Before jumping to the recipe, don't miss the HELPFUL RECIPE TIPS in the post! I hope you'll find them useful and will love this fantastic recipe.
Amazing Keto Carrot Cake
I have always loved carrot cake and this Keto Carrot Cake is even better because it has all of the flavor without all of the carbs.
It’s texture is tender and dense. And, the taste is spot on.
The cream cheese frosting makes it special and is worth the small amount of effort it takes. All of my “Non-Keto” family loves it too.
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The Cake Ingredients
- 5 Eggs: Room Temperature
Room temperature eggs are one of the first rules of baking that my Gram ever taught me. Whether you are using butter or coconut oil this will help you mix up the batter without “overtaxing” the rising agent.
I know that no one in the US keeps their eggs on the counter. If you don’t want to wait you can always just soak your eggs in a bowl of warm water while you are gathering the rest of the ingredients.
- 1/2 cup Erythritol
This is a “to taste” ingredient. I am not fond of overly sweet cake and since I started Keto I am even more sensitive to it. I like to taste the other ingredients but you can add more sweetener if you like.
I have been digging the Monk Fruit/Erythritol blends lately because they have less of the “cooling” effect than straight erythritol.
- 1 cup olive oil
The original recipe called for butter but I was getting complaints that the cake was dry. if you opt for butter, you’ll need to leave the cake on the counter to come to room temp before eating it.
Cold butter is not “available” and makes the cake seem dry so I have changed the recipe to include olive oil instead of butter.
- 1/4 cup Shredded Coconut
This is an excellent addition but you can switch it out for chopped pecans if you have a coconut aversion.
- 1/4 tsp Salt
This is another one of those “to taste” ingredients. It doesn’t add calories but we know that sometimes when starting the Keto Diet, sugar burners have been told to cut their sodium.
Once you are a full fledged fat burner you will need more salt in your diet.
- 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
- 1 3/4 cup Almond Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 cup Shredded Carrots
I know that I will get some questions about this one since carrots are often on the “not Keto” list of so many bloggers grocery lists (including mine).
You see, “eating Keto” doesn’t mean that you can never have this or that or the other thing. It means that some foods better align with a a balanced Keto diet than others. Eating Keto means staying within your individual macros for the day.
We don’t recommend chomping on carrots as an everyday snack or piling boiled carrots onto your plate because they will use up your “allotment” of daily carbs faster than other choices.
But using one cup of carrots in the twelve servings of cake that this recipe provides will not burn up your macros for the day.
It’s okay to have a slice of this cake. It will not “kick you out of Ketosis” because with the frosting each slice only has 4 net carbs.
The Frosting Ingredients
- 8 oz Cream Cheese room temperature
- 1/2 cup Butter Softened
- 1/4 cup Powdered Erythritol
Feel free to use more if you want. It won’t add any calories if you are using a no carb sweetener like this one.
- 2 – 6 tbsp Heavy Cream
Add this ingredient one tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency that you like. The more cream you add the fluffier the frosting gets. I think it’s a personal preference thing…
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Cake Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and sweetener together until fluffy and sweetener has dissolved. Add the vanilla continuing to mix.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients slowly into the egg mixture.
- Stir the coconut flour into the batter. Stir the carrots into the batter until combined.
- Melt the butter. Add the melted butter to the batter, stirring until combined.
- Pour the batter evenly into the two pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cake cool inside pan for 15 minutes and then invert onto cooling racks. While cake is cooling, prepare the frosting.
Frosting Instructions
- Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the sweetener and mix in until smooth. Add in the vanilla continuing to mix. Add in the heavy cream a little at a time until frosting is nice and fluffy.
I recommend using a hand mixer.
I tried using my Kitchen Aid but the whisk didn’t reach the bottom of the bowl and with this small amount of frosting it means that your ingredients wont get incorporated without doing a whole bunch of stopping and scraping the bowl.
- Let cake cool completely.
- Spread the frosting on the top of the bottom layer. Place top layer on top of it. Spread the rest of the frosting on the sides. Sprinkle with coconut if desired.
- Refrigerate finished cake for at least 1 hour and store leftovers in the fridge.
I get that you might want to cut into it right away but it’s better if you let the frosting set. Plus it soaks into the cake just a little and makes for the most delicious combination…
Sprinkle with nuts if you want to make it look delectable. I used almonds on the first cake and walnuts in the next one. ( Yeah, I always make two of everything before I post it to make sure it can be repeated without issues.)
I LOVE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING….but not everyone does. If you want to swap it our for buttercream check out these easy customizable Low Carb Buttercream recipes from Hip2Keto.
Cheers everyone! And, if you have any questions please leave them below in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Keto Carrot Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 5 Eggs Room Temperature
- 1/2 cup Erythritol *to taste. We are not fans of overly sweet cake but you can test the batter. Erythritol will not add any carbs or calories.
- 1 cup Olive Oil
- 1/4 cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup Coconut Flour
- 1 3/4 cup Almond Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 cup Shredded Carrots
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Frosting
- 8 oz Cream Cheese room temperature
- 1/2 cup Butter Softened
- 1/4 cup Powdered Erythritol * We used 1/4 cup as we do not like overly sweet frosting. But you can use as much as you like.
- 4 tbsp Heavy Cream *add one tablespoon at a time until fluffy. See post.
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and sweetener together until fluffy and sweetener has dissolved. Add the vanilla continuing to mix.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients slowly into the egg mixture.
- Stir the carrots into the batter until combined.
- Melt the butter. Add the melted butter to the batter, stirring until combined. The batter will be thick.
- Pour the batter evenly into the two pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cake cool inside pan for 15 - 30 minutes and then invert onto cooling racks. While cake is cooling prepare the frosting.
Frosting
- Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the sweetener and mix in until smooth. Add in the vanilla continuing to mix. Add in the heavy cream a little at a time until frosting is nice and fluffy.
- Let cake cool completely.
- Spread the frosting on the top of the bottom layer. Place top layer on top of it. Spread the rest of the frosting on the sides. Sprinkle with coconut if desired.
- Refrigerate finished cake for at least 1 hour and store leftovers in the fridge.
- Let come closer to room temperature before eating. If you eat it "cold" and right out of the fridge it might seem dry because the butter in the cake hardens ( like butter does). To avoid this completely you can use olive oil instead of butter in the recipe (same amount).
Notes
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Nutrition
The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy. We are pretty careful about our figures but if you ever feel like anything is off please feel free to do your own calculations.
Hi Angel! I think that you could sub in coconut flour for the almond flour but you would only need about 1/4 of the coconut flour and maybe another egg or to get the consistency right. The batter should be thick but coconut flour really sucks up the moisture. I am sure you are well versed in working with it,, but if it seems to thick, add a little bit of coconut milk or water to thin it out a little…just a tablespoon or so at a time so that it doesn’t get runny. I hope this works for you and that you’ll let me know how it comes out. Cheers!
Can I substitute all the flour for coconut flour? I have tree but allergies and I cannot have almonds.
Hi Peg!
I am so glad you liked it! I agree about the walnuts, I love those too! I go back and forth with the coconut lol. Congrats on the weight loss! I’m honored that you made this recipe for your Keto Day! Keep going! Cheers to you! Brenna
Thanks for the recipe! It came out very well for me. I used the 1 cup of olive oil and no butter in the cake. Also the monkfruit sweetened erythritol. Both the regular and powdered. And I substituted finely chopped walnuts (my favorite numb in baking) for the coconut (not particularly a fave). I’ll make this again and would serve to folks not eating keto/low carb. It was my treat to me to celebrate losing 34 lbs in my first year of eating this way. I’m anxious to try a few of your other recipes!
Hi Jennifer! Yes, the coconut needs to be unsweetened. Thanks for commenting and I hope your cake turns out GREAT!
Do you use unsweetened coconut in your recipe?
I loved this carrot cake, I wouldn’t change anything about it. Well I did only half of the butter instead of the whole cup. My family was in love with it and me too! I’m an diabetic and I can eat it without regrets. thank you so much!
Hi Kerri! I am so glad you enjoyed it! Cheers!
Yum! This is a keeper for me but w a few adjustments… I added ginger and nutmeg, and also a little more sweetener to the cake.
Hi Patricia! I wish that were the calorie count for the whole cake lol. The nutrition is based on cutting 12 slices of cake and each piece is 440. Any recipe you find will have the nutrition info per serving. I hope this helps. Cheers!
Hey there! I’m a little confused with the nutrition facts. Is it 440 calories for the whole cake or a slice?
Hi Sarah!
I am not sure what could have gone wrong. I have seen a lot of comments about this cake and while most people think it’s great, some think it’s dry. I doubt the carrot issue is the problem but my calculator says 128 grams is a cup of shredded carrots. Since we are using almond flour maybe it’s getting over baked? Everyone’s oven is different so that could be the issue. You could also use olive oil instead of butter. I hope this helps! Cheers, Brenna
Hi,
I made this cake yesterday and while the frosting was amazing, the cake was rather dry. I refrigerated it overnight and left it out the fridge, covered all day until this evening. I used a cup of grated carrots instead of shredded however. Could this be the problem? Could you tell me roughly what a cup of shredded carrots is in either grams or carrots? I think this is where it’s gone wrong with my conversion. I grated and packed carrot into a measuring cup but I didn’t really taste it and I think the lack of water from the carrot has dried it out.
Hi Anne Marie!
Thanks so much for the comment. Keto cake will not rise very much because of the nature of “low carb” flours that don’t contain any gluten. As for being dry…since you keep this cake in the fridge, the butter will be cold. If you set it out and let it come closer to room temperature before eating it the butter in the cake itself will be softer and more “available” in the crumb. I hope that helps. Cheers!
This turned out good. The cake did not rise very much causing it to be a little dry. I didn’t use the parchment paper. I used some coconut oil on the pans instead. Any suggestions as I would like to make it again.
This turned out fantastic. I don’t love coconut flour and after a little research settled on keeping everything the same except for upping the almond flour to 2.5 cups. I ended up with a beautiful, super moist carrot cake.
Thanks!
Hi Michelle!
I think that would work. Are you covering it in the fridge once it has been cut? If not it will dry out in a hurry. Make sure to let it warm up to room temp (or closer to it) to avoid the dryness. The butter in the cake will harden in the fridge.
My batter was way too thick and the cake was a little dry. Do you think I could leave out the coconut flour and do more almond flour? Or maybe add something else to make it more moist?
Hey Sandra!
I understand completely!You can freeze it. Here are some instructions that I found to keep the flavor fresh.Cheers!
Hi Brenna,
This looks delicious and I love carrot cake, but I’m wondering if you know how well it would freeze though? I live on my own and if I don’t keep something like this in the freezer I’ll be at it all day. I’d like to be able to defrost individual portions that would be ready to eat. Would this work do you think?