This classic yellow birthday cake resembles what my mom used to make, thanks to Pillsbury or Betty Crocker. My keto birthday cake is just as delicious but contains more nutrients! It's decked out with a rich chocolate frosting, moist yellow cake, and it's ready in one hour! This easy cake recipe is low carb, keto, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, and Trim Healthy Mama friendly.
Happy birthday to me! I'm 35 today and making my own keto birthday cake. I'm sure I will eventually regret disclosing how old I am publicly but I'm not there yet. Also, happy 8th birthday to my oldest daughter!
This post needed a bit of an update so I thought it appropriate to republish today, on my 40th birthday, five years after it was first shared! Happy birthday to me again. And my daughter is now 13!
That's right, I share a birthday with one of my babies. When I found out I was due with my second child near my birthday I really hoped I wouldn't have her on the same day. I wanted her to have her own day.
It turned out that it didn't really matter because it has basically become her day anyway. If my husband and I go out to celebrate my birthday we always celebrate before or after because I don't think it would be fair to leave her with a babysitter on her birthday. I'm looking forward to celebrating with her someday with a girls' lunch out and shopping at the mall but we aren't quite there yet.
The classic yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing.
My birth with my birthday baby was long. My water broke on a Friday night and she wasn't born until Sunday afternoon. After having her I was starving but by the time we transferred to the postpartum room the cafeteria was mostly closed. I remembered that there was a piece of hospital chocolate cake on my lunch tray that I didn't eat because, ya know, I was too busy having a baby.
I asked my husband for my cake. He looked at me wide-eyed and admitted he threw it out when he brought my stuff to the new room. I had just given birth, after many, many hours, on my birthday, and he threw out my pathetic piece of hospital birthday cake. It's funny now but I may have cried then.
Can you guess what flavor that was? Yup. Yellow cake with chocolate icing.
Keto Birthday Cake Ingredients
Almond Flour - Almond flour gives a tender crumb in cakes, cookies, and biscuits.
Coconut Flour - Coconut flour helps to balance the oiliness of almond flour since it is naturally drier and absorbs more liquid than other alternative flours. Just a little bit of coconut flour goes a long way.
Sugar-Free Sweetener - I like to use a blend of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia in my recipes. By using a combination of sugar alcohols and stevia you can use half the amount required of regular sugar. Since these sweeteners can be more expensive this helps with my food budget. You can purchase this pre-mixed from the Trim Healthy Mama website or mix your own according to my recipe.
Baking Powder - Typical cake ingredient used to help the cake rise.
Vanilla - With the price of vanilla rising I now use Mexican vanilla extract and have been happy with the results.
Butter - I don't think this one needs an intro. I always use salted butter and normally just buy the regular kind from Wal-Mart or Costco.
Eggs - Another typical ingredient used as a binding agent and to help the cake rise.
Yogurt - I used Organic Whole Milk Yogurt when making my birthday cake this year. My husband is a good cook but doesn't bake much so I tend to just make my own desserts. Including my birthday cake. Yogurt makes a cake moist the same way sour cream does. If you prefer you can use sour cream in this.
How to make a keto birthday cake?
It's not any harder to make a low carb birthday cake than a traditional flour and sugar cake. You mix up the batter with a combination of wet and dry ingredients, add some eggs and liquid, pour into baking pans and bake.
The difference is the ingredients that are used.
Step One: Beat together the butter and sweetener in a bowl with an electric hand mixer. Stir in the yogurt and vanilla. Beat in the eggs next, continuing until everything is well mixed.
Step Two: Add the flours, baking powder, and salt, beating until combined.
Step Three: Divide the cake batter evenly among 4 round cake pans lined with parchment paper and cooking oil spray. Spread the batter out evenly.
Step Four: Bake at a temperature of 350°F for 20 to 22 minutes until the surface is golden when lightly pressed with your finger. Cool thoroughly.
Ingredients for Sugar-free Chocolate Frosting:
Butter - I use regular store brand salted butter
Powdered sweetener - a store-bought powdered sweetener works best for icings. It is hard to grind your own sweetener to a fine enough consistency.
Cocoa powder - any brand is fine, choose one that isn't bitter when possible.
Half and half or heavy cream - half and half is half cream and half milk
Whole milk yogurt or sour cream
Sugar-free chocolate chips or chocolate shavings, to garnish, if desired
Expert Tip: Making chocolate shavings is very easy! Simply run a vegetable peeler along the edge of a chocolate bar.
How to make Keto Chocolate Frosting:
This is a basic buttercream-based recipe that has butter combined with powdered sweetener. Adding in cocoa powder makes it chocolate and adding a little yogurt or sour cream balances out the sweetness. It just takes a few minutes and an electric mixer.
Variations
Icing: More varieties of icing to try include Caramel Icing, Keto Cream Cheese Frosting, Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
Sprinkles: I get sugar free sprinkles from Etsy. They are made by hand in the US.
Common Questions
Tips for Making a Yellow Cake
Yellow cakes get their color from the yolks of the eggs paired with the butter so make sure to use real butter and whole eggs for this recipe. Alternatively, white cakes like my keto vanilla cake use just the egg whites and coconut oil for a whiter color.
Can I make this with 2 layers? Or 3 layers?
There is something special about layer cakes. And the more layers the better in my opinion. A three-layer keto cake just seems fancier than a two-layer cake. And a four-layer cake beats them all. Since I have four round cake pans I decided to go fancy and make myself and my daughter a four-layer keto birthday cake. If you prefer you can make this a two or three-layer cake, just adjust the baking time accordingly.
How About Cupcakes?
Yes, this batter can also be used for cupcakes!
And if a big cake is just too much check out my adorable birthday themed Keto Mini Cheesecakes!
I hope you love this Keto Birthday Cake!
If you want to try a different low carb birthday cake recipe for your next celebration be sure to check these out:
Low Carb Cupcakes with Strawberries
If it's your birthday Happy Birthday from me!
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Keto Birthday Cake
Ingredients
Yellow Cake Ingredients:
- 4 oz salted butter softened
- ½ cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
- 6 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup whole milk yogurt
- 2 cups almond flour
- ½ cup coconut flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Chocolate Icing Ingredients:
- 4 oz salted butter softened
- 1 cup powdered sweetener
- ½ cup cocoa powder sifted
- 4 tablespoon half and half
- 2 tablespoon whole milk yogurt
- sugar free chocolate chips to garnish, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter and sweetener until light and fluffy. Add the yogurt and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each. Stir in the flours, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined. Divide batter between 4 round cake pans lined with parchment paper and cooking spray.
- Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and the edges are golden. Cool completely.
- Icing Instructions: Beat the butter and sweetener until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and half and half. Beat until smooth. Add the yogurt. Use to ice the cooled cake.
Notes
Nutrition
Published on January 18, 2017. Revised and Republished January 18, 2022.
Gina says
Made this for a close friend's birthday who is following keto. We all loved it. It was so delicious, and my friend was happy to have a keto version of their favorite cake!
Karen Massaro says
I'm a home based baker in northern CO & am starting to add Keto friendly baked goods to my menu. I'm hoping that offering any of Taryn's Keto friendly goodies will bring in new customers & this birthday is a wonderful place to start.
I'll be baking this this weekend!
Thanks for offering such a wide variety of Keto friendly recipes!
Angela says
Can i use nonfat Greek yogurt??? It’s all I have?
Taryn says
Yes, that should be fine.
Emily says
If I wanted to make this cake for my son’s first birthday and plan on making it look like a “donut” using premade Bundt pan, do you think the consistency would be ok? Should I do anything different since it wouldn’t be cooked in layers?
Taryn says
I would make this instead (sub almond milk for the lemon juice and vanilla for the lemon zest) because it is made for a bundt pan. Joyfilledeats.com/lemon-drizzle-cake
Brittany Pate says
I'm mainly interested in this recipe because of the use of almond flour, so I wanted to know if it would be ok to use regular sugar. Thanks!
Taryn says
I have not tested this with regular sugar but I think it would work. Use 1.5 to 2 times the amount listed.
alex says
How many carbs total is the cake?
Taryn says
It has 12 servings. Carbohydrates: 10g and Fiber: 4g per slice. So, 120 carbs, 48 fiber for the whole cake. Which equals 72 net.
Nikki says
Hi! How could I use monk fruit sweetener with this? It’s a 1:1 ratio to sugar. Thank you.
Taryn says
You will need more. Try 1.25 to 1.5 times the amount listed.
Vicky Davis says
Planning to bake for a friend's birthday. What size cake pans do you use?
Taryn says
Standard round pans. 8 or 9 inch work.
Vicky says
Thank you!
Brittany mize says
Is the carb count per one piece or the whole thing ?
Taryn says
1 piece. This has 12.
Michelle says
In the frosting, could you use heavy cream in place of the half and half?
Taryn says
Yes
Regis says
Can I substitute Swerve for the frosting? Granular or powdered? Thanks!
Taryn says
Yes. I'd use powdered.
Jennifer Bergen says
Is the batter supposed to have a ricotta cheese consistency?
Taryn says
Yes
Nicoleta Roata says
Made this cake for my sister's birthday! she loved it! she is not doing Keto, but enjoyed it very much.
We came very short on the icing (only for 2 layers), so we made a vanilla version of the chocolate icing and used both. We also played around and made a chocolate glaze for the top.
Best Keto Cake recipe! thank you
Shurran says
Nice! How long did it take for 2 layers to cook?
April says
I agree....the more layers the better! This cake looks phenomenal - I can't wait to try it!
Nellie Tracy says
For real no one knew it was keto! It is that good!
Tayler Ross says
I am loving all of those layers! Anyone would love to have a cake like this for their birthday!
Tesa says
Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is my husband's favorite but he is on the keto diet, so for his birthday, I was really hoping this cake would be a good stand-in. Perhaps I was expecting too much or my hopes were too high but the cake didn't really taste much like yellow cake. Also, it's probably because I pulverized erythritol in my ninja blender for the frosting, and it was grainy, but I'm sure if I had used the ingredients that were called for in the icing, it would have been better.
Taryn says
Adjusting your taste buds to keto baking always takes some getting used to. There is no way to put this side by side with a traditional sugar and flour cake and expect to compare them. It's apples vs oranges. But yes, the frosting would've been better if you used the ingredients listed.
Carol Bistany says
Can I use a 9x12 pan instead?
Taryn says
Yes, that should work. I'm not positive on the baking time though. I would bake it at 350 and check every five minutes once you hit the 20 minute mark.
Carol says
Thanks, Taryn. Baked about 30 minutes. Very good!
Veronica says
Do you think this would bake ok cooked in 2 cake pans or do you think it needs to be spread out into 4 to bake properly? I only have 2 cakes pans 🙁
Also, if I use Super Sweet, do you think I should grind it to a powder first?
Taryn says
Yes, you can bake it in two pans but you will need to increase the baking time. I'm not sure super sweet will work in this icing. The icing may need the bulk of the gentle sweet. If you sub super sweet you only use half the amount.
Hope says
How much is a "stick" of butter? My butter comes in rolls.
Taryn says
4 oz or 8 tablespoons