An incredibly flavorful, moist and fluffy low carb pumpkin cake, made with almond flour and sweetened with stevia. Wholesome enough to serve for breakfast!
I based the recipe for this amazing low carb pumpkin cake on an old recipe I used to make – gluten-free pumpkin cake, made with almond flour and sweetened with honey.
That cake was wonderful, but it was not low carb, and my husband and I have become pretty strict about our low carb way of life.
The cake batter is thick – that’s okay
I made a few adjustments to the old recipe, and I am very pleased with this keto pumpkin cake. It is rustic, fragrant, and very flavorful. The batter is very thick! You would think it’s too thick, I almost added a little water to thin it out, but I’m glad I didn’t.
The cake comes out wonderfully fluffy and moist, with a beautifully textured top. You can leave the top as is, dust with a little Swerve Confectioners, or top with cream cheese frosting.
Personally, I don’t bother with frosting because I like to have this cake for breakfast, and frosting would firmly plant it in the “dessert” category. (The same is true for this wonderfully flavorful keto carrot cake, by the way, although I do frost that cake.)
I did some research. As it turns out, thick cake batter with adequate leavening results in a fluffy cake, while a thin cake batter producer denser cakes. So this explains why I love this low carb pumpkin cake so much.
So, is this low carb pumpkin cake any good?
I have two major tests when making a recipe, especially a sweet one, to determine if it’s truly good. The first: do I want to keep eating this? Is this something that I look forward to eating more of the next day?
A resounding yes on that one! I plan on having a big slice of this tasty cake tomorrow for breakfast, and I can’t wait!
The second test is the hardest one. Do my kids like this recipe? My kids eat lower carb than most, and mostly paleo. But they don’t eat as low carb as my husband and I, and therefore their palate is different than ours.
For example, while we love extra dark chocolate (Lindt 90% is our favorite), the kids find it too bitter. And unlike me, they’re not accustomed to having stevia as their main sweetener.
Well, the kiddos loved this keto pumpkin cake and asked that I include it in their lunch boxes tomorrow. 🙂
So there you have it – a low carb cake that passed the test of high-carb eaters. Now you know it’s good!
Is this low carb pumpkin cake healthy?
Well, it’s a cake. But for a cake, I think it’s healthy. It’s basically made of pumpkin, eggs, almond flour, and butter. All healthy ingredients (though Harvard experts still urge us to limit our butter consumption).
As for the sweetener, I believe that stevia is safe. And although many people object to its taste, the glycerite formulation greatly minimizes the bitter aftertaste.
Measure the almond flour by weight
This is a pretty straightforward recipe. The only tip I have for you is that you should measure the almond flour by weight (8 oz) and not by volume, for the best, most accurate results.
You can double the recipe and use the entire can of pumpkin
I like this low carb pumpkin cake so much, that I often double the recipe and make two cakes. I keep one in the fridge, slice the second one and freeze the slices in freezer bags.
Doubling the recipe has the added advantage of using up an entire can of pumpkin, instead of just 1 cup.
Since 1 can of pumpkin puree has about 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin (not two cups), I slightly reduce the amount of almond flour I use when doubling this recipe and use just 15oz instead of 16oz.
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Low Carb Pumpkin Cake
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, soft, for the pan
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup pure pumpkin puree (240 grams)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1.5 teaspoons stevia glycerite (equals 1/2 cup sugar)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/8 teaspoon sea salt)
- 2 cups blanched almond flour (8 oz)
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch pie plate.
- In a medium bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add the pumpkin puree, butter, stevia, vanilla and kosher salt. Whisk to combine.
- With a rubber spatula, mix in the almond flour until well combined and smooth, then mix in the pumpkin pie spice and the baking soda. Batter will be thick.
- Bake the cake until center is fully baked and a toothpick inserted in it comes out clean, 30-35 minutes.
- Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., has been following a healthy real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She has taken 
