Sour cream makes this low carb cherry chocolate bundt cake incredibly moist. A pretty pink cherry-flavoured glaze finishes it off.
I love it when I ask for recipe suggestions on my Facebook page because I always get some great inspiration. I recently had a craving for biscotti and asked what kind I should make and got a multitude of yummy sounds flavour suggestions. I never did get around to making the biscotti, but several people suggested a dark chocolate cherry flavour and that stuck with me. It stuck hard and fast and I just couldn’t shake it. And then my brain did that weird thing of melding two ideas into one (it’s very strange inside my brain, all sorts of random bits and pieces floating about until they come together as one fully-formed recipe). I had some sour cream that needed using and I envisioned it as the basis for a really moist cake. Cherry Dark Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake was born.
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Cherries are not exactly low carb friendly and dried cherries are usually made with sugar so I had to mull this one over for a while. I had a mini bottle of cherry flavour in my baking cupboard, so I figured I could add a touch of that. But I also wanted chunks of cherries in there and I figured dried would be best. I did my research and found some unsweetened dried cherries on Amazon. They still aren’t exactly low carb, but I only used about 1/4 cup and I chopped them quite finely. Even in that little amount, I felt somehow that they added more “authenticity” to my cake.
I also wanted a cherry flavoured glaze, and thought it would be lovely made with sour cream. It was definitely on the runny side and at first I worried it tasted a little too much like cherry-flavoured cough syrup. The Lorann Cherry Flavour I used can be a bit on the strong side. But in the end, it was the perfect thing for this low carb bundt cake. The cake had great texture and moistness from the sour cream, and it was studded throughout with bits of dark chocolate and cherries. The cherry flavour of the glaze wasn’t as overpowering once I had poured it over the cake. To my pleasant surprise, my kids were huge fans and we all devoured the whole thing in less than 24 hours. They loved it so much, I actually gave it to them for breakfast the next day.
Hey, when it’s a healthy, low carb cake, it makes as good a breakfast as anything else. And because it’s a treat in their eyes, I get bonus points. Winning over three little kids is tough, so I take it where I can get it.
- 3 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup whey protein unflavoured
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup Swerve Sweetener or other erythritol
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp Cherry Flavour
- 1/4 tsp stevia extract
- 1/4 cup Unsweetened Dried Cherries finely chopped
- 1 3.5 ounce 85 or 90% cacao chocolate bar chopped
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup powdered Swerve Sweeteneror other powdered erythritol
- 3 tbsp cream
- 1/8 tsp cherry flavour
- one tiny drop red food colouring paste optional
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For the cake, preheat oven to 325F and grease a bundt pan well.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, whey protein, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
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In a large bowl, beat sour cream, erythritol and eggs together until smooth. Beat in cherry flavouring and stevia extract.
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Beat in almond flour mixture, then stir in chopped cherries and chocolate. Pour into bundt pan and smooth the top.
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Bake 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 15 minutes and then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
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For the glaze, whisk sour cream, powdered erythritol, cream, cherry flavouring and food colouring together in a small bowl until smooth.
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Pour over cooled cake.
Serves 16. Each serving has 9.5 g of carbs and 3.7 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 5.8 g.
Other Nutritional Information: 231 Calories; 19g Fat (71.7% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 42mg Cholesterol; 57mg Sodium.
Anna says
I have also been thinking about how to deal with the sugar in most dried fruit. I had some dried cranberries that I wanted to use so I decided to boil them in plain water for about half an hour, hoping that most of the sugar would get drained off. The cranberries tasted fine in the baked good, and I tolerated it pretty well.
Carolyn says
That’s a smart idea!
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc. says
yes pretty please! Love a bundt cake, especially low carb and gluten free!
Mary Anna says
Hmmm… I have frozen unsweetened cherries in my freezer… I wonder if I could fiddle around and get those to work… would add some moisture, but might work…. especially if i could get some of the liquid squeezed out. And if not, off to Amazon to order the dried!
This looks just lovely!
Jennifer says
I had the exact same idea….may just use them frozen. They are easy to chop that way, and might add a little moisture.
Jennifer says
Does the glaze have that strange cooling effect powdered swerve usually does? I had given up on glazes because they were odd tasting, but, I do understand that some ingredients partially nullify that effect.
Carolyn says
I don’t find that this one does because I used Swerve, but some people are more sensitive to it than others. I also read somewhere that a tiny bit of xanthan gum (1/8 tsp) can help reduce that too.
Jennifer says
Thanks Carolyn!
Jeanette says
I love dried cherries – nice touch to this beautiful bundt cake!
Susan says
This recipe looks great. I also appreciate the extra nutritional information at the end of the recipe.
Susan says
Lovely! I love bundt cake.
If you’re still looking for ideas, I’d love a Pizzelle recipe. I sense that it would take to a low-carb, gluten free makeover. I love them because they are light and not too sweet and quick to make. This is a link to the recipes I used to use before I gave up the carbs. http://www.italian-dessert-recipes.com/pizzelle_recipe.html
Donna says
+ 1…..Would love a pizzelle recipe!…I was so frustrated last Christmas…Before going carb-free it was my favorite of the 13 cookie variants I traditionally make..I have the old-fashioned stove-top double-handled iron I picked up whilst studying in Florence. ..I love too their ease of fabrication..their lightness…perfect with a cappuccino or a small glass of Vin Santo.
Lady Jennie says
I should not be looking at dessert recipes when we’re leaving on Wed, but this looks good!!
ROBIN says
I just love your recipes for gluten free food. I don’t use swerve however or artificial sweeteners . what could I substitute? coconut sugar? thanks
Carolyn says
Sure, that would work just fine.
sarah max says
is the cherry flavor different than cherry extract?
Teresa says
Hi, I noticed that you normally use erythritol sweeteners, but I have pretty much only used sucralose (splenda) would this work the same? Or is there a big difference between these sweeteners?
Carolyn says
I think it would be okay, but your cake texture might not be quite as fine, when you don’t have the crystalline structure of erythritol to beat into the sour cream and eggs. The glaze…hold back on the cream until you see the consistency, because Swerve has some fiber in it and so would thicken it more.
Jennifer says
I made this last night but left out the cherry flavoring (I didn’t have any) so I added 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to the almond flour, and 1/2 tsp vanilla to the cake. It was delicious and reminded me of a wonderful poundcake a friend used to make for her daughter. I took it to a picnic lunch today with some ladies who do not eat gluten free or low carb and they were shocked when I told them what they were eating! By the way, I didn’t glaze it but I will make it again!! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Carolyn says
Wonderful!
Regan @ Cabot Creamery says
What did you think about the taste of the unsweetened dried cherries? I just returned from a trip to Michigan with the tart cherry growers… tart cherries are actually pretty good off the tree, they’re just too fragile to distribute as fresh… but they’re definitely not sweet like a sweet cherry 🙂
Shaina says
The cherries, the chocolate, the sour cream. Slice me a piece, please.
Eat Good 4 Life says
This bundt cake looks delish. I have not bake with almond flour for a long time but when I get back to the US I will. I have lots of it there. I have never used cherries on baking either so I will be excited to try this one…pinning.
Anne, Texas says
Carolyn, what a wonderful recipe. I have made most of your bundt cakes and they always turn out p-e-r-f-e-c-t! Fortunately for me, yours was one of the first blogs I found 2 years ago after going gluten/refined sugar free. I’d like to make this but can’t have dairy. Do you think coconut cream (off top of can) would work in the cake? I could skip or come up with a different glaze. Thanks for all your delicious recipes!!
Carolyn says
Yes, I think it would work just fine. For the glaze too, actually.
Shannon says
Can anyone compare the texture of this cake compared to the Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake????
Carolyn says
It’s about the same. It’s the same basic recipe with sour cream instead of butter. Hope that helps!
shangella says
thanks! will give it a try!
Lia says
I loved this cake!! For Jennifer, who asked about the cooling effect: I am usually pretty sensitive to it, even using swerve. But in this recipe, I did not notice it at all. Maybe the sour cream nullified it. I will try using the xantham gum in other glazes, but this one is perfect as is. Thank you for another great recipe, Carolyn!
Carolyn says
Thanks for the feedback! I think any number of things can reduce the cooling effect but it’s not always easy to figure out what works for what recipe.
Robin says
Hi. If I made this cake as cupcakes, how long would I bake them? Thank you.
Carolyn says
I don’t know, I didn’t bake them as cupcakes. I would try 20 minutes and watch them every few minutes after that.