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.
Free Bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Sign up for your favorite recipes delivered straight to your inbox plus get our FREE bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
This cake is SOOOO good. On the 3rd time making it, I divided the batter in half and added 1/4 cup cocoa powder to half. I poured the chocolate half in the pan first then the vanilla half. It made a perfect half and half cake. SUPER GOOD! Thanks for all the great recipes!
I just finished making this and oh my!!! This was my first keto friendly dessert that I’ve made that wasn’t a flop. So delicious! Thank you! ♥
So glad to hear it!
Hi, I am Candyce. I love your recipes. I have been on THM since January 2016, and you have been one of my favorites for S recipes. My family liked this cake so much I even made it for my 3year old’s birthday party. I also featured it in a recent blog post which you can view here http://candycomforts.com/19-weeks/ If you have any problem with this please let me know and I will remove the link.
Also I was wondering why you add water to the glaze. I made it with and without and I did not notice much of a difference. Thank you again for all of your wonderful recipes.
Hi Candyce, the water is just to thin it out a bit, that’s all. 🙂 Thanks for sharing my recipes.
Well, I just tried to leave a comment on your blog and I was blocked as a “suspected bot”. 🙁
Thank you! I just disabled a plugin that may have been blocking comments.
🙂
I do keto by myself. My husband tries to be supportive. But he doesn’t usually try to many of my experiments. So I took this recipes and divided by 16 servings and did a little rounding. I baked it in a ramekin. I mixed a fraction of the glaze and topped it after baking. It was still warm when I ate it. It was awesome!
Sounds perfect. I have a number of other small batch desserts I hope you will try!
Hi Carolyn,
Great name by the way. I saved your recipe last year when I started LCHF, and at the time I didn’t know where to get the whey protein. I managed to get some of that a few months ago, and still had not got around to making your cake, till last weekend. I had some non LCHF family over, and decided to finally make it. I don’t normally serve a new recipe to friends/family until I’ve tried and tested it first. But this looked so good, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Absolutely nothing too worry about.This cake is amazing! I’m from Australia, and never had Kentucky butter cake before, but I bet if I did, I couldn’t taste the difference. This cake is so moist, and melt in your mouth delicious. This is better than my old favourite non LCHF cake, that I made for years. This is awesome. I’ve just made another one, and I’m struggling to wait for it to cool down, before I devour it. Thank you so much.
I am so glad to hear it, fellow Carolyn!
Hi Carolyn,
Love all your recipes. Was wondering if this could be made in 2 loaf pans? One for enjoying right away and one to freeze for later? I’m thinking half the batter in each pan? What do you think?
Thanks
I made this cake last weekend for my sister in laws birthday. (I decided to make it in the bundt pan anyway) There were some non LCHF deserts there as well. Every one loved and I mean loved this cake. Especially my pregnant niece who had 3 pieces! The regular deserts got tasted but this cake was almost gone! This recipe is a keeper, will be making it again and again! Thanks for all your hard work developing these recipes for everyone to share.
Hi! What if I dont pour glaxe on top to save the colorie!
Would be still nice n sweet?
Thanx
Yes, it would be great.
This was amazing! I made it for a dessert for non-keto folks. Everyone loved it. Thank you for the recipe!
My husband made this cake for me this week for my birthday. He’s not a baker, so he followed the recipe exactly to be sure he got it right. It browned up well in the oven but when he took it out of the bundt pan it literally collapsed into chunks and pieces. It was delicious, but we basically had to eat it out of a bowl with a spoon because it’s nothing but crumbs. What went wrong?
Without being in the kitchen with your husband, I can’t say what went wrong. What type of almond flour did you use? What sweetener?
Any suggestions on getting it out of the Bunt Cake pan? I have made this 2x so far in a well buttered-and sprinkled with the almond flour as suggested-the bunt cake pan (food network brand) and it has broken both times coming out on the cake plate. Seems like it could be a friction stick. The sides come out fine. Actually the sides pull away from the pan even before the cake is done. The top rounded part is the problem. I still get a few perfect slices but I hate that some of the cake breaks off. I want a perfect cake
It’s a tricky one. If you have a really good thin rubber spatula, work it down the sides. And don’t try to take it out of the pan too early.
Trying again today… The rounded top (when flipped) is what sticks and breaks the cake. I am gonna try releasing the cake first while still warm but before I add the butter glaze. Release but keep in the bunt pan then add the glaze. I am thinking that the extra moisture cooling with the cake is what makes it stick at the top.
Ima 9×13 pan, cut into 16 slices and I’ll have the same nutritional facts as you, right???
Yes
I made this for the holiday weekend – it tasted GREAT but stuck to the pan. I buttered and almond floured the pan very well. And followed all of the ingredients and directions exactly. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Some bundt pans are worse than other, sadly. Is it one with a lot of deep crevasses? Because that can be an issue too. I “double grease” often with both butter and coconut oil spray.
Carolyn, I’m fairly new to THM and somehow I stumbled upon your blog. I love your recipes! I’ve made your Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake and I love it! This recipe (Kentucky Butter Cake) looks delicious! I’m noticing, though, that a lot of these recipes require almond flour or coconut flour. My daughter, who would like to do THM alongside me, is allergic to all nuts and coconut. Can you think of a good substitution so we can still enjoy sweet treats? I’ve heard Sunflower Seeds Flour but I don’t know if I should sub it for both or if I’d have to replace one with something else. I’d love your input.
Okay, for this one, sub sunflower seed flour for the almond flour and oat fiber for the coconut flour. And cut back on the liquids a little because oat fiber isn’t as absorbent as coconut flour. Then you will need a few tbsp of lemon juice also to offset the reaction between sunflower seeds and baking powder (it can turn green…perfectly fine for you but not as attractive!). Your cake will have a more grey colour anyway because that’s what sunflower seeds are like compared to almonds.
Made this cake today and it stuck to the pan but I don’t care. This cake is the BOMB! Thanks again
This cake is wonderful! I recently started a keto diet to help in my battle with cancer. I so missed my desserts. My sister and I are trying new recipes weekly to expand our repertoire. This one hit the spot! Our guests just raved about this one! Well done!!
Thanks, Robin. Much luck battling cancer…I am thinking of you!
First of all, thank you for your amazing recipes!!! Your website is my LC lifeline for sure.
I want to make this cake but need to make a nut free version to share. Do you know how I would modify if I used only coconut flour?
Thanks in Advance!!!!