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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
Janet
0Why does this recipe call for erythritol? That is a sugar alcohol I am trying to avoid, and I thought this was the purpose of allulose and monk fruit? I am also wondering about the allulose monk fruit blend. Is there a reason for that, or can I use all of one or the other?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Janet, This recipe does not use any erythritol, though some readers have made it using that. My recipe uses Besti as the sweetener, which contains no sugar alcohols and makes the cake more moist.
Carolyn Jorgensen
0Could this be made in a 9x 13 pan? I have a silicone one also. I do keto
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Carolyn, Yes a 9×13 pan would work, but the baking time may be different. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
AJ
0The Very Best!!
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. It was fantastic!!
I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect! He loved it so much, it has been a weekly request. Initial, the ingredients were costly but now that I have most of them, it’s not too bad.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge of low carb recipes!
Ann
0Just made this cake. My husband’s A1C had gone up; he is diabetic. We were trying to ensure that everything we eat is very low carb/ no sugar. This cake is delicious!!!! I’m finding it hard to save it for him. It is so moist. We love it! Thank you so much for your recipes!
And….it had no impact on his sugar after eating. Win/Win!
Deborah
0My husband is a diabetic and he says that this cake tastes like a homemade cake. He is happy to be able to eat a cake without fear of raising his blood sugar. Thanks
Valerie
0Can these be made into cupcakes? If so, how long would I bake them?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Valerie, Yes, feel free to make cupcakes if you like! They’ll probably take about 25-30 minutes, but I would start checking at 20 minutes just in case.
Sean E
0Nice base recipe! I modified for banana cake… cake recipe: added 2 ripe bananas, replaced butter with coconut oil and reduced almond milk by half; icing recipe, reduced cream cheese and butter by half and added a combo of greek yogurt and raw coconut butter to replace.
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Modified Cake Recipe
1.50 cup (28g), Unblanched Almond Flour
0.25 cup(s), Organic Coconut Flour
0.50 cup(s), Monk Fruit Erythritol Blend
2.50 tsp, Baking Powder0.25 tsp, Sea Salt
4 large, Egg
2 medium, Banana
0.125 cup, Almond Milk – Vanilla – Unsweetened
4 tbsp, Virgin Coconut Oil
15 gram, Vanilla Bean Paste
Icing Recipe
0.33 container (16 tbsp ea.), Organic Cream Cheese
2 tbsp, Raw Coconut Butter
1.50 tablespoon, Butter, salted
0.5 cup, Greek Nonfat Yogurt Plain
0.33 cup(s), Powdered Monkfruit Sweetener
Serving size 1/9 of 8×8 square pan: calories 322, fat 26g, carb 31g (fiber 4g), protein 10g
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Thank you for sharing, Sean! Just a note for other readers, this modified recipe sounds delicious but would no longer be keto friendly.
Nadia
0Why so many eggs? Will additional milk substitute for some of the eggs?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Nadia, This recipe uses a lot of eggs because there is a lot of flour, and particularly because one of the flours is coconut flour, which requires a lot of eggs. You might get away with replacing 1 or 2 of them with milk, but I wouldn’t do more or your cake will taste wet and fall apart.
Dilia
0Best keto cake I had. It’s soft and moist.
Linda Blaksley
0I love this cake. I made it for my birthday with only one addition. Blue food coloring for a “Frozen” cake as per my granddaughter. There were 2 cakes mine and a regular one for my nephew. My son and daughter in law ate mine and liked it. I cut the rest into serving slices and froze them so I could enjoy them when ever I craved something sweet.
Will
0Hi, Omg. That’s soooo many eggs… and cream cheese. I can’t afford that in just one recipe.Can I halve the recipe? And make a small cake? Or can I use less eggs? Coconut oil, I’ve discovered, is great in keto cookie and cake recipes so they’re not so dry. Perhaps I can replace some of the eggs with coconut oil? Thank as always, for replying.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Will, Yes, feel free to make a smaller cake by scaling down the recipe. I don’t recommend replacing the eggs with coconut oil. You can change the number of servings at the top of the recipe card that will reduce the amount of ingredients used.
Michelle McHugh
0Can this be baked as a sheet pan cake?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Michelle, Yes, you can. The baking time can vary, so you’ll need to check on it.
Kayla
0Hi, I accidentally ordered the Wholesome Yum Allulose powdered form instead of the Monk Fruit Allulose Blend. Would that work with the same or similar results?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Kayla, You could try but the results would not be the same. Powdered sweetener won’t create as much air when creaming with butter, so the cake would be more dense. You’d also need to use more plain allulose than monk fruit allulose blend – see the sweetener conversion chart here if you still want to use it. I’d recommend getting Besti to use for the cake an you can still use the powdered allulose for the frosting.
Anna Medvedeva
0Will this work if I split the sugar into half cup of the allulose and half cup of golden monk fruit with erythritol sweetener? I want more of a caramel flavour.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Anna, I don’t recommend erythritol as it’s drying and has a cooling effect. If you want a caramel/brown sugar flavor, I would instead recommend replacing 1/4 of the regular Besti (which contains allulose but is not the same as plain allulose) with Besti Brown sweetener.
Judie
0How do I adjust this recipe for two layers instead of three? Will using 2/3’s of the ingredients work properly?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Judie, Yes, feel free to make 2 layers. You could try scaling down the ingredients to 2/3 (the easiest way is to scale down the number of servings on the recipe card above), or you could just divide the batter into 2 pans and bake a bit longer. Let me know how it turns out!
Gen
0Oh wow, this cake was fantastic! The taste was wonderful and the texture was just perfect. Thank you for the recipe!
Sarita
0This was SO good – love the almond flavour and even my picky kids loved it!
jennifer fisher
0what a BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS celebration cake for spring!!! That keto-friendly cream cheese frosting was EVERYTHING . . I licked the bowl clean!
Addison
0This cake was so moist and flavorful! I appreciate that it is made with healthier ingredients.
Lisa
0My friends loved this birthday cake and couldn’t even tell it was low-carb.