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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HI Carolyn, would this cake work for a trifle for Christmas? I need some ideas. TIA!
Carolyn,
I was thinking this would be good as. Pumpkin Kentucky Butter cake. How much Pumpkin purée should I add and would I need to delete some of the other ingredients and of course I would add pumpkin pie spice.
Thank you,
Sherry
You will need to experiment but reduce the additional liquid.
I just made this cake and I could not believe how great it turned out. Really very good and easy to make. just downloaded her cookbook to my kindle.
Having been low carb over 1.5 years….I can honestly say this is BY FAR the BEST desert I’ve had in all that time!!! Thank YOU FOR SHARING THIS AMAZING RECIPE .
Glad to hear it!
This cake was absolutely delicious!!! I actually made it with a mixture of lemon extract, orange extract and vanilla extract. Then instead of the butter glaze, I just made a simple glaze with a mixture of sweeteners (Lacanto, Boca Sweet and Besti Monk Fruit/Allulose Blend) and more lemon, orange and vanilla extract. Wow, the glaze soaked into the cake, making it very moist with a lovely lemon/orange flavor and the texture was fantastic! I also used that same mix of sweeteners for the cake because I do not like erythritol alone. My husband and I devoured it!!! This is a cake that I can certainly make for non-keto folks!!
I love it!!!♥️♥️
I want to make this so bad but it is so hot here and I hate to use the oven. Would this bake well in an air fryer?
It’s much too large a cake for an air fryer.
I’m curious if you’ve tried it with allulose? I have yet to use allulose but it seems everyone says it doesn’t have the side effects like cooling or grittiness like other sweeteners. I have bought some and this cake (nonzero version) popped up in my feed & I thought I’d see if you had a version. You never disappoint!
I do NOT recommend allulose in a cake that takes this long to bake. It browns very quickly and so you will end up with a cake that looks, and possibly tastes, burnt. The whole part that’s up against metal will be very dark.
OMG! By far the best keto cake recipe EVER and I’ve tried a lot. I followed the recipe almost exactly (vanilla whey protein is all I had) and it came out beautifully. Tall, dense, with a wonderful crumb just like real pound cake. Cannot rave enough about this recipe. I highly recommend. Thank you so much for Carolyn for sharing! Looking forward to trying your other recipes.
Carolyn I have a question in regards to my bundt pan I have one like yours but I also have one that’s a little more intricate you probably know what I’m speaking of it’s from Nordic Ware do you think this cake is sturdy enough to stand up to that type of pan? And yes I am familiar with properly preparing the pan. Thanks in advance
Some of my bundt cakes would be fine but I wouldn’t risk this one in a more convoluted pan.
I made this and loved making it and eating it! Everyone at the office loved it too! I didn’t have unflavored whey protien. I used what I had ( Dutch chocolate), so moist and delicious! I will have to get some unflavored whey protien and make this again and again and again!
Hi,
I am from Tel Aviv.
I would like to know the Pan size for this cake in Centimetre.
Thank you
It’s about 9 inches across so you can google cm to inches.
Can I use a different pan besides a Bundt pan , like a 9×13 pan, or will it spread it out too thin? I don’t have a burst pan. Or an Angel food cake pan, so just wondering what else might work with this recipe.
It can work but the bake time will be less with the 9X13 so watch it carefully!
Can you tell me if the baking blend THM would work in this? Or what can I sub for almond flour.
I am sorry, I don’t use it. It’s very dry compared to almond flour.
Love everything about this recipe, seems to come out perfect every time taste wise , just not big and tall Like the photos, it comes out much more Flat! What did I do wrong Every single time? It’s delicious and everyone loves it but it doesn’t look anything like the picture
What size and shape is your bundt pan? If it’s quite wide, the cake is going to be flatter.
delicious very easy to do thank you !
I followed the recipe to the letter. My cake failed. It was perfect until I put the butter glaze on it. It turned into a too sweet squishy mess that made a squishy noise when it broke and fell out of the pan. I think it would have turned out to be a decent cake had I not added the glaze.
Sounds perhaps like the cake wasn’t baked long enough?