Keto Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Name: Keto Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 85 min
Ingredients: 6 large eggs; ¼ cup whole milk; 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted (3 oz)); 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 teaspoons stevia glycerite ((heaping; equals about 3/4 cup sugar) ); 2 ¼ cups blanched finely ground almond flour (blanched, finely ground (9 oz)); ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt ((or ¼ teaspoon fine salt)); 2 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if needed); 1 cup unsalted butter (softened (8 oz)); 1/2 cup heavy cream; 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ((40g; use Dutch processed)); 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 tablespoon stevia glycerite ((equals 1 cup powdered sugar)*)

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This delightful keto birthday cake is made with almond flour. The fluffy yellow cake is frosted with a rich chocolate frosting.

A keto version of a beloved childhood cake, it's incredibly close to the real thing, saving you from the need to cheat!

A slice of keto birthday cake with chocolate frosting.

This cake is amazing. It's such a sweet victory to keto and gluten-free baking, that you can use almond flour and a sugar-free sweetener to produce a cake so fluffy, so flavorful, and so festive. 🎂

Last week, my husband celebrated his birthday. I made this keto birthday cake for him after he told me, a few weeks ago, about one of his fondest childhood memories.

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Grandma's cake
Ingredients
Instructions
Expert tips
Frequently asked questions
Variations
Storing leftovers
Related recipes
Recipe Card

Grandma's cake

As a kid, his grandma used to make his favorite cake for his birthday each year - a yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting. She added rum extract to that cake and decorated the chocolate frosting with sprinkles. He loved that cake and looked forward to enjoying it every year on his birthday.

Needless to say, after hearing that story, I was on a mission to recreate that experience for him! I had to make a few experiments, but the tasty result was well worth it.

This cake is wonderful. The yellow cake layers are tender and fluffy, and the chocolate frosting is super-rich. It's amazing that we get to enjoy such a wonderful cake on a low-carb diet and it's not even cheating!

Ingredients

Here's an overview of what you'll need to make this keto birthday cake. The exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below.

Eggs: I use large eggs in most of my recipes, this one included.

Whole milk: Just ¼ cup. If you object to using milk in a keto recipe, you can use heavy cream instead.

Unsalted butter: You could possibly use salted butter and omit the salt. But I haven't tried that.

Vanilla extract: Try to use the real thing - pure vanilla extract - and not the artificially flavored stuff.

Sweetener: I use stevia. I'm pretty sure you can use a granulated sweetener instead, but I haven't tested that.

Almond flour: I use blanched, finely ground flour. I don't recommend using a coarse almond meal in this recipe.

Kosher salt: If using fine salt, use half the amount listed.

Baking powder: Make sure it's fresh.

For the frosting: Unsalted butter, heavy cream, unsweetened cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and a sweetener.

Instructions

So how do you make a keto birthday cake? Scroll down to the recipe card for detailed instructions. It's actually not a difficult recipe. Here are the basic steps:

First, you mix the cake ingredients by hand, in one bowl (See? Easy!).

Next, divide the mixture evenly between two nonstick cake pans and bake it into two cakes. These will be the layers of your birthday cake.

Allow the cakes to cool completely. This is important. If you try to frost warm cakes, the frosting will melt away.

A photo collage showing steps 1-4 for making a low-carb birthday cake.

In the meantime, quickly whip up the chocolate frosting. You can mix it by hand.

When the cake layers are cool, assemble the cake: place one cake on a platter. Frost the top (as shown in the video below). Place the second cake on top of the first one and frost its top as well. Then frost the sides.

A photo collage showing steps 5-8 for making a low-carb birthday cake.

Expert tips

1. It's important to use nonstick cake pans in this recipe and grease them well. Butter works better than nonstick spray. I replace my baking pans once a year, so they are always brand new and super nonstick. A link to the pans I use is provided in the recipe card below.

2. If your pans are older, it's a good idea to line their bottoms with a circle of parchment paper after greasing them and grease the parchment too.

3. Note that the top of the cakes won't brown, even though they should be fully baked after about 15 minutes. This is fine, and in this particular case, the lack of browning is not an issue, because we are going to frost the cake anyway.

4. I recommend using Dutch-processed cocoa powder in the frosting (cocoa treated with alkali). It's milder and less acidic than natural cocoa powder. This is not absolutely necessary, but I tried both options, and I like the frosting better with the Dutched cocoa.

5. Make sure the cake layers are completely cool before frosting the cake or the frosting will melt as you spread it on the still-warm layers. You can speed up the process by placing the cakes, still on the cooling rack, in the fridge.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a sweetener other than stevia?

You can use a granulated sweetener in the cake batter, possibly adding a bit of milk (try 2 tablespoons) if the batter becomes too thick.

As for the frosting, you could try using 1 cup of a powdered granulated sweetener instead of the stevia and increasing the heavy cream until you achieve good frosting consistency. By how much? I'm not sure, as I haven't tried it. Perhaps start with adding ¼ cup of heavy cream.

What's the best way to frost a cake?

My best advice: Don't worry about it too much.

I'm not a professional baker. My cakes have a very homemade look - and I'm absolutely fine with that. If you're after perfection, the Internet is filled with helpful tutorials on how to frost a cake.

For example, if you want your cake to be perfectly straight, you should shave off the slight dome on top of the cake layers. And for a truly smooth frosting, you should brush away any crumbs and apply a thin layer of frosting (a crumb coat) before frosting your cake.

There are also techniques to smooth out the frosting so that it's completely smooth and perfect.

I don't do any of these things. My cake is imperfect.. and delicious. I mentioned the fact that the cake isn't "perfect" to my husband and he was like, "What are you talking about? My grandma's cake looked exactly like this!" But if you'd like to try, here's an excellent tutorial on how to frost a layer cake.

One tool I do use is an offset spatula (a product link provided in the recipe card below). It simply makes the task of spreading the frosting much easier. So I think it's worth it.

Can I use coconut flour instead of almond flour?

Unfortunately, you can't. These two flours are not interchangeable. Coconut flour is highly absorbent and very drying. If you'd like to bake a cake made with it, try this recipe for coconut flour cake.

Variations

Since I made this cake for my husband, I used rum extract instead of vanilla extract in the cake batter and in the frosting. But vanilla works too. Another good option is almond extract.
If you'd like to try lighter frosting, this keto chocolate whipped cream is amazing.

Storing leftovers

You can store the cake in the fridge, covered, for up to 5 days. I don't own a cake dome, so I cover the cake plate with an inverted salad bowl.

Do remember to take the cake out of the fridge at least an hour, and preferably 2 hours, before you plan on enjoying it. Refrigerator-cold frosting just doesn't cut it.