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I first made this easy strawberry lemonade cake recipe over Father’s Day weekend last month. I don’t make cakes very often, but a celebration like that was a wonderful excuse to do it!
Strawberry lemonade cake is all about the flavors of summer: sweet strawberries and tangy lemon. The lemon cake is light and airy, with a creamy fresh strawberry frosting and a layer of fresh strawberries in the middle. It’s such a wonderful way to enjoy both fresh strawberries and fresh lemons!
Fitting a homemade strawberry lemonade layer cake recipe into ten ingredients wasn’t easy. There are multiple flavors required here, plus I wanted the texture to be just like “real” cake. I started with my gluten-free birthday cake recipe as a baseline and made several modifications to transform it into a strawberry lemon cake. It turned out to be a big success!
To be honest, I had to stretch my definition to make this recipe for strawberry lemonade cake. It does have ten ingredients, but it also has salt and optional lemon zest. I never count salt in my list of ingredients, which is pretty common for recipes.
The lemon zest is optional here to keep it under ten ingredients, but I do recommend using it if you can. It’s wonderful for adding more lemon-y flavor! You could also use lemon extract instead.
There were only seven of us at our Father’s Day gathering – my husband, daughter, and I, and all of our parents. Needless to say, an entire full-sized cake was too much to finish. And, this low carb strawberry lemonade cake is quite filling! Everyone loved it, but of course there was plenty left over. Unsure what results to expect, I decided to freeze the remainder in individual slices.
I’d forgotten all about it, until last week, when we had some friends over for dinner. I didn’t have time to make a sugar-free dessert, so I crossed my fingers and grabbed the strawberry lemonade cake slices from the freezer to thaw. I was excited and surprised when I found out that they were still delicious as ever! The fresh strawberries were much softer, of course, but still sweet and flavorful. The cake itself was incredibly moist. Even the frosting maintained a good texture. Awesome!
Strawberry Lemonade Cake Recipe (Low Carb, Gluten-free, Sugar-free):
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| Servings | Prep Time | Cook Time |
| slices | 20 minutes | 20 minutes |
| Strawberry Lemonade Cake Recipe (Low Carb, Gluten-free, Sugar-free) This easy homemade strawberry lemonade cake recipe needs 20 minutes prep time & 10 ingredients. No one will guess it's low carb, sugar-free & gluten-free!
|
- 1 1/3 cup Erythritol
- 3/4 cup Butter (softened)
- 8 large Eggs
- 1/3 cup Sour cream
- 3 tbsp Lemon juice
- 2 tbsp Lemon zest (optional, but recommended)
- 3 cup Almond flour
- 1/2 cup Coconut flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp Gluten-free baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Sea salt
- 1 1/4 cup Strawberries (sliced thinly)
- 1/2 cup Strawberries
- 1 1/2 cup Powdered erythritol
- 2/3 cup Sour cream
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 cup Heavy cream
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottoms of two 9" round springform pans with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat together the butter and erythritol, until light in color and slightly fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
- Beat in the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, and sea salt.
- Transfer the batter to the lined pans and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Puree the strawberries in a blender. Add the powdered erythritol, sour cream, and lemon juice. Puree again until smooth.
- In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat heavy cream until very stiff peaks form.
- Gradually fold in the strawberry mixture, 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time, being careful not to break down the whipped cream.
- Let the cake layers cool separately to room temperature.
- Frost the bottom cake layer first. Arrange sliced strawberries over the frosting, then top with the second cake layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Net carbs per slice: 5g
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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 strawberry desserts? Try these:
Pilan says
Okay, I’m going by your recipe, and have the sweetener and butter mixed up. However, it’s not really fluffy. So I went back and looked at your list of ingredients. I see powdered for the icing, but you just have listed the Erythritol sweetener. But the Erythritol name has a link and it links to amazon for a bag of POWDERED sweetener. Help!!!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Pilan, The recipe uses granulated erythritol for the cake and powdered (confectioner’s) for the frosting. On the recipe card, the Erythritol link will take you to the granulated version, and the Powdered Erythritol link will take you to the powdered version. As for the second step, just beat the (softened) butter and erythritol for a couple minutes until it’s all incorporated and the butter is a little lighter in color. Hope that helps!
Pilan says
Thank you so much for responding. But, I had already done the mixing and am glad it was right. I have to say… OMGosh it’s delicious, delicious. I have not had cake in an 1 1/2 years. This one is so delicious.
I might make the two tier wedding cake flavor. I’ve got permission to anything pretty much and looking forward to being creative like this again. It’s delicious plain.
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Pilan! I’m so glad it turned out well for you. Enjoy!
Emilie Bailey says
This looks so summery and light! I can’t wait to try…I have some lemon lovers in the house that will go crazy for this!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Emilie! Enjoy!
Sharon Campbell says
Can I use almond meal? I don’t want to waste all the ingredients if I can’t. Thank you.
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Sharon, You could – the taste will still be good, but the texture will be different. For a fine crumb cake (texture like you’d expect from cake and appearance like the pictures), I’d recommend finely ground blanched almond flour. I like this one or this one.
Sharon Campbell says
Thank you. I will try it with almond meal, it’s just for me!
Karly says
What!? This is like my dream cake! Can’t believe how much healthier it is than your average dessert, but looks even more delicious. Need to make this ASAP!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Thank you, Karly!
Paige says
Can you please include the serving sizes on your recipes? I would love to try them, but I was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and celiac, so I need to know the serving sizes. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Paige, Absolutely! I’d like the serving size to be listed on the nutrition label itself, but the one I’m using currently doesn’t support having it on there directly. Instead, I have the serving size listed in 2 places on the recipe card – under the # of servings (for example, if it says “16 slices”, then 1 slice is a serving) and below the nutrition label where the net carbs are listed (if it says “Net carbs per slice”, then a serving is a slice). In this case, one serving is a slice the size of 1/16 of the entire cake. Feel free to ask in the comments of any recipe if it’s not clear. Hope that helps!
Steve says
I tried this cake yesterday and I believe followed the recipe closely but it didn’t come out too well. When I mixed the cake ingredients, the consistency of the batter was very thick and once cooked, the consistency was heavy, heavier than corn bread. What do you think went wrong? Any suggestions?
Maya | Wholesome Yum says
Hi Steve, Sorry you ran into issues with the cake. The batter shouldn’t be too thick (it’s a medium consistency, not very thin but not very thick either). It’s hard to say what happened without being in the kitchen with you, but the difference might be due to the brand of coconut flour or possibly smaller eggs than mine. I’d suggest adding a little more sour cream next time if the batter is thick. Also, make sure you mix the dry ingredients well so that the baking powder is well incorporated prior to baking. Finally, coconut flour does continue to thicken batter as it sits, and the baking powder reaction starts, so make sure to put it in the oven right away (don’t leave the batter sitting out). Hope that helps.