Low Carb Red Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

This low carb red velvet cake is a new take on an old fashioned favorite. If you’re looking for a dessert that is as pretty as it is tasty, this might be the one.

This layer cake is completely refined sugar-free and void of gluten, but it has all the great tastes of a traditional red velvet cake.

Red Velvet – An old fashioned cake with simple flavors

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Red velvet is made with cocoa powder, vinegar, and buttermilk. In our version, we skip the buttermilk (too many carbs!) and replace it with soured heavy cream.

The bright red colour comes from food dye. If you are not a fan of food dye, you can use beet root powder, but I will tell you that it is going to change the flavor of the cake. I love my veggies, but I cannot stand beets, so you’re on your own testing that one!

What sweeteners work best in this recipe?

I used allulose for the low carb red velvet cake layers, but you can use whatever granular sweetener you like the best.

Stick with granular sweeteners so the ratio of wet and dry ingredients is balanced.

I used powdered allulose for the cream cheese frosting because that’s the sweetener I like best lately. It doesn’t bother my stomach, doesn’t raise my blood sugar, and tastes great. So I reach for it most often.

But for the frosting, you can use any powdered sweetener you want. Use the one you like best.

Low Carb baking Tips for a Good Rise & Moist Crumb

We have an entire post dedicated to tips and tricks to make your low carb baking rise and turn out perfect every time.

For this recipe we need to make sure that we add in lots of air to help the leveners do their jobs.

• The cake batter for this recipe is going to feel thick.  It won’t pour into your cake pans. You will need to spoon it in and level it all out. 
• You will also want to prep your pans with parchment paper and grease very well.
• To prevent over-browning of the sides and bottom of your coconut cakes be sure to wrap your pans with tin foil.  Coconut flour and some sweeteners tend to brown quickly. You can easily avoid this by using tin foil. 
• Don’t skip the xanthan gum. Xanthan gum adds structure and holds the recipe together.
• Whip lots of air into your eggs before adding other ingredients. Whipping lightens the cake batter considerably. 
• Don’t skip the vinegar.  You can substitute lemon juice, but the extra acid is required to help those dense flours lift and rise in the oven. 
• Be sure to sift all your dry ingredients.  Sifting removes the irritating lumps from the flours and adds more air to the final batter. 
• Ten minutes into baking cover the cakes with a piece of parchment paper or tin foil to prevent the tops from over-browning. 

• Once the low carb red velvet cakes are out of the oven and cooled, level them off with a sharp serrated knife and save the bits you removed in a separate bowl. We need those bits for decoration.

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Tips to make low carb frosting

Here are some tips to make sure your whipped cream frosting comes out perfect every time. 

1. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, whip cold cream cheese until it becomes spreadable. 
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all cream cheese bits are well blended.
3. Add the heavy cream, flavoring, and sweetener to the bowl and mix on low until whip cream starts to blend with cream cheese.  Add vanilla and emulsions and food coloring. 
4. Turn the mixer up and whip the mixture until soft and fluffy. 
5. If the icing begins to soften too much for spreading or piping, add it to the fridge for a few minutes to harden up a bit. 

Decorating a cake doesn’t get any easier than this!

Take the bowl of cake bits that you removed from the low carb red velvet cake layers when leveling and grind them into a medium to a fine crumb. Place the crumbs on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 300 F. This will help dry them out a bit.

If you find your cake bits are already dry enough you can skip the step above.

Frost the cakes, making sure to add a good layer of frosting between each cake. Smooth your frosting out, but no need to be fussy. The best part about this cake is it is old fashioned, so a bit of messy is excellent—no need to try to get perfection.

Once the cake is layered and coated with frosting use your cake crumbs and press them around the bottom of the cake into the frosting. Sprinkle the remaining bits on the top of the cake.

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Storage & serving Suggestions

Keep the cake covered in the fridge for up to four days. After the fourth day, the cake starts to lose its freshness.

You can also prebake the cake layers and freeze them for up to a month. To defrost, remove them from the freezer the night before you need them and allow them to defrost in the fridge.

Looking for More Low Carb Cake Recipes?

We have loads of low carb and gluten-free cake recipes for you!

• Super delicious Low Carb Coconut Layer Cake.
• Keto Lemon Cake With Lemon Curd Filling
• Our super popular Low Carb Birthday Cake
• Our lovely sugar-free Strawberry Shortcake Recipe
• And our Blueberry Loaf Cake