You know, just because you’re not eating sugar doesn’t mean you can’t have a great birthday cake. This sugar-free birthday cake is moist, has a really nice crumb and bakes up like a professional cake!
What does that mean? Well, it means that it bakes up perfectly flat, with perfect edges.
This cake is so easy to work with when it’s cooled. Stack it, fill it, decorate it, it works incredibly well and keeps its shape without being heavy and dense. It really is a nice cake to make for any occasion.
Who wants a sugar-free cake? I Do! I do!
If you’re focused on a sugar-free, low carb, or gluten-free diet, things like this sugar-free birthday cake are hard to find and come by. This is unless of course, you live in a major city where you can find a bakery that specializes. Not where I am!
This from-scratch recipe isn’t at all difficult and can be frozen in advance. Yup, you read that right, bake up a few layers, toss them in the freezer and pull them out when you are ready to work with them. Win-win-win.
Just a quick note, when the ingredients are mixed together, the batter will feel a bit thick. This is perfectly fine. The cakes still bake up quite moist and tender.
A Sugar-free icing replacement, better than the real thing.
You can ice this cake any way you want, it’s not too sweet, so a fruit filling would be welcome.
I used a simple cream cheese buttercream that I think is just the best thing ever. That’s a bold statement, but this “icing” is super creamy and a perfect combination to go with this vanilla birthday cake.
The icing is more like a stabilized whipped cream. It’s thick, spreadable, and you can use it in a piping bag with tips, but it does not have that cloyingly sweet taste that regular icing has.
You can, however, make it as sweet as you want to.
FROSTING TIPS AND TRICKS TO GET IT PERFECT THE FIRST TIME
Also make sure to grab whipping cream, not coffee cream.
I like to use a 36% fat whipping cream for this recipe, but if you cannot get your hands on 36% whipping cream, any cream that you can whip will be perfectly fine.
Keep all the ingredients for your icing cold cold cold, you want your cream cheese to come out of a cold fridge and go directly into the bowl. Cube your cream cheese first to make it easier on your mixer.
The frosting gets a bit stiff in the fridge but has a very similar mouthfeel to buttercream without an overly sweet bite.
I only add 1/2 cup of sweetener which makes for a slightly sweet frosting, if you want it punchier and super sweeter, add more sweetener!
Be careful to not overbeat your mixture. Overbeating will cause everything to liquify.
This frosting works great for decorating cakes or even cupcakes. You can see how well it pipes by check out my low carb roasted strawberry cupcakes.
WHAT TYPE OF SWEETENER IS BEST?
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Use your favorite 1:1 sugar substitute.
In the frosting, you will need to use powdered, or else your creamy frosting will be quite grainy and unpleasant. For the cake batter powered is preferred over granular.
If you don’t have powdered erythritol or xylitol and only have granular, go ahead and give it a blast with a high-speed blender, or food processor. My favorite powdered sweetener by far is So Nourished Monk Fruit Blend, I find it has almost no aftertaste at all.
Swerve and stevia will work perfectly fine here as well as does any powdered erythritol or xylitol.
Just remember, xylitol is poisonous to dogs and cats, so if that’s your choice and you have little furry friends running around, it can be deadly to them.
Let’s not forget about the sprinkles!
Sprinkles are the topping here, and no worries because they are also completely sugar-free.
If you’re interested in making your own low carb homemade sprinkles, I have the recipe for you. The best part about making your own is you can customize them to be any colour you want.
They do take a bit of time to dry so if you decide to make this sugar-free birthday cake with the sprinkles, make the sprinkles a day or two ahead of time.
Unlike sugar made sprinkles, these sprinkles are a bit more fragile and tend to melt a bit quickly. If you add them to ice cream, or on top of wet whip cream some of them will melt.
My cake required two coats of sprinkles because the first set melted, but it worked out very well because the outside icing ended up having that sweet icing taste, with a tiny bit of crunch.
The sprinkles held up like champs after that second coating, this photo was taken a few hours after I finished the second coat.
Sugar-Free Birthday Cake REcipe
This cake is rich and decadent. I wouldn’t call it healthy, but I wouldn’t say no to a piece either if someone offered it to me. Everything in moderation right?
I honestly believe a healthy diet should make room for celebration desserts. Just because you’re watching your carbs, or sugar, or have a gluten restriction doesn’t mean you have to miss out.
You can actually have your cake and eat it too, although if you ate the cake you wouldn’t have it anymore… (Oh now I get it! Ha…..)
Well, I guess that just means you need to bake another one.
Invite me over, I’ll bring the coffee!
Looking For More Cake Ideas?
Make A Sugar-Free Birthday Cake Everyone Will Love
A moist and delicious low carb birthday cake complete with creamy icing and sprinkles! This cake is sugar-free, gluten-free and keto-friendly.
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 3/4 cup erythritol (powdered)
- 3/4 cup butter
- 6 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup almond milk
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 3 cups almond flour
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Xanthan gum powder
- 1 TBS vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
Whipped Cream Frosting
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1/4 cup erythritol (powdered)
- 1 cup (8 ounces) cream cheese
Instructions
Cake Batter
- Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cake pans by well greasing.
- Add eggs to a mixing bowl and mix on high for 2 minutes.
- Melt the butter in the microwave, but do not overheat. We want the butter soft, but not too hot.
- Add 1 Tbsp vanilla, almond milk, melted butter, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar to egg mixture and blend until well incorporated.
- Sift almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, Xanthan gum, salt, and 3/4 cup powdered erythritol in a large bowl.
- Gently add the egg mixture to the dry ingredient mixture. Do not over mix.
- Divide batter between two 9 inch cake rounds ( or three 6 inch cake round).
- Bake in a 350F oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool on a cooling rack for about an hour before adding frosting
Whipped Cream Frosting
- Cube one cup of cold full fat cream cheese and add it to the bowl of a stand mixer and blend for 1 minute, until the cream cheese has no lumps. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
- Add 1 tsp vanilla and powdered erythritol.
- Add 1/2 cup of full-fat whipping cream to the bowl and mix on low for 30 seconds, until blended with cream cheese. Turn up to medium and then high until the whipped cream and cream cheese fluff up and resemble buttercream frosting.
- Do not overbeat. Over beating will cause the mixture to liquefy.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 14 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 386 Total Fat: 34g Saturated Fat: 14g Trans Fat: 1g Unsaturated Fat: 18g Cholesterol: 159mg Sodium: 281mg Carbohydrates: 10g Fiber: 3g Sugar: 3g Protein: 11g
this is amazing!! is there any way you could make this vegan? thanks xx
Hi Indy, I don’t specialize in vegan desserts. There are a lot of eggs in this recipe, and it’s the ingredient that helps bind it all together, give adequate moisture, bounce, and lift. Changing up the eggs to a substitute would require a lot of testing. Since the frosting is all pretty much dairy, making this vegan and keeping it remotely the same as the original would be quite unlikely. Sorry!
Just wondering if the flavour of the coconut flour comes through?
Hi Charissa, I can’t taste the coconut, but if someone really doesn’t like coconut, they might pick up on it. I asked a few people who have actually tested the cake and they all said they didn’t even know there was coconut flour in it, so I am going to say that it doesn’t come through heavily.
I wanted to do a cake in a giant cupcake mold, would this cake recipe work in one of those?
Hi Jenn, yes, it should work. Without trying it myself I can’t say for sure, but I have used this recipe to make a bundt cake, and it is similar. You may need to make two batches if the molds are bigger. I would wrap the bottom of the pans with double tinfoil to prevent over-browning. Almond flour and coconut flour will brown quicker, and since these cakes tend to have a bit more batter in them you will need to bake them longer. The tin foil will prevent over cooked edges. let us know how it turns out!
The almond milk that gets used… is it the full blown almond milk or would unsweetened work? TIA
Hi Sarah, unsweetened, or homemade without any additional sweeteners. I also sometimes use the unsweetened vanilla almond milk if that’s all you can find. Cheers!
I’m a little worried about the Apple cider vinegar, can you taste it? What’s the purpose in adding?
Thanks!
Beth
Hi Beth, you never actually taste the apple cider vinegar. Almond flour and coconut flours are heavy, and the levening agent ( baking powder) needs a bit of a boost to get going, so we need to add an acid. I like apple cider vinegar because I find I don’t taste it at all in the final product. You can replace the apple cider vinegar with lemon juice. The only thing about lemon juice, is you CAN taste it. At least I can, I find the lemon comes through and for this cake I wanted the vanilla to pop without a hint of lemon. Think of the vinegar as making a buttermilk cake. It’s sort of like adding vinegar to cream to create buttermilk, it works the same way in this recipe. I’ve had loads of people make this recipe and the reviews have been very positive. I haven’t had anyone comment at all about the apple cider vinegar. So your choice, if you want to use lemon, that will totally work. I wouldn’t advise to skip it, I’ve tested this cake I dunno, 20 times by this point, and I find the recipes made without the acid tend to be denser (and it’s already a dense cake), that acid really does help the baking powder do its job. I hope that helps!
Just wandered when you say add egg mixture are talking about the yolks too?
Hi Lisa, yup the egg mixture is the whole egg yolks and all. Cheers!
Hi Lisa, I’m a rookie to low carb baking.😔 I’m not keto but have been low carb & sugar free for a year now. My problem is trying to get these almond flour cakes to rise and not crash & burn. Just baked a chocolate birthday cake yesterday for a friend and it rose beautifully. After 30 minutes of cooling it shrunk 3 inches! 😭 I “used” to be an excellent baker w/ regular flour until I became healthier. Now all my cakes are too dense or fall apart. I use fine almond flour, cream cheese, extra eggs, butter, etc. but nothing is working because I don’t have the gluten of regular flour. How do I get these doggone almond flour cakes to rise and hold their consistency? Heeelp! 😫😫😫
Hi Kellie, I totally understand what you’re saying. I was the same way, I struggled and struggled. After testing a billion different things here is what I finally landed on that helps create a cake that actually rises and holds together.
I find the blend of coconut flour and almond flour helps with the heaviness. I also add Xanthan gum which replaces gluten and binds everything together. The difference even a little bit of Xanthan gum is surprising. I made this particular cake recipe not that long ago and forgot the Xanthan gum (bad me, I was rushing) and the cakes were very soft and crumbly. That lone tsp of Xanthan gum just pulls everything together. When you cut these cakes (with the xanthan gum added) they hold together exceptionally well. You can also test replacing gluten with protein powder, it does help with the binding, but I do not like the taste of protein powder in my baking, but lots of low carb bakers swear by it.
I also add a touch more leavening in my baking with extra baking powder (or soda, depending on the recipe). The extra oomph comes in the form of acid, I either add a bit of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, to give the leavening agents a bit of a head start.
A few more tips: I blend my eggs for a good 2 minutes until they are light and fluffy. I sift my flours, and my sweeteners very well, to make sure they have a bit of air in them, and prevent lumps. The other trick I use is only gently folding the wet ingredients into the dry. If you over blend, I find you get a heavier cake without a lot of oomph. I treat the cake batter like I would muffin batter, only mix until everything is wet. You get a better rise and a better crumb.
I do find when I remove my cakes from the oven, especially this particular recipe, I do press down my tops to flatten them out so they are level when I stack them. They do rise and I don’t find them as heavy as say a pound cake, but they are not light and airy either. The texture is somewhere in the middle.
You mention burning but I don’t know if you meant that literally or not. Almond flour and coconut flour do have a tendency to over brown, wrapping the pans in tinfoil helps to prevent that over-browning. It also helps to prevent the outside edges from drying out before the center is baked.
The only other tip I can offer is testing your baking powder (or soda) to make sure that it is still active. I hope this helps! If you have any other questions feel free to leave another comment or drop me an email anytime. Cheers!
Hi, your recipe directions for cake batter says add 1 tablespoon vanilla, almond milk, melted butter and vanilla to egg… is it 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of vanilla?
Hi Stacey, it’s 1 TBS of Vanilla. Cheers!
Hello, could you tell me how much salt? I don’t see it listed. Thank you.
Hi Brooke, it’s 1/2 tsp of salt. Cheers!
How do you make the roses on top
Hi Julie, those roses are just fake cake flowers you can pick up them up any cake decorating shop, or even on Amazon. They come in all kinds of different flowers, they are not edible, but they do add a bit of color to the top of a cake.
Hi
Does this cake need to be refrigerated?
Hi Caroline, yes it should be refrigerated. You can leave it out on the counter for the first day, but after that, I would keep in the fridge. If your house is really warm the icing will soften a bit too much. That frosting is a bit like cheesecake, and it just tastes better to me if it’s slightly cold. I’d slice it and let it warm up for a few minutes at room temperature before serving from the fridge. Thanks for asking the question. I will add that information to the blog post. Cheers!
Can you use cashew flour in place of the almond flour?
Hi Julia, you can. You can replace almond flour with the same amount of cashew flour. Cheers!
Hi Laura! I’m so glad I came across your recipe for sugar-free cakes and seeing your photos gives me a bit of hope that I can be able to do the same at home! I understand cakes inevitably need sugar in all recipes (because, science), but I wanted to bake something for my dad who is diabetic and I found your recipe! I saw your recipe uses erythritol and xanthan gum. Where I live, (luckily) I can find Stevia as an alternative to erythritol here but it’s a bit difficult to find xanthan gum. I wanted to know if it’s necessary to use it and if there are any alternatives for it specifically; You mentioned protein powders in another comment, can this be any kind of protein powder to replace the gluten? I’m a bit skeptical about using protein powders in baking.
Also, I’ve seen a few recipes using Stevia or other natural sweeteners but I’m not sure what it was that I was doing wrong; it either doesn’t rise or it’s dense (probably my mixing). After reading your pointers in the beginning, I’ll try again to make sure I don’t overmix it then, so thank you for the advice!
Hi Maryam, you can replace Xanthan gum with cornstarch or arrowroot powder. The corn starch will add carbohydrates, but in a large cake it shouldn’t be a huge impact, you will just want to calculate the change in the nutritional value for your dad. Although cornstarch and arrowroot powder are replacements, they do not give the same structure or hold things together quite as well as Xanthan gum would. I have not tested either of these in this recipe, so I can’t say definitively that it will work. But I would replace it at a 1:1 ratio if I was testing.
Protein powders work about the same as arrowroot powder would, it helps, but it’s not perfect. Personally I find protein powders add an off flavour to my baking and it’s why I don’t use it. It could be the brands I’ve used, but I don’t recommend it, but you could test it. Protein powders (specifically whey protein) substitute at a 1:2 ratio. For every 1 tbsp required in a recipe use 2 tbsp of protein powder.
Ground flaxseed, ground chia seeds and gelatin powder would all help. The ratios and totals would need to be tested, but just like arrowroot powder (or cornstarch), the structure will be better, but still not great.
To get the cakes light and airy and have them actually rise; sift the dry ingredients, beat the eggs a LOT to get them fluffy, don’t skip the acid (I use apple cider vinegar, but lemon juice works too), gently blending of the wet into the dry. This cake recipe bakes up and actually rises, I have to press down my tops to level them out before I decorate them.
I love that you are going through the effort of making a cake for your Dad, it’s incredibly thoughtful. I hope your cake turns out perfectly!
Hi,
This recipe sounds fab! A friend of mine suffering from diabetes asked me to bake her a cake. Would you recommend it? Also, I am in the UK and not really used to cups. How much would you say, 1 cup (3/4 and 1/4 of sweeter) is in grams?
Thank you in advance,
Julie
Hey Julie, I can’t say with any kind of certainty if this is going to work for a diabetic. It is low in carbs and sugars, but depending on the sugar substitute you use, it could impact blood sugar. I know some sweeteners impact blood sugar levels in some diabetics and not others. Before I made this cake for a diabetic, I would check and verify with them what sugar substitutes they know are ok for them. As far as grams go, it entirely depends on what sweetener you use, every single one of them would have a different gram measurement because some are granular, some are powdered, etc. If you let me know what substitute you want to use, I can do the measurement for you. Cheers!
It was okay, it needed to be sweeter and not enough icing
Hi,
Wondered if someone has a nut allergy will they flour in the recipe be a problem?
Hi Sam, this recipe is not suitable for anyone with a nut allergy as it is made with almond flour. Sorry, if you’re looking for a low carb sugar-free nut-free cake, you will need to search for a low carb coconut flour cake. Most people allergic to tree nuts can safely eat coconut, but it is best to double-check with the person with the allergy to be sure. I don’t have a recipe made with entirely coconut flour, but I bet another low carb baker, or nut-free baker will.
I like your guidance. I am not an experienced baker, and have been on a low-carb health plan for the last couple of years. I am a carb lover not a big eater so I sorely miss treats and occasional bread. Unfortunately, all the books and articles I’ve researched always call for all the many sweeteners I cannot ingest especially erythritol, monk fruit, and coconut oil. I strictly use Sweet Leaf Stevia as it has no aftertaste. I use it in my shakes, faux lemonade, etc. I desperately want to make some desserts for myself and grown Sons. I need your help to instruct me on how I can make the proper measurements to accommodate your recipes. Look forward to hearing from you.
Hi Cynthia, you ask a very good question.
So for me, I cannot eat stevia, I find they all have a horrible bitter aftertaste, even when blended with other sweeteners. I am also one of those people who think cilantro tastes like soap, so it could be all in my tastebuds. For this reason, I do not experiment a lot with Stevia so I don’t have lots of info or advice.
I recommend the sweeteners that tend to work best for each recipe, based on their properties. For example, my caramel recipes recommend using allulose. Stevia, erythritol, monk fruit, all do not thicken and carmelize when cooked. Erythritol will thicken, but when it cools, it crystallizes, for this reason, I really like allulose in the caramel recipe because it creates a caramel that tastes just like the real thing. If you tried to make that recipe with stevia, it just wouldn’t work.
For other recipes that use erythritol, monk fruit, allulose (etc) there is a bulking factor to take into consideration. If you replace 1 cup of bulk sweetener with a few drops of stevia, the recipe becomes unbalanced between dry and wet ingredients. This would cause your recipes to come out a bit softer, crumblier, or not hold together. It takes a bit of trial and error.
In recipes like pannacotta, or ice cream, or any liquid type of recipe, stevia would work. I would recommend adding a bit of glycerine, or alcohol to any ice cream or frozen custard-like dessert to make it softer.
Cheers
I just made this cake today, and it turned out super yummy!!! Thanks for the recipe.
So glad you liked it Ella!
Hi there. My daughter is diabetic and I have never baked anything before. But I am going to try this. Except she wants it chocolate. Just the cake part. How do I do that? Thanks!
Hi Lisa, I haven’t made this cake chocolate yet, but if I was going to test it I would add 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, and an additional 1/2 cup sweetener. The bitter chocolate needs to be offset with more sweetener.
This cake recipe isn’t exceptionally sweet, and although the reviews from the adults have been great, I’m not sure about the kids. So I would lean a little heavier on the sweetener.
Good luck! I hope it turns out wonderful for you.
You’ve got some great looking recipes and I can’t wait to try this 🙂 I have two questions please, whenever you have a chance:
1. Can I use regular milk instead of almond milk;
2. Does the nutrition info include the frosting (pleasesayyes pleasesayyes pleasesayyes) 🙂
Hi Mo, you can absolutely use regular milk, it’s higher in carbs, so you will need to factor those counts in. I sometimes use heavy cream (lower in carbs vs regular 2% or whole milk), and it’s a very nice addition. The nutritional information does indeed include the frosting! Cheers!
Can I use all purpose flour instead?
Hi Sim, unfortunately no. These recipes are developed in order to make them both low carb and gluten-free. The flours used in low carb baking absorb liquids differently so replacing the almond and coconut flours with regular all-purpose will not work for this particular recipe. If I were you, I would take a normal cake recipe and replace the sugar with a granulated replacement like allulose, erythritol , or monk fruit. Allulose is the one that has the most similar properties to sugar, and you would likely get the best result with it, but honestly, I have straight up replaced sugar in cake recipes with monk fruit sweetener quite successfully, but I can’t say for absolute certain that it will work for you in the recipe that you choose. You may also be able to find a non-gluten free sugar free cake recipe out there in the blog land. Good luck!