Delicious keto chocolate layer cake with sugar-free cookies and cream frosting. The ultimate low carb birthday cake!
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If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, then you will have seen this awesome keto birthday cake that I made for my daughter as she turned 10 this past week. I was so delighted with how it turned out, I couldn’t wait to share the photos.
Well, I should have known better, of course. It totally BLEW UP on both platforms and everyone was asking for the recipe. So I set aside all of my other priorities and scrambled to get the recipe up as fast as possible. That’s how much I love you.
Who doesn’t love a good keto layer cake? I have so many recipes you may want to check out. There’s my famous Keto Italian Cream Cake, and my well loved Keto Caramel Cake. You might also like elegant and sophisticated Keto Victoria Sponge Cake.
Keto Cookies and Cream Frosting
Maggie is my youngest and she recently told me that she wanted a cookies and cream cake for her birthday. That sent my little keto baking obsessed brain into overdrive.
I knew the cookie part wouldn’t be too hard. I was not about to use real oreos but the chocolate wafers from my beloved Keto Thin Mints recipe was perfect for a chocolate cookie crumble. I chose to use dark cocoa powder, also known as Dutch process, to really mimic the flavor of Oreo cookies.
I also decided to go with an easy stabilized whipped cream frosting (see below). Standard buttercream can be so overly sweet, and I didn’t want to overpower the flavor of cookies and cream.
Then I simply crushed my keto chocolate wafer mixture finely and folded it into my whipped cream frosting. Voila, a sugar-free Cookies and Cream frosting.
How to make Keto Whipped Cream Frosting
Keto whipped cream is very easy to make and is a wonderful dessert on its own. But it tends to soften as it sits and can even begin to liquify over the course of a day or two.
If you want a keto whipped cream frosting that really stands up for a cake like this one, you need to stabilize it. It sounds like a big deal, but I assure you it’s really quite simple.
It’s a matter of adding some gelatin to the cream as you are whipping it. The gelatin first needs to be mixed with water, then heated and stirred until it dissolves. But you don’t want to add it to the keto whipped cream while it’s still hot, so be sure to let it cool to lukewarm.
Then you simply drizzle it in as you whip the cream and sweetener. And you will have a sturdier frosting that will last for up to 5 days.
Assembling a Cookies and Cream Cake
Although the recipe seems a bit complicated, this really isn’t a hard cake to put together. First I made two layers of keto chocolate cake with my Best Keto Chocolate Cupcakes recipe.
I also made a half batch of my chocolate wafers (a full batch would have been too much). I cut out a few small circles as decoration for the top, leaving the rest as one big piece during baking. This saved me some time and effort. Once baked, I crushed it all into crumbs in a plastic bag, rolling over it with a rolling pin.
I then made the stabilized whipped cream, setting aside about half a cup for piping little rosettes on top of the cake. I folded the cookie crumbs into the keto whipped cream frosting as evenly as possible.
After that, it was simple to layer the cake and the frosting, and cover the sides. I decorated the top with the reserved whipped cream and the little chocolate wafers. I don’t consider myself much of a cake decorator but I was immensely pleased with the outcome!
Want to make a nut-free version of this cake? Use sunflower seed flour in place of the almond flour in the chocolate wafers.
Confession Time!
The savvy among you may notice that my cookies and cream cake doesn’t look like a full size cake. And you would be right. I scaled my cake down by one third, and made a 6-inch round. I thought it would be 8 servings but it was so rich, it made more like 10 servings.
Because not everyone owns all the baking gear that I do, and because you may be making this for larger family gatherings, I chose to give you the full 8-inch cake recipe.
Keto Cookies and Cream Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 1 recipe Keto Chocolate Cupcakes (just the batter)
Chocolate Cookie Crumble:
- 14 tablespoon almond flour (¾ cup plus 2 additional tablespoons)
- 2 ½ tablespoon cocoa powder
- 2 ½ tablespoon powdered Swerve Sweetener
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch salt
- ½ large egg (about 1 ½ tablespoon of whisked egg)
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Cookies and Cream Frosting:
- 1 ½ tablespoon water
- 1 ½ teaspoon grassfed gelatin
- 1 ¾ cups heavy whipping cream
- 6 tablespoon powdered Swerve (add more if you like yours sweeter)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 recipe chocolate cookie crumble
Instructions
Chocolate Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350F and grease 2 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with circles of parchment and grease the parchment as well.
- Prepare the cake batter according to the directions and divide evenly between the two prepared pans. Spread to the edges. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes are firm to the touch.
- Remove and let cool completely in the pans before flipping out onto a wire rack to cool competely. Remove the parchment paper if it has stuck to the bottoms of the cakes.
Chocolate Cookie Crumble:
- Preheat the oven to 300F and prepare a work surface with a silicone mat or large piece of parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour, cocao powder, sweetener, baking powder and salt. Add in egg, butter and vanilla extract and stir well until dough comes together.
- Transfer the dough to the prepared work surface and top with a large piece of parchment paper. Roll out as evenly as possible to about ¼ inch thick and remove the top piece of parchment.
- Use a small round cookie cutter (1 to 1.5 inches) to cut out 14 small wafers. Use a sharp knife or offset spatula to wiggle underneath and place the wafers around the silicone mat or bottom parchment.
- Transfer the entire silicone mat or parchment with the wafers and the rest of the dough to a large cookie sheet. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, until the dough is firm to the touch. Remove and let cool completely on the pan. It will continue to firm up as they cool.
- Set the 14 wafers aside (for the top of the cake). Crumble the remaining baked dough with your fingers into small pieces. You don't want any big pieces, it should be very well crumbled. (You can also place chunks of it in a plastic bag and roll over it with a rollign pin).
Cookies and Cream Frosting:
- Pour the water into a small microwave-safe bowl and sprinkle with the gelatin. Let sit for a few minutes to bloom.
- Warm gently in the microwave for about 20 seconds, then whisk to dissolve the gelatin. Let cool to lukewarm.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream, sweetener, and vanilla with an electric mixer until it begins to hold medium peaks.
- Continue beating while slowly drizzling the gelatin mixture into the bowl. Beat until it holds stiff peaks. Set aside about ½ cup of this mixture for the top of the cake.
- Fold the chocolate cookie crumble into the remaining whipped cream mixture.
To assemble:
- Place one layer of chocolate cake on a serving platter. Top with ⅓ of the frosting, spreading as evenly as possible to the edges.
- Place the 2nd layer of cake on top and top with another ⅓ of the frosting, spreading to the edges. Spread the remaining frosting all over the sides of the cake.
- Use the remaining whipped cream to pipe decorative florets on top of the cake and top each of these with the mini chocolate wafers.
Notes
Alice R says
In the article, you say that you made a 6” cake but gave us the recipe for an 8”. Will this amount work for 3-6” layers or will I need more batter? Thanks for all your recipes! They are the best!!
Aroha says
How can I make this into a 3 layer cake?thanks.
Carolyn says
You need to either increase the batter and the frosting, or make thinner layers. that’s up to you.