Some desserts are absolutely iconic and I can say with confidence that this Keto Kentucky Butter Cake is one of them. This is the original, my friends! I first published this epic sugar-free treat back in 2017 and it became an instant success. So much so that look-alike recipes started popping up all over the internet. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say!
But you’ve managed to find your way to the OG keto butter cake, and I am glad you’re here. If you love rich, buttery desserts, you’ll be happy to know I have plenty of them. You might also enjoy my recipes for Keto Gooey Butter Cake and Keto Butter Cookies.
My devoted fans know that I am a stickler for both taste and texture. So I took my time developing this recipe, and figuring out how to achieve the classic Southern butter cake experience with low carb ingredients.
This cake has the perfect density, but still comes out with an incredibly tender crumb. And the buttery syrup soaks in while the cake still warm, to make it ultra-moist. It’s really is a stunner of a dessert, so it’s little wonder that there are so many copycat recipes. But now you know where it all started!
Why Readers Adore This Recipe
- Rich, buttery flavor: Readers often tell me that when they take this to a gathering, it’s the first dessert to disappear!
- Unbelievably moist: The cake is moist enough as it is but the buttery glaze adds even more moisture.
- Elegant presentation: Bundt cakes always look so elegant, all they need is a sprinkle of powdered sweetener and a few berries.
- Crowd-pleaser: Many folks report that everyone loves this cake, from kids to grandparents.
- Make ahead recipe: You can make it several days in advance and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Keto-friendly deliciousness: No grains, gluten, or sugar makes this an epic low carb treat.
What readers are saying
“I think this cake might be my favorite, and I’ve made many of your desserts. This moist, buttery cake does not even need the glaze! It’s that good. Comes together quickly, bakes to perfection, and yields lots of servings. It’s 10 ⭐️” — Lynn
Ingredient Notes
- Keto flours: This recipe uses both almond flour and coconut flour. The coconut flour helps with structure and offsetting all the delicious butter.
- Protein powder: As always, protein powder helps the cake rise better and have more structure. I recommend whey or egg white protein. Plant-based may also work but don’t use collagen protein.
- Butter: Butter cake needs to be made with copious amounts of butter. Please don’t ask me how to make this recipe lower fat. It’s a butter cake, after all!
- Sweetener: This bakes for quite a bit of time, so I recommend using mostly erythritol based sweeteners in the cake. See the Tips for Success for more details.
- Whipping cream: I use a mix of whipping cream and water as the liquid in this recipe.
- Kitchen staples: Eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder, and salt.
How to Make Keto Kentucky Butter Cake
- Combine the dry ingredients: Whisk the almond flour, coconut flour, whey protein, baking powder, and salt.
- Mix the wet ingredients: In a large bowl, beat the butter and the sweetener until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Combine together: Add the almond flour mixture and beat until well combined. Transfer the batter to a large, well-greased bundt pan and bake until golden brown.
- Prepare the glaze: Melt the butter and sweetener together, whisking until combined. Whisk in the water and vanilla extract.
- Pour over the cake: While the cake is still warm, poke holes all over it with a skewer. Pour the glaze over and let cool completely in the pan.
- Garnish: Gently loosen the sides with a knife then flip out onto a serving platter. Dust with powdered sweetener.
Tips for Success
Take the time to grease the pan properly, as directed in the recipe. Bundt pans are notoriously tricky and sticky, and it can be tough to get cakes out in one piece. Particularly cakes as tender as this one! Make sure not to use pans with lots of nooks and crannies – a regular fluted pan works best.
Also let the cake cool completely but don’t let it stay in the pan much longer! I’ve noticed that keto baked goods begin to stick again if they stay in the pan much longer than that.
Use room temperature ingredients. I cannot state this strongly enough! Cold eggs will cause the nicely creamed butter to clump up again.
I don’t recommend trying to replace the coconut flour with more almond flour. Almond flour contains more moisture and it will make this cake far too soft.
Protein powder is an important part of this cake’s success so please don’t ask me if you can substitute anything.
Sweetener Options
I highly recommend using an erythritol based sweetener in the cake itself. Allulose browns more quickly and the part of the cake against the pan will darken considerably – and with a bundt cake, the majority of the cake is against the pan. It may also taste a little burnt.
That said, you are free to experiment with your preferred sweeteners. I just can’t guarantee the results.
You can use allulose-based sweeteners in the glaze, as that won’t cause any issues.
More Keto Bundt Cakes To Love
Keto Kentucky Butter Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 1/2 cups (260 g) almond flour
- 1/4 cup (30 g) coconut flour
- 1/4 cup (27 g) unflavoured whey protein powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, softened
- 1 cup (182 g) granular sweetener , erythritol recommended
- 5 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (119 g) whipping cream
- 1/2 cup (118.29 g) water
Butter Glaze
- 5 tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup (60.67 g) granular sweetener, erythritol or allulose
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Garnish
- 1 to 2 tbsp powdered sweetener
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 325ºF. Grease a bundt cake pan VERY well and then dust with a few tbsp of almond flour. Pro Tip: double-grease your pan to help prevent sticking. Use a solid fat first, like butter or coconut oil, and then a spray like coconut or avocado.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, whey protein, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and the sweetener together until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Beat in the almond flour mixture and then beat in the whipping cream and water until well combined.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan and smooth the top. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until golden brown and the top of the cake is firm to the touch.
Butter Glaze
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and sweetener together. Whisk until well combined. Whisk in the water and vanilla extract.
- While the cake is still warm and in the pan, poke holes all over with a skewer. Pour the glaze over and let cool completely in the pan.
- Gently loosen the sides with a knife or thin rubber spatula, then flip out onto a serving platter. Dust with powdered sweetener.
- Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream and fresh berries.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
This is a very butter-forward recipe, so dairy-free substitutions will change the flavor and texture. Some readers have had success using high-fat plant-based butter, but the result won’t be quite as rich or classic as the original.
Because this is a large cake, I recommend using a 9-inch spring form pan or two 8-inch round cake pans. Baking time will vary, so start checking early and take it out when the top is just firm to the touch.
This keto Kentucky butter cake recipe has 5.5g of carbs and 2.5g of fiber per serving. That comes to 3g net carbs per slice.
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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Swoon! Butter ? you’re a genius… Thank you so much!
I’m planning to use all almond flour, should I decrease the eggs? And how many do you suggest? Thanks so much I’m excited to try this cake.
Chris
Do 4 eggs to start and do 3 1/2 cups almond flour. Then, if the batter is overly thick, add an additional egg. But low carb batters ARE thicker than regular batters. It should be spreadable but not pourable.
Carolyn, I have just made this cake with almond flour once again! It is delicious, thank you for your help with the almond flour and egg amounts. They were perfect. I so appreciate all the work you do. Thank you so much!
Christine
What is the purpose of the whey protein powder, and can this be made without it? Thanks!
To mimic gluten (which is a protein) and help the cake rise and hold its shape. Not sure it will hold together as well without it.
Thank you- that’s very helpful 🙂
Could you use unflavored egg or vegetable/pea protein powder instead of whey? I don’t tolerate whey protein powder so I have none on hand.
go for the egg white protein because a lot of pea protein is greenish.
Could zantham gum be substituted for the when protein?
No, they are two entirely different ingredients. That much xanthan gum would be awful.
I made it twice without protein powder. Fell apart and stuck to pan both times.
Could you replace the whey protein powder with Egg White Protein Powder. I also live in a small town and have to drive 30-40 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart or Health Food Store.
Yes, that’s fine.
Wow! This will be a great cake to take with me when I leave for North Carolina!!! I want no options to mess my plan up!! Thanks for your outstanding recipes!!!!!
Can’t have too much butter!! 🙂
I by chance just made your lemon bundt cake over the weekend. Now I have to hurry up and eat the rest of it so I can make this one! I was raised in Southwest Virginia, which is snuggled in there with Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, so I appreciate your call out to the area! Now if you can figure out how to make a low carb Mountain Dew cake, I’d be one happy former southerner!
This looks AMAZING!!!! Thanks for another wonderful recipe!!!
Mountain Dew Cake? I am assuming it takes Mountain Dew?
The original recipe does. It’s really moist and lemony. Probably similar to those recipes that were popular a while back that called for Diet Coke. :0) Mountain Dew is REALLY popular in that area!
Oh man – now you made me want an ice cold Mountain Dew!
I bet you could sub Zevia’s mountain zevia soda 🙂
I was thinking the exact same thing! I bet it would be spot on.
Mountain Dew – in the mid 60’s I wound up with a mouse in my bottle of Mountain Dew – can’t look at it since.
Be sure to strain the mouse if you get one
Mind you, Lambs Navy Rum had the same effect on me at the time – no mouse involved
I appreciate the comment this can be stored countertop up to 3 days. I will make it for Christmas as a birthday cake for my brother who had the unfortunate circumstance of being born on the 23rd
I need to find more make ahead recipes – tired of getting up all bright eyed and bushy tailed only to find I don’t have the energy to eat come dinner time – then wake up to a disaster
Haha, when my brother was a teenager in the 1950’s, he found a mouse stuck to the bottom of his glass bottle of Pepsi Cola. He took the bottle straight to the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company, which happened to be in our home town, and they apologized and gave him a six-pack of Pepsi. Can you imagine what would they would have to do if that happened today?
OH sweet heavenly days — this Georgia girl is going to be making this cake THIS weekend. Looks gorgeous and yummy!!!
Hi Carolyn, do you happen to know the conversion from Swerve to Pyure? Is either sweeter or are they interchangeable? Thanks for a seriously delicious looking recipe!
I am not positive but I do know Swerve measures like sugar. So figure out how much Pyure you should use in relation to sugar.
Pyure is half a small you would use sugar. When I am outta swerve that’s what I use as back up
I mean half as much! Sorry
I find that I only have to use half the amount of pyure vs swerve…I’ve ruined a few desserts before I realized this. Just saying..
How do you store this cake?
Well, I just stored it on the counter for 3 days and it did fine but after that, it should be refrigerated.
Thank you for this luscious looking cake! I will have to make it soon, once I get over my Oregon cold and can actually taste it…. Happy Fat Tuesday!
Usually I bookmark the pages to try things later, but not this one. This one’s going immediately into MasterCook to try this week. 🙂
i am new to cooking low carb, i am excited to make this cake
OMG!!!!!
I just ordered a silicone bundt cake pan so I can make this cake! The last cake I make in my metal pan stuck & ruined the cake.
I use Swerve all the time, but I find that when I use more than 1/2 a cup in a recipe it gets that Swervey cooling aftertaste. If I use a different sweetener that has less bulk, do you think that would be a problem?
I’ve found a combination of Swerve with Monk Fruit is very tasty. I have to try this cake!
Excited to make this tonight for my husbands birthday! Reading all the comments because sometimes I do it after the fact and wish I would have ahead of time, i saw someone posted about half swerve half monkfruit, and I was worried about full swerve. Praying it will be good with half/half of the sweeteners. Otherwise, i will not deviate, sounds like a winner! I will give you FULL credit once I post anything about this 🙂 Thanks for your hard work to get us a recipe that tastes good, I can follow a recipe, just not confident enough yet to convert it to keto or low carb.
HOw did mixing the half/half go? gonna make this later today.
I don’t think it would be a problem in this one.
I use Sukrin sweeteners and do not get that cooling after effect.
Do you think this could be made in a 9×13″ rectangular pan? I don’t own a Bundt pan and don’t bake enough to justify giving one house room. I’d guess the baking time would have to be reduced.
Yes, I think you could. I’d start with 25 min and check on it every 5 minutes after that.
Made mine with a 9×13 tonight, and took 45 for me, but I would say each oven is different and will vary. Smells delish, can’t wait to dig into it!
Enjoy!
I was thinking that it was way too much cake for me and considered cutting the recipe in half and making cup cakes. I could then freeze half the cup cakes. And because it reminds me of some old rum cake recipes I was thinking of doing half the glaze as in the recipe and the other half with rum flavoring in the glaze.
Sounds pretty great to me!
How long do you think for cupcakes?
I’d say at least 20 minutes and then keep checking every few minutes after that.
Why don’t you just slice the cake, then wrap each slice with plastic wrap and freeze them? That is what I do with the giant lemon layer cake. So easy to unwrap one and leave it out to thaw.
It is VERY GOOD as a rum cake… just an FYI ????
Did you actually use rum or just rum extract?
Thank you KD for mentioning this as a Rum Cake. I’ve been looking for a cake to use as the basis for a low carb version of the Downey’s Irish Whisky Cake recipe I cut out of the Philadelphia Inquirer decades ago. Not being able to eat this cake has been one of my regrets of having gone low carb.
I made it this evening and baked it in a 9×13 do about 55 minutes and it was perfect!
So did you just pour the butter glaze on top and then comfectioner sugar? No flippimg involved!
That’s what I did. I did poke it with a bamboo all over. next time I’ll use a metal one.
This sounds decadent. Thanks!
This is absolutely the best dessert I’ve made from THM!!!!!You can eat this plain and it tastes like a glazed cake doughnut!!!!! It’s scrumptious!!!!!
Totally Awesome! Perfect instructions! The only thing wrong is I could eat the whole thing lol
Are your recipes ketogenic because I made your cranberry sour cream muffins and it took three times the amount of carbs for one day I use the quarter cup or half a cup of walnuts it was optional so what is your website I’m quite confused cuz your recipes are way too high for my Keto
How many carbs are you trying to do in one day? Because the total carb count on those muffins is only 8g. The NET carbs are under 5g. I can’t imagine how you are trying to eat less than 8g total carbs per day. My guess is…you entered the ingredients into something like My Fitness Pal, which is notorious for errors, and it added in the erythritol. Since erythritol doesn’t affect blood glucose, it needs to be removed from the count.
Whenever I put a recipe on MFP, I search for the net carbs version of the ingredients like Swerve.
Thank You for explaining this sounds good to me
Hi
I only have vanilla flavoured protein powder, do you think that would be ok?
Yes but cut back on the vanilla extract.
Do you absolutely need to add the protein powder? If not, do I need to increase th amount of either of the flours?
You need the protein powder, otherwise it won’t hold together as well.
Would there be a substitute that could work for the protein powder? Xanthum gum maybe? Thanks.
No nothing but protein powder works. Xanthan gum makes it too slimy if you add more than is already in the recipe. You can skip it but your cake may not hold together as well.
I made it using 2 cups almond flour, 1/2 cup coconut flour and 1/2 cup tapioca flour. It turned out very good except it had a few more carbs than listed here. I couldn’t find unflavored whey powder in my small town and had to improvise. It did work.
Maybe try egg white powder.
Do you use the same amount of egg white powder?
I haven’t made this cake keto but from a southern living recipe years ago. This was always my favorite pound cake. So happy to find it keto. As for the protein powder, I have been able to sub 1 egg white per 2 tablespoons protein powder in your other cake recipes. It has worked so far and hope it will for this one.
It iTs! I just made it today and it is better than any boxed cake in the store. It is moist
It is, I just made it today and it is better than any boxed cake in the store. It is moist. It is the best cake I have made so far with almond flour. I highly recommend this recipe. I’m going to experiment and add some dark chocolate cocoa powder to make a chocolate cake. My husband loves chocolate!
That makes me so happy to hear!
HI, I made this cake today and love it! To date, this is the only almond flour cake that I have enjoyed. Thank you!
So glad to hear it!
How did the Chocolate work?
Hello. Can I use a vegan protein powder made with pea powder? It’s all I have in my home on this snowy evening. Thanks. Looks delicious. Thanks for all of your amazing recipes.
Probably but I can’t guarantee it.
This certainly sounds delicious and I have printed the recipe along with many of your other ones! However, I have great difficulty viewing your pages with ads popping up all over and having to dodge them to see what’s written. Was wondering if anyone else is having this problem.
When people have this issues, it’s usually their browser. Which one are you using? Because I visit my blog frequently from both desktop and mobile and have no issues.
Yes it is VERY BOTHERSOME and they cover HALF the content even on larger screens. But, recipes are so good I fumble around them and do what I can to muster through. Would be nice if they could conveniently locate them midway through or at bottom. (P.s. I am on Safari browser.)
Hi KD. Something is going wrong here if they are covering so much of your screen. I am on my blog all the time (of course) and I get one video pop up that moves to the side as I scroll so I can see everything still. What kind of computer/phone are you using? Have you tried updating your browser?