This tender keto coffee cake has all the amazing flavor of a gooey home-baked cinnamon roll, but with far less effort. Grab a fork and dive in!
Sometimes I take a bite of one of my own creations and I think to myself “I am really good at this!”. That isn’t quite as self-aggrandizing as it may seem, since it genuinely takes me by surprise.
And this Keto Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake is a prime example. I created it many years ago and I remember that exact reaction. It is the perfect combination of tender keto coffee cake and sweet keto cinnamon rolls.
And it’s a recipe I return to again and again. It meet with approval from everyone I serve it to!
You will love this easy cake recipe
Who doesn’t love an ooey gooey cinnamon roll? But the conventional kind are insanely carb-heavy. And the homemade keto variety, which is usually made with mozzarella dough, take quite a bit of effort to make.
This Keto Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake offers those same wonderful flavors in an easy-to-make package. Simply prepare the almond flour cake batter, and layer it with a cinnamon “sugar” filling.
Bake to golden brown perfection, brush it with melted butter, and sprinkle with a little more cinnamon “sugar”. Then drizzle on a little cream cheese icing and you are transported to sweet cinnamon roll heaven.
I really did bite into this keto cake recipe and think “yeah, I am really good at this!”. Call it egotistical if you will. I just call it delicious.
Reader Reviews
“Hands down this is best coffee cake recipe ever! It even tops my favorite recipe from my pre keto days! I used a glass pan so I had to bake a bit longer, but turned out fine. And I added chopped walnuts to filling and topping, fantastic! Definite 5 star rating!” — Jes
“This is a Winner! Thank you Carolyn for such great recipes! You are my “go to” site (and I also have one of your cookbooks) for delicious Keto! I made the salmon and vegetables for dinner tonight!! Cinnamon Roll coffee cake for breakfast tomorrow.” — Janet
“Made this one today… holy cow it’s moist. Melts in your mouth! No chewing required lol Ended up taking some to neighbors and will be taking some to a girlfriend in the morning wrapped up with your dessert cookbook. Now I have none left. Guess we’re making another tomorrow!” — Elizabeth
Ingredient Notes
- Almond flour: As with any almond flour recipe, the finer your flour, the better the consistency of the cake. I always have good results with Bob’s Red Mill.
- Sweetener: I recommend using an erythritol based sweetener for the cake, as allulose can cause it to darken very quickly. But you have options for the filling and frosting!
- Cinnamon: Do yourself a solid and use a good ground cinnamon. If your’s isn’t fresh, consider adding a little more to punch up the flavor.
- Protein powder: Using unflavored protein powder helps the cake rise better and have a fluffy consistency. You can also use egg white protein powder.
- Almond milk: I use a little almond milk to thin out the muffin batter but you can also use water.
- Cream cheese: A little cream cheese drizzle makes this all the more cinnamon roll-esque. Let it soften first for smoother mixing.
- Heavy whipping cream: A little cream is used for the cream cheese icing.
- Kitchen staples: Eggs, butter, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt.
Step by step directions
1. Prepare the filling: In a small bowl combine the sweetener and cinnamon and mix well. Set aside.
2. Prepare the cake batter: Whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract. Add the almond milk and continue to stir until well combined.
3. Assemble the cake: Spread half of the batter a greased 9×9 inch baking pan, then sprinkle with about two thirds of the cinnamon filling mixture. Spread the remaining batter over top and smooth with a knife or an offset spatula.
4. Bake the cake: Bake at 325ºF for 25 to 30 minutes, or until top is golden brown the top is just firm to the touch.
5. Add the topping: Brush the cake with melted butter and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon filling mixture. Let cool in pan.
6. Drizzle with frosting: In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sweetener, cream, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Pipe or drizzle over cooled cake.
Tips for Success
I use a metal pan for my coffee cake recipe. You can use glass or ceramic pans, but they don’t conduct heat efficiently the way metal does. But once they heat up, they hold onto the heat so you risk burning the edges while the center isn’t cooked.
If you are NOT using a metal pan, you will need to lower the oven temperature by about 25 to 50 degrees, and bake 15 to 30 minutes longer. That way, the edges don’t get browned before the center is cooked.
Yes, the protein powder is important to this recipe. Gluten is a protein and in its absence, another dry protein powder helps the cake rise properly. That’s why my cakes are light and fluffy compared to may keto cake recipes. You can sub egg white protein powder if you prefer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many readers outside of North America question why “coffee cake” don’t actually contain coffee. It’s easy to understand the confusion. American-style coffee cake is so named because it’s meant to be served with coffee. It’s often consumed at breakfast or brunch, or sometimes as part of a coffee break in the afternoon.
Because this coffee cake has a cream cheese frosting, leftovers should be covered and refrigerated. It will last like this for up to a week.
This keto cinnamon roll coffee cake recipe has 5.4g of carbs and 2.4g of fiber per serving. That comes to 3.0g net carbs per slice.
More delicious keto coffee cake recipes!
Keto Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cinnamon Filling:
- 3 tbsp (21.3 g) granulated sweetener, (erythritol or allulose)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Cake:
- 3 cups (336 g) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (100 g) erythritol sweetener
- 1/4 cup (27 g) unflavoured whey protein powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) butter, melted
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (118.29 ml) almond milk or water
- 1 tbsp melted butter
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 1/2 ounces (44.13 g) cream cheese, softened
- 2 tbsp powdered sweetener, (erythritol or allulose)
- 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
- Combine the Swerve and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 325ºF and grease an 9×9 inch baking pan.
- Whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract. Add the almond milk and continue to stir until well combined.
- Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan, then sprinkle with about two thirds of the cinnamon filling mixture. Spread the remaining batter over top and smooth with a knife or an offset spatula.
- Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove from the oven.
- Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon filling mixture. Let cool completely in the pan.
Frosting
- In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sweetener, cream, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
- Pipe or drizzle over cooled cake.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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This is in the oven now. The batter was so good I scraped the bowl clean! Can’t wait to try it. Thank you!
COULD YOU PLEASE ADD TO THE NUTRITION INFO THE SUGAR CONTENT. THANK YOU.
No, actually, I don’t plan on doing that. Since I don’t use any added sugar at all, the total sugars in my recipes is very low. The carb count is really the most informative piece here. If you need to know the sugar content, you can simply run my ingredients through an online calculator like MyFitnessPal.
I made this yesterday in muffin pan lined with paper liners. I used Swerve granulated and Lakanto powdered sweeteners and substituted the almond milk with whole milk just because I used what I had. It turned out great!
BTW, I packed it all in 12 muffins but I think next time I will spread it out into 16. It’s a generous portion at 12.
I’ve been looking for good desserts to make on the low carb train, so am very excited to make this. That said, an 8 x 8 pan serves 16? That seems like a bit of a stretch.
I believe in proper portion control. Almond flour cakes are heavy and filling so 1/16th of the recipe is the most appropriate amount, when it’s already 220 calories and 20g of fat. You are free to cut it however you see fit.
Made this, this morning and love it! I didn’t have anything to sub for the protein powder, so I just left it out. It still turned out moist and yummy I decreased the amount of almond milk a smidge bc of no powder and I added about a tablespoon of chopped walnuts to the center layer with the cinnamon and swerve. I felt like my frosting came out too thick to drizzle, so next time will add a little more cream to make it a bit runnier. I love this and will use it over and over!
So glad to hear it!
I just made this cake. It is delicious! Best keto cake I’ve baked and I’ve tried dozens of recipes. It’s going to be my go to when I need to serve my fellow keto/low carb friends and my non keto/lowcarbers. Anyone would like this cake! I did have to add an extra 10 minutes to the bake time but I was prepared for that from reading the comments. One question…it appears that you may be using a 9×9 pan in the video while the directions say 8×8? Of course, I could be wrong about that but might this account for the discrepancies in baking time that so many commenters are reporting? Just wondering. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
So delighted to hear it!
All I can say is WOW!! I’ve been making Keto/low carb recipes for about a year and this is the first one that I felt truly deserved me taking the time (usually the issue) to comment on. The texture and flavor is incredible and I’ve tried several Keto/low carb baking recipes. I did use vanilla cream protein powder due to no unflavored protein powder and omitted the vanilla and the flavor was wonderful! Thank you!
I am honoured that you commented. Thanks so much!
This cake is amazing. My teenagers liked it despite being sugar and grain free. It has a wonderful texture and no fake sweetener taste. I did not have swerve so I used 1/4c pyure stevia blend and golden monk fruit sweetener by lakanto for the remaining 1/2 cup and in the cinnamon sugar mix. Thank you for this wonderful recipe- it is on my make it again list.
Thanks for publishing this AMAZING recipe! Since starting LCHF eating, I ALWAYS read comments on recipes before making them. Too many of “this tastes awful” and there’s no way I’m using expensive ingredients with the though of “maybe all these people can’t cook,” right? But I think 98% of the comments on this recipe are along the lines of this is the BEST COFFEE CAKE EVER!!!! I have to agree – I’m so happy I tried it – happy place happy :D.
Thanks, Kris!
I just used the “dough” portion of this to make a modified version of an almond filling (I’ve been able to make my own version of the filling) coffee cake that is a Christmas tradition in my family. I’ve been keto for the past several years, but always went off-plan on Christmas because I just couldn’t forgo the deliciousness that is the coffee cake. I must say that this wasn’t exact the same (not as doughy as the original), but the flavoring was there. Thank you so much for all of your wonderful recipes!
Wow! I can’t believe how good this was! Even my husband ate it, and he usually snubs his nose at all my low carb desserts. The only things I did differently was I whipped all the wet ingredients while I measured the dry ingredients, got the oven, and pan ready, and added 1 teaspoon of almond extract to my wet ingredients instead of vanilla. Can you say flavor boost! So moist, lasted in the fridge for 1 week. I will definitely be making this recipe again ????
This was another winner. Very quick and easy to throw together and was absolutely scrumptious. For some reason I had to bake mine an extra 10 minutes but it still came out wonderful with a nice dark brown crisp top. .
Glad to hear it. Oven temperatures vary by a surprising amount so baking times are only a guideline.
I made this recipe to take as refreshments for our Sunday School class and since then I have made two doubled recipe cakes and two regular recipe cakes which I have sold – people keep asking me to make one for them and have made two for our home. This recipe is amazing and I will make it again and again! Thanks for sharing it.
So glad you like it!
Hello Carolyn,
I made your Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake today for my birthday and this is one of the best recipe, I have made, since starting my keto journey!!! I have your book Everyday Keto Kitchen and can hardly wait to try the huge selection of recipes in it.
Thank you for all your hard work, Linda
So glad you liked it. Belated Happy Birthday!
I may never bother with cinnamon rolls again, because this was much easier and just as tasty. It made a great Sunday brunch along with egg bites. Thanks!
Can i use THM gentle sweet or super sweet mix, instead of swerve?
Yes but you will have to figure out the conversion based on sugar, since Swerve measures like sugar.