Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting (Low Carb and Gluten-Free)

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting is a keto cake recipe that makes the perfect birthday cake for chocolate lovers. But this low carb chocolate cake is so good, you won’t want to wait for a special occasion to make it.

Any Occasion Chocolate Layer Cake

It is nobody’s birthday in my house. Nobody. Not even close. We’re all late Fall and Winter babies in this household. My three kiddos are October, November and December, my husband is right after Christmas and I am in early March. It’s pretty nutty, quite honestly. From mid-Fall to New Year’s we are run ragged with birthday and holidays, and each year it seems to get more stressful.

My husband and I aren’t even remotely over-indulgent with our kids and we don’t do big birthday celebrations for them. But even the minor family celebrations we do hold take enough effort and time that we find ourselves girding our loins at the approach of October. Oh, and have I mentioned that our anniversary is in October as well? Um, yeah, that gets more and more overlooked each year as we just try to survive.

So what on earth possessed me to make what is, for all intents and purposes, a huge low carb chocolate birthday cake in June?  I haven’t the foggiest, the idea just took hold of me and wouldn’t let go. It worried at me like a dog with a bone, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it.  And it wasn’t just any old birthday cake I wanted to make.  I knew this one had to be gluten-free chocolate cake, with lots of layers and a rich sour cream frosting.  It had to be tall, it had to be impressive, and most importantly, it had to taste wicked good.  I wanted it to be a low carb birthday cake, but one that you would never know was sugar-free and gluten-free.

Keto Cake Recipes

If you make a lot of keto cake recipes, you already know that they can be a challenge to make well. They tend to dry out during baking, but this low carb chocolate cake is definitely not dry! If you want low carb cake, but in a different flavor, make my Low Carb Italian Cream Cake or Kentucky Butter Cake, or Brenda’s Sugar-Free Low Carb Sponge Cake.

So why chocolate sour cream frosting? I don’t know. Once again, it was just an idea that got a hold of me.  My sister-in-law made sour cream frosting for my nephew’s birthday cake and I am not sure I’d ever had any until that time. And then I happened to see a recipe for chocolate sour cream frosting on the inside of a package of unsweetened chocolate, and I thought how perfect that might be for a low carb frosting. I could see the cake in my mind’s eye, 3 or 4 layers with rich frosting in between and swirled richly on top.  And some brightly coloured sprinkles to finish it off.  Just a few, since I don’t think they make sugar-free sprinkles yet!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Recipe Notes

The Results:  Honestly, this keto cake recipe is phenomenal. Except for the fact that I can’t seem to get almond flour chocolate cake to look as chocolaty as cake made with wheat flour (it has a muddy brown appearance, rather than a rich chocolate brown), you would never know the difference. The low carb chocolate cake is rich and decadent.

The chocolate sour cream frosting is made using powdered Swerve, and it is rich and has a wonderful tang from the sour cream.  I was a touch worried at first because the frosting seemed too goopy, like it would just slide right down the sides of the cake. But it didn’t at all, and I was able to frost the cake perfectly. And I gave it an hour to chill in the fridge and it set nicely. It is a really big cake and very rich, so even though I’ve called it 16 servings here, you can easily get 18 or 20 out of it.

This gluten-free chocolate cake is definitely one worthy of a birthday celebration!

Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting (Low Carb and Gluten-Free)

4.39 from 18 votes

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Servings: 16 servings

Ingredients

Cake:

• 2 ¼ cups almond flour
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup granulated erythritol I used Swerve
• ½ cup vanilla whey protein powder
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 oz Greek yogurt room temperature
• ½ cup butter softened
• 5 large eggs room temperature
• ¼ teaspoon stevia extract
• ⅔ cup almond milk

Sour Cream Frosting:

• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate chopped
• 1 ½ cups sour cream room temperature
• 3 cups powdered erythritol I used Swerve
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon stevia extract
• 1 ½ teaspoon xanthan gum

Instructions

• For the cake, preheat the oven to 325F and grease 2 8-inch round cake pans. Line cake pans with parchment paper and grease the parchement.
• In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, cocoa powder, protein powder, granulated erythritol, instant coffee, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt.
• In another large bowl, beat Greek yogurt and butter together until combined. Beat in eggs and stevia extract. Beat in almond flour mixture in two additions, alternating with almond milk, and scraping down beaters and sides of bowl as needed.
• Divide batter between prepared pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until cakes are set and a tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes, and then flip out onto wire racks to cool completely.
• Once cool, use a large serrated knife to cut each layer in half horizontally to create 4 layers total.
• For the frosting, in a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate and stir until smooth. Set aside.
• In large bowl, beat sour cream and powdered erythritol until smooth. Beat in cocoa powder, then vanilla extract and stevia extract.
• Sprinkle xanthan gum over mixture and beat in until frosting thickens slightly. Stir in melted chocolate, scraping down sides of bowl, until well combined.
• Place one layer of cake on serving platter and top with ½ to ¾ cup frosting, using knife or offset spatula to spread evenly. Repeat with remaining layers and frosting. For final layer, top with any remaining frosting and spread down and over sides of cake, smoothing with knife or offset spatula. If desired, use back of small spoon to create swirled effect on top of cake.
• Chill cake in refrigerator for at least one hour. Any leftover cake should be wrapped in plastic and kept in refrigerator.

Notes

Each serving has a total of 10g of carbs and 5g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 5g.