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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
Yanitza
0Can you sustitute the almond flour for any other flour? I have the coconut flour. Just can find the other flour. Thank you
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Yanitza, Sorry, you need both flours in this recipe. Almond and coconut flour are not interchangeable. Sunflower seed meal is sometimes a possible replacement for almond flour, but typically that is even harder to find. You can make your own by grinding sunflower seeds, but making it fine enough in a home setting can be challenging.
Becky
0Can I use a baking blend trim healthy mama? It’s a blend, keto friendly, and if so how much?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Becky, No, you’d need a different recipe designed for the THM blend.
Noice Broice
0Hey, nice job with the recipe!
I approve
Patricia Jones
0I made this into 24 cupcakes and they are delicious. We don’t like frosting and didn’t make that. Can you tell me the nutrition info for the frosting only please? Thank you very much, we enjoy your recipes ❤️
Holly
0How long did you bake the cupcakes and at what temp?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Patricia, Cupcakes are a great idea and glad you liked them! I don’t have nutrition info for parts of the recipe without some of the ingredients, but you could enter what you used into an online calculator if needed.
Selin Kilic
0Hi, I am really looking forward to baking this for my mum’s birthday next week and it definitely seems like the best and easiest keto cake on the internet! However, I was just wondering if I could also use powdered erythritol for the cake batter, or would it be better to just use granulated erythritol? Thanks very much.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Selin, Sure, you could use powdered. It’s usually a bit more, so I save it for uses where powdered is required.
Kathy
0My husband wanted waffles for breakfast this morning, so I cut the recipe down, substituted Truvia, and made it in my waffle iron. He said I better keep this recipe. I will definitely make it again.
Alyssa
0I just made this cake for my mom’s birthday and it smells amazing! I can’t wait to try it when we celebrate tomorrow. I substituted the erythitol for xylitol & used the recommended conversion. I am wondering do you make up the cake as a whole frosted and refrigerate? Or can you store the cake in the fridge and frost the next day? Which do you recommend? Thank you so much for creating this wonderful recipe btw! We’re all so excited to eat it!!!! Can’t wait to try out more of your recipes 🙂
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Alyssa, You could do it either way, but it’s better to frost the day-of to be safe, just to reduce the chance of the sweetener crystallizing in the frosting. Happy birthday to your mom and so thoughtful of you to bake a homemade cake for her!
Melanie
0When you are baking the cake the day before, do you frost the day of the party or the day of cooking the cakes?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Melanie, I usually prefer to frost it the day-of to be on the safe side and ensure the erythritol doesn’t crystallize in the frosting.
Donna
0Can you freeze the left over cake?
I will try making it again. Thanks
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Donna, Yes, you can!
Lauren
0Hi there, definitely trying this tomorrow. I couldn’t find straight erythritol where I live, so I bought the mix of erythritol and stevia. I do also have monk fruit and xylitol at home. What do you recommend I do? Cheers and thanks, Lauren
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Lauren, Any of those should work – just use the sweetener conversion calculator here to find out the amount depending on what you use (convert from erythritol to whatever you have).
Rosa McAllister
0Hi I was wondering if I can use sweet additions calorie free Stevia sweetener in this recipe
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Rosa, I haven’t heard of that one so am not sure. You probably could but the amount would be different and I’m not sure what the conversion is.
Ariana
0Hello,
Can I substitute the almond milk for coconut milk? I have some on hand already, but if the almond milk is a must for this recipe I’ll go ahead and get some.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Ariana, You can substitute coconut milk beverage (the liquid kind in a carton next to the dairy milk at the grocery store), but not the thick canned coconut milk.
Anna
0I must not have mixed the eggs enough as it was grainy and has a weird aftertaste, due to the stevia I think. It’s what I had on hand. Maybe I can cover with fruit or something. Bummed being all the positive reviews.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Anna, Not mixing enough can certainly have an issue, but more likely the problem was changing the recipe. Erythritol and stevia are definitely not a 1:1 replacement, so if that’s what you did I would expect an aftertaste and other issues. I hope you’ll get the chance to try the recipe as written – the reviews you see are for the original recipe.
Megan
0I am currently making this cake and the cake batter is very thick. Is it supposed to be?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Megan, Yes, the batter is fairly thick, but not super thick. You can thin it out a bit with more of the wet ingredients if it’s dense like cookie dough, though it shouldn’t be, but can vary based on the brand of coconut flour. I’ll be posting a video soon of what it should look like.
Selina Sarah Newell
0Hi! This is an amazing recipe! I’ve made it several times now. I’ve done a lemon blueberry version adding in lemon curd to the batter. Delicious! The nutritional facts you have provided -are they with or without the frosting? Thanks so much.
Liz Pat
0Lemon curd!!! My sister would love that, how much did you add?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Thank you so much, Selina! The nutrition info includes the frosting.
Fran
0Hi! Thank you for your recipe. Can I bake it in sheet cake pan without any altering of texture, taste, or flavor?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Fran, Yes, you can. You might need to adjust the baking time.
Lorri
0Trying this for a bday girl (17) and want to know what temp/time conversions for 9×11 pan instead? Recently (1month) started Keto and getting the family converted a little at a time. Loving your recipes so thank you for all you do!!
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Lorri, You can use the same temperature as the recipe card says. I haven’t tried that pan size to say how long it would take, so you’d have to just monitor it. It’s done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean, and the top is golden and spring-y to the touch.
Carmen Martinez
0My husband made this for my birthday what a beautiful and delicious surprise!
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0How thoughtful of him, Carmen! Happy birthday!
Diana
0Hi Maya
Can I use granulated xylitol instead of erythritol for the cake?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Diana, Yes, you can. Check the conversion calculator here.
Sheri D. Patten
0I Buy the Swerve Vanilla cake mix but it wasn’t going to be in on time for a birthday I needed to make a cake for. So I experimented with this recipe. OMG! It was a huge success and hit with me family and Co-workers who do more Keto foods. So I made the cake with this recipe and needless to say, the cake was gone and raving reviews. thank you so much for sharing this. it is now my go to for a vanilla cake mix.
SHERI
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0I love to hear that, Sheri! Thank you!
Mandy H
0Well after following the instructions, and putting the cake in the oven, on washing up I found 1 large egg!!! Cakes seem to be coming along nicely even though one egg short!!!
I’m only doing a two layer cake for my hubby for his birthday, the other layer will be portioned for my newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic son for his lunches. Two birds one stone! My son can cook but is new to keto, i’m hoping to leave him with some recipes and links before I return from UK to Portugal. Hoping I’m setting a good example for my sons future health.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0I am glad you liked it, Mandy, even without the egg!