My popular Keto Boston Cream Poke Cake is back and better than ever! Check out this luscious low carb cake topped with sugar free chocolate ganache!
I hear you, friends. I hear you and I take your wants and needs into consideration. Whether it’s sharing my knowledge on the best keto sweeteners or giving you a list of coconut flour recipes, I aim to provide my readers with everything they need to be successful.
Many of you were asking me to re-post this keto poke cake recipe, because it had disappeared from the Swerve website. And so I did. But I also took the opportunity to make it better. Lower in carbs (yay!), easier to make (double yay!), this Boston Cream Poke Cake is moist and tender, and absolutely delicious.
Let’s get baking!
Why you must try this recipe
There’s a whole lot to love about this cake, with its tender almond flour crumb, the sweet vanilla pastry cream oozing into the holes, and the rich chocolate ganache on top.
I originally made it back in 2016, which seems like a really long time ago now. It’s a fun twist my classic Keto Boston Cream Pie. And while it still takes several steps to make, it’s slightly easier and just as tasty.
Poking holes in a cake and letting a filling drip down into them is a guaranteed way to make it super moist. And pastry cream, which is essentially like vanilla pudding, tastes divine combined with the sugar-free chocolate glaze.
Despite the rich flavor and luscious texture, this keto cake has only 6.5g of carbs and 2.8g of fiber per serving. Dig in, my friends!
Ingredients needed
- Almond flour: As always, choose a finely ground almond flour for the best cake texture. If you would prefer to use coconut flour, follow the cake recipe from my Keto Chantilly Cake.
- Sweetener: You will need a number of different sweeteners for this recipe. The cake portion takes granular sweetener. You can use other brands but I used Swerve.
- Allulose: I like allulose for the pastry cream so you don’t get any recrystallization. But you can do erythritol sweeteners or a combination as well.
- Protein powder: Protein powder helps keto baked goods rise and be lighter and fluffier. I used whey protein for this cake, but you can also use egg white protein. Do not use collagen, as it will make it gummy and hard to cook through.
- Eggs: You will need large egg as well as extra egg yolks for this recipe. Check out these ideas for the leftover egg whites.
- Heavy Cream: Both the pastry cream and the ganache take heavy cream. You can try unsweetened coconut cream for a dairy free version but it may not thicken as easily.
- Chocolate chips: I used Lily’s dark chocolate chips for my chocolate topping. ChocZero should work as well.
- Kitchen staples: Butter, baking powder, eggs, vanilla extract and salt.
Step-by-step directions
1. Prepare the cake batter: In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the eggs, butter, vanilla, until well combined. Add just enough water for make a thick but easily spreadable batter.
2. Bake the cake: Spread evenly in a greased 9×9 inch pan and bake at 325ºF for 18 to 25 minutes, until golden brown on the edges and just firm to the touch in the center. Remove and let cool in the pan. Once cool, use the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the cake. Make sure to poke a lot of holes the filling gets into every little part of the cake.
3. Temper the egg yolks: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the heavy cream, milk, and the sweetener and bring to just a simmer. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with a pinch of salt. Slowly whisk about half of the hot cream into the yolks to temper. Then slowly whisk the yolk mixture back into the remaining cream mixture in the pan.
4. Cook the filling: Continue to cook another 3 to 5 minutes, whisking continuously, until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes, then pour over the cake, allowing it to sink into the holes. Give the cake a few gentle taps on the counter to help the filling sink in. Refrigerate 2 hours to help it firm up.
5. Make the ganache: In a small saucepan over medium low heat, bring the cream to just a simmer. Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips. Let sit 5 minutes to melt, then whisk until smooth.
6. Pour over the cake: Pour the chocolate topping over the chilled cake and use an offset spatula to spread to the edges. Let sit 30 minutes to set (you can speed this up a bit by returning the cake to the fridge).
Expert tips
This isn’t a hard cake to make, but it does take time because it has several components. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to let the cake and pastry cream chill. You can even do this a day in advance and cover it, then add the chocolate ganache the next day.
Take your time when making the pastry cream and don’t rush it. Use a good, heavy duty saucepan and keep the heat low so you don’t curdle it. And make sure to temper those egg yolks properly!
Nut-free version: You can make a coconut flour cake base instead, and My Chantilly Cake would work well. Keep your eye on it as I am not entirely sure how long it will take to bake.
Recipe FAQs
Poke cakes usually consist of a single layer sponge cake baked in a square pan with holes poked all over it. A creamy or fruit filling is then poured all over so it sinks into the holes. The cake can be topped with whipped cream, chocolate glaze, or some sort of frosting.
Boston Cream Pie has a vanilla pastry cream filling. Pastry cream is similar to pudding, as it is made with cream, milk, and egg yolks cooked together until it thickens. The filling for this Keto Boston Cream Poke Cake is made without sugar or cornstarch, so it’s ideal for low carb diets.
This keto Boston cream poke cake recipe has 6.5 of carbs and 2.8g of fiber per serving. That comes to 3.7g net carbs per slice.
More poke cakes to love!
Keto Boston Cream Poke Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 1/4 cups (252 g) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (91 g) Swerve Granular
- ⅓ cup (36 g) unflavored whey protein powder
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup (113.5 g) butter, melted
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup water, more as needed
Pastry Cream Filling
- 1/2 cup (118.29 ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (118.29 ml) almond milk, or low carb milk of choice
- 1/3 cup (66.67 g) allulose
- 3 large egg yolks
- Pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache
- 1/2 cup (118.29 ml) heavy whipping cream
- 3 ounces (85.05 g) sugar free chocolate chips
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease a 9×9 inch metal baking pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the eggs, butter, vanilla, and water until well combined.
- If the batter is very thick, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time. It shouldn’t be pourable, but you should be able to scoop and spread it easily.
- Spread evenly in the prepared pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown on the edges and just firm to the touch. Remove and let cool in the pan.
- Once cool, use a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the cake.
Pastry Cream Filling
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and the sweetener and bring to just a simmer.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks with a pinch of salt. Slowly stir in about half of the hot cream mixture whisking continuously. Then slowly whisk the egg mixture back into remaining cream mixture in the pan.
- Continue to cook another 3 to 5 minutes, whisking continuously, until the mixture begins to thicken. Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes, then pour over the cake, allowing it to sink into the holes. Give the cake a few gentle taps on the counter to help the filling sink in. Refrigerate 2 hours to help it firm up.
Chocolate Ganache
- In a small saucepan over medium low heat, bring the cream to a simmer. Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips. Let sit to melt 5 minutes then whisk until smooth.
- Pour over the chilled cake and spread to the edges. Let set 1 hour.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Excellent will be on the m we nu again.
I don’t have the whey protein powder and would like to make this cake for dinner. Is there a substitute for it?
Egg white protein works too!
This looks wonderful! Im almost out of almond flour and cant afford more for several weeks. Can I sub in coconut flour and how much would be a good swap?
Hi Holly… if you read the Expert Tips section, I give you the info for that!
This was the perfect dessert! You wouldn’t even think there’s only a few carbs per serving!
How much vanilla is added to the pastry cream?. It’s mentioned in the directions but not listed in the pastry cream ingredient list.
Sherry, I also noticed the vanilla was not listed in the ingredients for the filling. I added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.
Also, the web page says to bake @325*, the recipe calls for 350*.
I love you and I make your recipes because they are just like high carb in taste and quality. You’re the best of all Keto recipe developers!
Thank you!
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe.
I do think your nutritional info calculations for the fat a off. I did the math for just the butter and the whipping cream and it came out to 11 gr. fat/serving.
Thanks for the recipe.
LOL! Yep, that sure is off. It’s definitely more than 1g. I think it’s closer to 20g! I will fix when I check my nutritional software. Not sure WHAT I did there.
Will BochaSweet work in place of the Allulose?
Yes!
Thank you for this! I had the old one saved, but haven’t made it in quite a while… Would have been upset to find it missing. Can’t beat you plus Boston Cream, lol.
🙂
The link goes to some other website. I think it needs to go to swervesweet.com not swervesweetener.com
Thank you for the recipes. I’m a diabetic and it’s been really hard to give up baking. I have tried several of your recipes and you are amazing.
Hi Carolyn, I purchased all of your books and noticed that this recipe (BOSTON CREAM POKE CAKE) is different on swerve than what is in the book. Which is the latest or the best one to follow? I’m sure both are great.
The one in the book is made with coconut flour. That’s the main difference.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Don’t see a way to leave stars but this is fabulous! Each time I make a recipe of yours it is declared the new family favorite! Thank you for all the countless hours you put in to creating awesome recipes that always turn out better than expected. ♥️
My mom has been low carb/keto for a while now and I always feel bad when the desserts come out… anyways I was going through them because I wanted to give her a special birthday cake that she would enjoy. This cake is a winner! I struggled to put all the custard on the cake because I had a little taste and it was soooo good. I could’ve ate it all with a spoon!!
If you haven’t tried this recipe, I really recommend you doing so. I placed it 2/3 completed in the fridge overnight and added the chocolate topping in the morning.
There were no stars to leave, but if there were it would definitely be 5+!! After the success of the Coconut Poke Cake, I had to try this. I may increase the amount of custard next time (because it is sinfully good!!). This cake was excellent. I usually take samples to my sis and BIL, and they loved this as well (they aren’t Keto but after all year taking them treats, they are realizing that this is a sustainable lifestyle and getting more and more onboard). I want more poke cakes 🙂 LOL!!! Thanks again for all the work you put in so that we can maintain this lifestyle. You are awesome!
This link no longer works to the swerve site. Is this recipe available somewhere else? Thanks jackie
Yummmmm. I really like this cake. The pastry cream part tastes *amazing* but mine ended up a little grainy. I think next time I’ll use like half of the xanthan gum (or maybe even less than that), and I might heat it less. I have no idea if that will help. When I made the cake part I added almost two teaspoons of coconut flour to the recipe because I usually like low-carb cake better when I do that (if there’s not already coconut flour in the recipe). By the time I got to the chocolate topping it was really late at night and I was tired, so I melted 4 ounces of lily’s chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of butter in a ceramic cup in the microwave, stirred, and spread it on top–I kept my expectations low for the chocolate topping speed-hack but I think it turned out pretty good.
This must be the best low carb dessert I’ve tried! My husband and I both loved it! The textures and tastes are great. We’ll certainly be having this again and again! Thanks!
I just made all the separate parts of this and put them together in a keto vanilla ice cream base. I’ve already snuck SEVERAL tastes of it and it’s incredible. The pastry cream adds a lot of richness to the base and the cake pieces are heavenly. Bless you for making my crazy ice cream flavors possible. <3 <3 <3
Happy super belated birthday!! Boston Cream Pie has ALWAYS been my hugest weakness, like ever. I followed your recipe, and have a question or two:
My custard turned out absolutely delicious and thickened just fine, but a little grainy. Was this it possibility starting to curdle? And is fixing that just a matter of, well…heating it lower and for longer when I mix it all together? Or something else?
And the second, is whenever I try to make a ganache using unsweetened chocolate and Swerve (as opposed to already sweetened SF chocolate & cream), it never turns out quite right. It’s always a little grainy and crystallized on top, or foamy and too light colored. I followed your recipe and ingredients to the letter (HWC, confectioner’s Swerve, Baker’s unsweetened, etc) and while they all taste great they’re not nearly as pretty and smooth as yours! Any advice?
I don’t think it’s the curdling that is at issue here, but swerve does tend to recrystallize a bit when heated and then cooled. Mine didn’t do that but if you get it a little too hot, that may be the problem. I just made a pie with a creamy custardy mixture and attempted a new way of doing it (adding powdered Swerve AFTER it was heated and starting to cool). I think that may solve this quirk of working with erythritol sweeteners.
AS for the ganache, please, PLEASE don’t use Baker’s Chocolate. When I say good quality unsweetened chocolate, I definitely don’t mean Baker’s. It’s crap, to be frank, and I only ever use it in a pinch. I mostly use Ghirardelli. I am thinking of changing up the ganache recipe wherein the sweetener gets added at the end too, so that might help with the recrystallization.
I suspected the Baker’s may have had something to do with it, quality. HMMM.
And I’ll try doing some ingredient adding in different order, too! And just to clarify – everything tasted FANTASTIC (thanks to your recipe), just a few little kinks to try and work out.
Thanks so much!!