Low Carb Shortcakes With Raspberries and Almond Cream

These little low carb shortcakes are perfect with any fresh berries, but I particularily love the fresh raspberry and almond cream combination.

This recipe makes easy to assemble desserts that you can prebake anytime you want. Slice them up, toss them into the freezer. Any time you want a fresh low carb dessert, just pull out your slices, let them defrost and add some whipped cream and fresh berries.

Easy peasy!

Keto Friendly Raspberry Shortcakes

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These shortcakes are low carb, keto-friendly, and gluten-free. At five net carbs per serving, it’s the perfect little dessert to have anytime you want a sweet treat.

The cakes are dense and moist and have great “shortcake” texture. The whipped cream is flavoured with almond extract and is thick, rich and decadent! The raspberries add that perfect tart contrast. It’s a wonderful flavour combination and although not a classic strawberry shortcake I guarantee if you like raspberries you will love this dessert.

Don’t let my pictures fool you, my raspberries were tiny! The dessert ends up being about 2 x 2 inches.

If you like raspberries, you might want to check out these recipes for later

If you are a raspberry fan, I have a few low carb desserts that might pique your interest for later. Like my popular raspberry cheesecake, or quick and easy raspberry pannacotta. If you find yourself with bucket loads of homegrown raspberries you could also make a shelf-stable raspberry jam (or try blackberry) to have on hand to make recipes like our coconut raspberry slice.

Can I make this Dairy Free?

Yup!

All you need to do is replace the butter with coconut oil, and the cream with canned coconut milk. You can also make the whipped cream filling by eliminating the cream cheese entirely. Use coconut whipped cream with a bit of vanilla and your favorite sweetener.

I would not add the almond extract to the coconut cream filling. Too many flavors and the coconut will fight it out with the almond extract and both together will slightly overwhelm the fresh raspberries. Vanilla works just as well! But it’s your shortcake, you do you.

What Sweeteners work best in this recipe?

For the cake base, use your favorite granular or powdered sweetener. I really like allulose or powdered erythritol for this recipe, but monk fruit, granular stevia, or even a combination of sweeteners will work.

For the whipped cream filling I like the powdered erythritol or powdered erythritol blend as it tends to be a bit smoother vs using the granular versions. You can use liquid sweeteners in the whipped cream filling too, they will not pose a problem.

Related: For more info on what products to keep on hand for low carb baking, check out my low carb pantry guide!

Can I use Raspberries, Blackberries, or strawberries?

What I like best about this recipe is the versatility.

This recipe works very well with any fresh berries, or even a compote like rhubarb, or combination.

Usually, shortcakes are topped with fresh strawberries and plain old vanilla whipped cream. You know, classic, and there is nothing wrong with a classic, but sometimes you want something a little more snazzy.

So if you want to add a bit of “something” and change your shortcake game up a bit, try one of these flavourings in the whipped cream topping.

Here are a few suggestions for flavouring the cream filling

• Strawberries – Vanilla Extract/ Peanut/ Orange/ Grapefruit/ Rose/
• Blueberries – Lemon Rind / Maple / Cinnamon
• Blackberries – Almond / Lime / Cinnamon/ Ginger (I LOVE ginger with blackberries)
• Rhubarb – Cinnamon/ Caramel/ Orange/ Walnuts

Baking Tips for the Low Carb Vanilla Cake Base

A few tips for baking the low carb shortcakes to perfection.

• Be sure to sift all your dry ingredients. This adds a bit of air into the mixture and helps with lift. It also removes unsightly lumps.
• Whip the wet ingredients until light and fluffy. Again, this helps to add air.
• Don’t skip the apple cider vinegar. It helps the baking soda out and aids in the rise of the cake. You can replace the apple cider vinegar with lemon juice if you want. You cannot taste the ACV in the cake after it is baked.
• Do not skip the xanthan gum. Without gluten, we need something to hold the cake together. Xanthan gum does an excellent job of replacing gluten in this recipe.
• When you mix the wet ingredients into the dry, only mix until combined. Do not over mix. The cake batter will be very thick. This is ok, that’s how the batter should be.
• Be sure to prepare your pan well. Grease it well, and add a piece of parchment to make sure it does not stick and lifts easily out of the pan once cooled.
• When the cake comes out of the oven, place a clean dishcloth over the top and gently press down to even the cake out.
• Let the cake cool, and once cool wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 1 hour. Or freeze overnight and allow to cool for 15 minutes before slicing.

Short Cake Assembly

The assembly is easy. Cut the frozen cake into a 4×4 grid or 16 pieces. The cake, when cooled, cuts exceptionally well with barely any crumb at all.

Each piece is then cut across the horizontal to three slices. You can slice the whole cake up and place them into a freezer bag and pop them back into the freezer for when you want a spur of the moment shortcake.

You do not have to get fancy with the whipped cream. Simply smear a good rounded tablespoon over the base cake layer and top with fresh raspberries.

Add the top piece of cake, and more whipped cream and more berries.

I like to use a piping bag so the short cakes look neat. I mean I am not breaking out the piping bag for myself, or my husband, but if I was serving these I would use a piping tip to make it look fancy.

Storage & Serving Suggestions

I would make low carb shortcakes as I need them. They do hold up pretty well in the fridge overnight, but the cakes do start to get a bit soggy after day two.

The baked cakes can be frozen and can last well up to two months in the freezer if they are sealed very well.

I see these being a great little dessert after a summer BBQ!