Chocolate Keto Birthday Cake With Vanilla Buttercream

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Do you have a sweet tooth? Do you constantly fight sugar cravings? This keto birthday cake might be the sweet surprise you’re looking for.

You can still enjoy some of your favorite treats — even though you follow a low-carb diet. And while these desserts shouldn’t make up the base of your calories by any means, there’s no reason you can’t indulge on special occasions.

Now, if you’re ready for a true indulgence, get ready to stick your fork into this keto birthday cake.

The Secret to Making Keto Birthday Cake

This delicious, gluten-free chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream serves a group of six, perfect for a small celebration. If you look at the nutrition facts below, you’ll see one mouthwatering slice (or serving size) contains:

• 61 grams of total fat
• 10 grams of protein
• 5 grams of net carbs

No, that’s not a typo — you’re about to dip your fork in a chocolate layer cake that’s smothered in buttercream, all for a fourth of the net carbs you’d get from a single apple[*].

How is that possible?

The secret to this cake recipe is stevia — a zero-carb, zero-calorie sweetener that’s over 200 times sweeter than regular table sugar. Combined with almond flour, coconut cream, and vanilla protein powder in the cake batter, this is a protein-packed, low-sugar dessert you don’t need to feel guilty about.

How to Make Keto Chocolate Cake

Most low-carb recipes call for three swaps in ingredients to make it compliant with a keto diet:

• A gluten-free, grain-free, or alternative flour
• A zero-carb sweetener
• A healthy source of fat

You’ll learn about each of these ingredients in depth below.

#1: Select a Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Flour

When following a keto recipe, particularly for a dessert, you will always swap out white or wheat flour for a low-carb alternative. Typically, desserts such as brownies, mug cakes, cupcakes, and other baked treats call for a few cups almond flour or coconut flour.

In this cake recipe, you’ll use almond flour, which has several health benefits, including:

• It’s gluten-free
• It’s one of the lowest carb flour alternatives
• It’s abundant in several key vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, and manganese[*].

Almond flour is also a suitable swap for those diagnosed with diabetes. The consumption of almonds has been shown to help reduce blood sugar and insulin levels[*].

2. Add a Dose of Healthy Fats

Most keto baked goods call for a healthy fat, and this cake calls for coconut cream, which is a dairy-free ingredient that can help lower blood pressure, boost your energy, and prevent a blood sugar spike[*]. Other cake recipes may call for coconut oil, melted butter, heavy cream, cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, or almond milk.

3. Sweeten With Sugar-Free Sweetener

All keto desserts usually have low-carb sweeteners such as powdered monk fruit, erythritol, Swerve, or stevia. This chocolate cake calls for stevia, which you’ll learn about below.

What Is Stevia?

Stevia is an extract of the herb stevia rebaudiana. Native to South America, the stevia plant has been used for around 200 years to sweeten food and beverages. It’s exponentially sweeter than regular white sugar but doesn’t raise blood glucose levels. Since it’s so sweet, you only need trace amounts (rather than the 1-2 cups of sugar most desserts call for) to bake a treat.

Why Use Stevia?

Stevia has been shown to:

• Prevent blood sugar and insulin spikes after a meal[*]
• Reduce oxidative stress, as it contains compounds apigenin and quercetin, which can help reduce free radicals[*]

You can find stevia in many forms — typically drops or powders. Powdered stevia is your best choice. Double-check the ingredients to make sure it’s not combined maltodextrin, dextrose, cane sugar or artificial sweeteners, all of which can raise your blood sugar levels.

What Makes It So Sweet?

Stevia contains sweet-tasting compounds called steviol glycosides. There are 11 major steviol glycosides, each one up to 250–300 times sweeter than sucrose. A single stevia leaf can contain one steviol glycoside or several, which makes it incredibly sweet[*]. Plus, it doesn’t contain a bitter aftertaste.

Now that you know the basics of a perfect keto cake, it’s time to talk frosting.

How to Make Low-Carb Buttercream Frosting With MCT Powder

Buttercream is typically made by whipping powdered sugar and butter, but that doesn’t mean you have to kiss it goodbye on keto.

Instead of powdered sugar, you can use vanilla MCT oil powder.

What Are MCTs?

MCT stands for medium-chain triglycerides, a form of saturated fatty acids. Unlike long-chain fatty acids, MCTs don’t need digestive enzymes to be broken down for energy, so they’re not stored as fat and are used as energy instead. Inside your body, MCTs boost blood ketones, so it’s an excellent fat for keto dieters.

In addition, MCTs help:

• Improve mental clarity
• Boost digestive health
• Support hormonal health and metabolic functioning
• Prevent heart disease and diabetes

MCTs can be eaten through whole foods such as coconut, or you can get MCTs through supplements. However, in whole foods MCTs are mixed with other long-chain fatty acids, so you get smaller doses and don’t get the quick energy boost.

Perfect Keto MCT Oil Powder contains MCTs extracted from organic coconuts and, in this recipe, it takes the place of vanilla extract for an incredible keto baking hack.

Bite Into This Keto Birthday Cake at Your Next Party

For your next celebration, bake this moist, delicious chocolate cake that will keep your carb count low and cravings at bay.

Thanks to the limited ingredients, limited carbs, and health benefits, this is the perfect cake to make next time you host a birthday, engagement party, or another special occasion. Cheers!

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