This Easy Keto Carrot Cake Recipe is just as good as a classic carrot cake! Everyone's favorite cake is now only 7 grams of net carbs per serving. It's perfectly spiced, made with freshly grated carrots and a layer of luscious, rich cream cheese frosting.
Disclosure - This post is brought to you in partnership with our friends at Bob’s Red Mill. We love using Bob’s Red Mill products to craft the most delicious baked goods. Thank you for supporting the brands that help to bring fresh new content to A Full Living!
If you're looking for more delicious keto recipes, try these keto millionaires shortbread, these raspberry white chocolate cookies, or these brownie blondies.
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❤️Why you'll love this
- Simple ingredients- If you regularly make keto-friendly sweets, this recipe is made with kitchen and pantry staples.
- Refined sugar-free, low carb & gluten-free - Made with a sugar replacement instead of regular sugar, plus almond flour, and coconut flour instead of all purpose flour. It's naturally low carb, gluten free, and sugar free. There's only 11 grams of carbs, with 4 grams of fiber per serving, making it perfect for the keto diet.
- Tastes like regular carrot cake - Just as good as traditional carrot cake, this healthier version will cool even those with a major sweet tooth!
- Show-stopping dessert - This four-layer cake is truly a show stopper. Make for special occasions and wow all of your loved ones. This whole cake makes 14-16 large servings, so there's enough for everyone!
🥕Ingredients
Full quantities and the nutritional information can be found in the recipe card.
✏️Ingredient notes
- Bob's Red Mill almond flour & coconut flour - Our preferred gluten free and low carb flours. Bob’s Red Mill Super-Fine Almond Flour is very finely ground for the best texture. We also use a bit of Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour for the perfect balance. Please note, coconut flour is very drying and is not a 1:1 substitute for almond flour.
- Baking powder & baking soda - To help the cake rise.
- Kosher salt
- Xanthan gum - For binding the cake together. Since this cake ais gluten free, the xanthan gum helps hold them together. If you decide to skip this part, just be aware that the cake may be a tad bit more crumbly.
- Spices - We enjoyed a spiced and flavorful carrot cake. Feel free to adjust spices to your personal preference. We used cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, cloves, cardamom & nutmeg!
- Sugar free sweetener of choice - Use something that bulks and bakes like white sugar and/or brown sugar. We recommend using a mixture of a brown sugar replacement, and a regular granular sugar replacement for the best sugar free carrot cake. You can use all granulated sweetener if you prefer.
- Unsalted butter - Hot and melted, to combine with the sweeteners.
- Vanilla extract
- Sour cream - For a nice moist cake, room temperature.
- Large eggs - Room temperature.
- Grated carrots - Make sure they are well washed and peeled before grating.
- Walnuts & unsweetened coconut flakes - Optional mix-ins & only if you like them.
- Keto cream cheese frosting - This delicious cream cheese frosting can be made in advance.
📖Instructions
🔪Prep work
- Prepare the cream cheese frosting up to 7 days in advance and store it in the fridge. Allow to sit out for a couple of hours before frosting the cake so the frosting can soften.
- Grate carrots, and chop walnuts or lightly pulse them in the food processor.
- Allow sour cream and eggs to sit out at room temperature for an hour.
- Grease four 6-inch cake pans, making sure to grease the sides of the pans. You may potentially need to line the bottoms with parchment paper if necessary to prevent the cakes from sticking.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Make the cake batter
In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together hot melted butter, and sweeteners for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add in sour cream and vanilla extract, mix again.
Mix in eggs one at a time until a smooth mixture is created. Sift in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
Mix until completely combined.
Gently fold in carrots, and optional walnuts and coconut flakes.
Bake the cake
Divide the batter evenly into the four cake pans. We like to place them on a large baking sheet so we can get them in and out of the oven quickly.
Bake for 28-33 minutes until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans until they are no longer too hot to handle, then flip out onto a wire cooling rack.
Frost the cake
Allow the cake layers to cool completely before frosting. Once cool, start by placing a bit of frosting on the top of the cake stand or plate, then add the first layer and gently press down. This will help keep the cake stable as you frost it.
Add a layer of frosting and smooth out before adding the second layer, then repeat with the second and third layers.
*Pro-tip: Use a turntable secured with a wet paper towel underneath your cake plate to help prevent any slipping.
Add the fourth and final layer, and add a thick layer of frosting.
Decorate to suit your preference, and dig in!
✨Substitutions & variations
Here are a few of our top tips for alterations.
- Less spiced - If you're not a fan of all of the spices we used, feel free to use what you have on hand. The most essential spices are cinnamon, ginger, and allspice! Nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves are optional.
- Dairy free - Use vegan butter in place of regular butter, and frost with your favorite dairy free cream cheese frosting.
- Without walnuts and coconut - If you don't like walnuts or shredded coconut, don't worry! Feel free to leave them out.
✨Tips & tricks
Here's a few ways to alter the drink.
- Make the frosting ahead of time, and let it sit out for an hour or so before frosting.
- Make the cake layers ahead of time and allow to cool completely for the easiest frosting experience.
- Frost to suit your preference. We went for a more naked look because there were so many layers of cake, but feel free to lay it on thick! If you make two entire batches of our cream cheese frosting, this cake will be pretty thickly frosted!
- Make sure to let eggs and sour cream sit out at room temperature so you don't seize the batter. If these additions are too cold when added to the batter, the butter will become hardened and this will alter the texture.
- The batter of this cake is very dense, don't worry, it's supposed to be.
💭Frequently asked questions
While we haven't tried making it this size, this will certainly be fine! You will likely need to bake the cakes a few minutes longer. Keep a close eye on them at the 30 minute mark and after.
This cake is a denser cake, and is a little heavier on the spice. We have always felt like carrot cake should be that way!
Feel free to scale back on the spices if you are less enthusiastic about warm spices.
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🥣Storage
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Store any remaining frosting in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. If making the cake layers ahead of time, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate, or freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge.
Allow the cake to sit out at room temperature for an hour or so before serving if making ahead of time.
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📖 Recipe
Keto Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 280 grams Bob's Red Mill super fine almond flour (2.5 cups)
- 28 grams coconut flour (¼ cup)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum (optional but highly recommended)
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and hot
- 96 grams brown sugar replacement (½ cup)
- 96 grams granular erythritol (½ cup)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 4 whole eggs, room temperature
- 120 grams sour cream, room temperature (½ cup)
- 150 grams grated carrots (about 2-3 medium carrots)
- 50 grams unsweetened coconut flakes (optional)
- 50 grams chopped walnuts (optional)
- 2 batches keto cream cheese frosting (or more, to taste!)
Instructions
- Prep work: Prepare the cream cheese frosting up to 7 days in advance and store it in the fridge. Allow to sit out for a couple of hours before frosting the cake so the frosting can soften. Grate carrots, and chop walnuts or lightly pulse them in the food processor. Allow sour cream and eggs to sit out at room temperature for an hour. Grease four 6-inch cake pans, making sure to grease the sides of the pans. You may potentially need to line the bottoms with parchment paper if necessary to prevent the cakes from sticking. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together hot melted butter, and sweeteners for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add in sour cream and vanilla extract, and mix again. Mix in eggs one at a time until a smooth mixture is created. Sift in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until completely combined.
- Gently fold in carrots, and optional walnuts and coconut flakes. Divide the batter evenly into the four cake pans. We like to place them on a large baking sheet so we can get them in and out of the oven quickly.
- Bake for 28-33 minutes until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans until they are no longer too hot to handle, then flip out onto a wire cooling rack.
- Allow cake layers to cool completely before frosting. Frost to suit your personal preference, and decorate with chopped walnuts, coconut flakes, and carrots if desired. Enjoy!
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Allow to sit out at room temperature for an hour or so before enjoying for best results.
Notes
- This recipe includes a double batch of our cream cheese frosting recipe. Please note, that the nutrition facts will be impacted if you decide to use more or less.
- For best results, allow sour cream and eggs to come to room temperature before mixing in.
- Add the melted butter to the sweeteners when it's hot, so you can mix the sweeteners in easily.
- You can easily make the serving sizes even smaller to decrease the carb count.
- Walnuts and coconut shreds are optional.
Nutrition
These nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy and are only estimates. We cannot guarantee the accuracy.
Samantha K says
This cake is moist and flavorful with all the right spice notes throughout it even if you omit some of the add ins. I used walnuts and freshly shredded carrot inside the cake and saved the raisins for a topping. When served to a group of guests they can have the option of raisins on or off because people have strong opinions on this fruit. Freshly shredded carrots will make for the best carrot cake in my opinion.
Briana says
Thank you so much for this glowing review! We don't care for raisins, but we're glad to hear you were able to come up with something that worked for everyone in your family! We know people feel strongly about raisins if they grew up eating them in their carrot cake. Thanks so much for trying this!!