or why you got a different result? Please see my nutrition policy.
Add Your Notes Your Notes
Try More Of My Recipes
© Copyright Maya Krampf for Wholesome Yum. Please DO NOT SCREENSHOT OR COPY/PASTE recipes to social media or websites. We’d LOVE for you to share a link with photo instead.
Keto Cake
More Keto Cake Recipes
If you like this keto birthday cake, you might also like some of my other low carb cake recipes:
678 Comments
Stephanie
0This cake turned out remarkably well despite my initial doubts while spreading batter into the pans…batter was really thick and looked grainy. The only alteration to recipe was using Allulose instead of Erythritol. Batter definitely spread out and rose slightly while baking as I hoped. Instead of springform pans, I used two round 9″ pans (lined with parchment paper and buttered sides) and extended the bake time to 30 minutes. Edges browned nicely and it was pulling away from edges of the pan. Cakes popped right out of the pans once cool, and iced beautifully without getting crumby like some cakes. Though the color of my cream cheese icing changed slightly when I applied to the cake, together the final product tasted amazing! One would NEVER guess this is a gluten free cake. Thanks for the phenomenal recipe!
Stacy Lattanzio
0Making this now and I’m wondering if adding sour cream will make it a bit moister.. thoughts?
Ana Carolina Page
0I’m making this cake for my 1 year old ( his bday today ) I have been using almond flour for all my cakes and they turned out beautifully moist and yummy !! I can’t wait to see the final result 🙂 thanks for sharing this recipe .
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Stacy, This cake is not dry as is, but you can substitute a few tablespoons of the almond milk with sour cream if you wish.
Julie Hudson
0Question…is the batter really thick? Like almost like a paste consistency? Making right now and it is THICK…did I do something wrong?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Julie, Yes the finished batter is very thick. Did you check out the video? It will give you a good idea of the consistency of the batter.
Kaela
0Hello! If I wanted to make this in to a peanut butter flavoured cake, how much peanut butter would I add and how might I alter the recipe? I am trying to make it for Saturday for my mother in laws birthday. I have made this cake exactly as written several times and it is always delicious. I’d like to alter it to make it a peanut butter birthday cake!
Thanks!
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Kaela, I think for the best peanut butter flavor, I would use the peanut powder. Depending on how strong you want the flavor to be I would substitute 1/4 – 1/2 cup of peanut powder for the same amount of almond flour. Best wishes!
Hope
0Seriously the best keto cake ever… it has the same texture as regular sugar-filled cakes and was an absolute hit at my little brother and sister’s 7th birthday yesterday (they loved it and couldn’t tell it was sugar-free).
I used xylitol as my erythritol wasn’t enough for the cake (I used 3/4 cups), and I baked the cake in two square pans as i don’t have 8″ circle spring form pans (it needed to cook for 45 mins before it was ready though). I also added in keto confetti (colored unsweetened shredded coconut) to give it a fun childish look.
Thank you so much Maya for this amazing recipe!
Deanna Young
0We did not like this cake at all. It was grainy in texture like cornbread, but without any flavor.
Lydia
0This cake was delicious, but I was crunching on sugar, so I will use powdered in my cake otherwise it was good an moist
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Lydia, I’m glad you liked it! Did you use Besti sweetener? Besti should not have a crunchy texture at all, but other keto sweeteners definitely could.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Deanna, Sorry to hear that you didn’t like it. Did you use super fine blanched almond flour? It should not be the texture of cornbread, but this can commonly happen if the almond flour is too grainy to begin with.
Deanna Young
0The recipe didn’t say anything about super fine… It just said blanched. I did soft it as is normal practice in my baking but it didn’t seem to make a difference. there still wasn’t enough flavor in the cake itself. I understand it’s not going to taste just like regular cake. I just hoped it would be close enough as a decent base to add other things
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Deanna, Did you decide to make this recipe with egg whites only or as written? High quality superfine blanched almond flour makes positive difference texturally in baked goods.
Khampy
0Can this be done without eggs. I am allergic to eggs.
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Khampy, Unfortunately, I can’t recommend using egg replacer for this recipe. The large number of eggs are needed for structure.
Deanna Young
0Would you be able to use the dry ingredients in this recipe as a base for white cake? I think using the same amount of whites would work, but you would probably have to increase the milk as well…
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Deanna, I’m sorry, I have not tested this recipe without the yolks. Please let us know how it turns out if you decide to try it.
Jamie
0To me, three cups of almond flour seem like a lot. Have you (or anyone else) subbed in 1/2C of whey isolate and 1/2C oat fiber for 1C of the almond flour? I’m not sure what that would do the texture honestly, but I sometimes really don’t like the mouth-feel of too much almond flour.
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Jamie, I’m sorry, I don’t know how that would turn out. If you decide to try it, please let us know how it goes.
Sofia
0Hi,
Is the nutrition facts just for the cake or for the cake and the frosting?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Sofia, Nutrition facts include the cake and frosting. Enjoy!
m
0Made this cake for my hubby’s birthday last week and it was great! It was moist, not crumbly, and had the perfect sweetness to it! The only thing I did differently was adding a tbsp of key lime flavoring to the cake mix and to the icing, as well. Thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe! I will be trying new flavors and such, soon!
Andrea
0I run a bakery and had a request for a low-carb cake. This recipe was easy, the sweetener products I needed were in stock on Amazon and delivered next day, I baked it the first time without issue and even managed to pipe a frosting design with this recipe, adding just one additional 1/3 cup of powdered sweetener to the mix.
My client said she had to put it in the freezer to keep herself from eating it, it was SO good and not overly sweet.
Perfect in my book.
HillC
0Could I add lemon juice to this cake to make it a lovely lemon cake?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi HillC, You can add a tablespoon of lemon extract and the zest of a lemon.
lily
0hey is it ok if we use regular flour for this recipe. will it affect the cake?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Lily, I don’t recommend using regular flour. Wheat flour and almond flour have very different properties and will not produce the same results.
Fiona Glasgow
0Can I freeze half this cake?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Fiona, Yes. Slice into single servings to freeze. Enjoy!
Sjenkins
0Excellent cake. I didn’t have Erythritol so I used coconut sugar in cake and for frosting I use powered sugar 1/3 cup plus Agave syrup. So not sure how many more calories I added to the original recipe.
Ellie S
0Great recipe , tasted like a bakery made cake. I added fresh fruits on top and in the middle and it was a hit.
Anne
0Hey Maya! I made this cake (but with a keto chocolate buttercream frosting) last week and we were all very impressed with how it turned out! Three of the 6 adults don’t always follow a low carb lifestyle so are tough customers with most low carb desserts. I used two spring form pans to make the three layers, but am not sure why they’re necessary? It would be much easier for me to use regular cake pans going forward. Is there any reason in particular for using a spring form pan? Thanks again for a great cake recipe!
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Anne, A springform pan makes this cake super easy to remove from the pan. It’s very handy to have at least a couple of them in the keto kitchen.
Bethy
0This was surprisingly good! I’ve made some recipes from this website that didn’t turn out good but this one was really yummy! I used xylitol for a sweetener and I made two square pans. I didn’t use this frosting recipe but I did find another really good one. Thank you for making healthy food taste good!
Netta
0So delicious! This is now one of my favourite ever low-carb deserts by a lot. Thanks for the recipe! I didn’t want a big cake so made 1/2 the amount of cake and cooked it at all once (just needed a few minutes extra in the oven). I did find that I still needed 3/4 the amount of cream cheese frosting, so I do recommend to consider making extra of the frosting.
Denise Painter
0My thoughts on the size of cake. I’m glad you made it half the size, I was going to cook it all at once in a 9″ square pan.
Linda L.
0I made cupcakes and used them for strawberry shortcakes. Delicious!!
Gina
0I followed the directions to a T and the cake is dry and crumbly. I don’t get what happened?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Gina, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t turn out as expected. It sounds like the cake was overbaked and that’s why it was dry and crumbly.