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Boston Cream Poke Cake

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Boston Cream Pie gets a healthy makeover…as a poke cake! This low carb, gluten-free dessert is easy to make and truly delicious.

This low carb Boston Cream Poke Cake is oozing with sugar-free vanilla pastry cream and topped with a rich chocolate ganache.

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Today marks my 43rd birthday. That is right, I have been on this earth for 43 long years. And what have I got to show for it? Nothing much, really. Three beautiful children, a loving husband, a wonderful extended family whom I don’t see nearly enough of, a nice house in a great neighbourhood, good friends in many corners of the world, a fantastic job that I love and that I devote far too many hours to, delicious and nutritious food on the table, access to good schools and clean water, an active and inquisitive mind, and a body that is in better shape than it was 20 years ago. Yup, not much to show for the past 43 years. I’d better get working on that.

Delicious grain-free and sugar-free Boston Cream Poke Cake. A wonderful low-carb dessert.

But I DO have low carb Boston Cream Poke Cake to show for it. That’s gotta count for something, right? I actually wish I was having this for my birthday. 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. Alas, I am not having it to celebrate my natal day. I had to make it several weeks ago to get ready for posting today. But maybe YOU can enjoy it and toast my birthday in celebration? Thanks, friends, I appreciate that.

Ooey gooey low carb Boston Cream Pie Poke Cake recipe

As it happens, I am doing a whole lot of nothing for my birthday. I told my husband that I really didn’t want any presents this year. And I meant really mean it, I am not secretly hoping for some sort of shiny, glittery doo-dad or other. I simply asked him if he would find a way to spend the day with me so we could go out and explore on our own, no children in tow. And when we come home, we will have a big feast of smoked brisket from my favourite Portland BBQ food cart. And if we are craving something sweet, I will whip up an easy treat like my Single Serve Chocolate Chip Cookies or my Easy Blender Mousse. Or my new (and not yet posted) Single Serve Brownies (coming soon, I promise).

So those are my birthday plans. 43 ain’t so bad.

Please see my Low Carb Boston Cream Poke Cake on Swerve Sweetener.

Serves 16.

Food energy: 336kcal
Total fat: 29.85g
Calories from fat: 268
Cholesterol: 124mg
Carbohydrate: 7.18g
Total dietary fiber: 3.02g
Protein: 8.91g

Low carb Gluten-Free Boston Cream Pie Poke Cake recipe

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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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Comments

  4. Happy Birthday!! I love anything Boston Cream, so I kind of feel like your birthday is my birthday. I absolutely can’t wait to try this.

    Reply

  5. Happy birthday, Carolyn! Hope you have the perfect day that you’ve described. Thank you for this recipe – it sounds fabulous and I hope to make it this weekend.

    Reply

  7. Happy Birthday!! It’s your birthday and yet I feel like you gave us a present instead, this looks super delicious!!! Can’t wait to try it 🙂

    Reply

  8. Happy birthday, Carolyn! As someone with a few years on you, I can say that it just keeps getting better;-). Hope you have a marvelous day and a great year to come! (And the cake looks divine!)

    Reply

  9. This is a scrumdiddlyumptious looking cake…gotta try it. Happy birthday! I also turned 43 this year & your celebration sounds perfect!

    Reply

  10. Happy Birthday! ??? I so enjoy your thoughts on life and love your recipes. When I want something sweet that I know will be perfect on my THM journey, your blog is my go to place. Hope your next 43 years are as blessed as the past 43 have been. Enjoy your day! Is it too early for the Portland Rose Garden?

    Reply

  12. You’ve accomplished a lot, my dear! You’ve helped me personally navigate low carb for years now, and I know there are many, many others like me!!! I feel you’ve been instrumental in making a LC WOE feel sustainable for me. No deprivation at all with your fabulous recipes! Happy birthday! !!

    Reply

  14. I didn’t know we were almost birthday girl twins (2 days apart – albeit I’d be your big sister 🙂 It’s so glorious to see all your successes over the years and to get you know in person over good food, runs and lots of laughs. Wishing you the very happiest of days and I’m going to make me a belated Boston Cream Poke Cake!

    Reply

  15. Happy birthday !! I’m looking forward to making this !! Do you have the nutritional info for this ?

    Thank you in advance ?

    Reply

  19. Happy birthday, Carolyn! What do you have to show for your 43 years? (Aside from gorgeous children, etc. :0)) You have a whole crowd of happy low-carbers getting fit and healthy using your recipes and loving every last bite!

    Thank you for all you do for us! This recipe looks amazing! Have a great birthday!!

    Reply

  20. Happy Birthday Carolyn, and to many flavorful more !

    This looks fantastic ! I am always so excited to see what you will send us next 🙂

    Reply

  22. I am new to your blog and am very happy for the low carb recipes. What does THM stand for, I have seen it referenced several times in recipes and why use the whey protein powder and xantham gum? In the Boston Cream Poke Cake – pastry cream, wouldn’t the egg yolks and whipping cream thicken with out having to use the xanthum gum? Just wondering.
    Thanks again for all the wonderful recipes. BTW we love your deep dish pizza.
    Happy Birthday !

    Reply

    • THM = Trim Healthy Mama (a diet that incorporates some low carb). Traditional pastry cream uses cornstarch to help thicken so you really do need a bit of a thickener like xanthan to get the right consistency.

      Reply

  23. Many happy birthday wishes to you Carolyn ! Sounds like you have many blessings, along with all us wishing you a happy birthday and many thanks for all the great recipes ! My husband and I always made it a point to share our wedding anniversary in a special way, just for us, even when we didn’t have 2 nickels between us ! As you grow older, birthdays become less about the presents (although they are always nice) and more about reflections-faith, friends, family, the past year and looking ahead. The simple pleasures become more important. Enjoy your special day and CELEBRATE YOU !!!

    Reply

    • Hear! Hear! Carolyn!

      Your work has made an astonishing difference in my life! I have followed the South Beach diet off and on for several years (mainly off). It did not have recipes I enjoy so I frequently fell off.

      I stumbled onto your site at the beginning of the year when my fasting blood sugar was dangerously out of control. High readings are a thing of the past. I regularly use your tip #10 from your post on “Top 10 Tips for Getting Back on Track with Your Low Carb Diet”. In other words I make dishes from your recipes regularly. They are delicious and fun too.

      You not only have the gift of generosity, you are cheerful, and an outstanding communicator. Every recipe has obviously been well tested and beautifully presented. If you have not already done so I would buy stock from Swerve if I were you. I alone have bought 3 bags of Swerve since I discovered your site. Based on the success I have had with my diet I think your recipes will be as standard and as widely used as “Texas sheet cake” for example.

      You are a great gift and blessing to all who visit your web site! Happy Birthday!

      Oh, the cake looks really yummy. 🙂

      Reply

  28. Happy Birthday to you Carolyn! I am so bad about staying low carb lately, but I always find myself on your site when I am needing something to remind me of how good it can be. I come to ADIDAF before other low carb recipes sites, because hands down your recipes are always winners, so Thank You! 🙂
    Also, as a fellow Portlandian, I am curious which food cart has the best brisket?

    Reply

  30. I celebrated your birthday by eating your stuff for every meal yesterday 🙂 I made the garlic chicken soup, crispy wings and this cake. It was a bit of work for this semi-novice but if this is how you’re eating every day then you have a lot to show for your years!

    Reply

  31. question…..you say to add half of the egg yolk mixture in but never say when to add the half in. Do I cook it some before adding the half in? Thanks

    Reply

    • No, I don’t think you are reading this correctly. You add half of the hot cream into the egg yolks, whisking continuously. This is called tempering the yolks. You temper them (bring them up slowly to temperature) so that when they get add BACK to the cream, they don’t curdle. When you add them to the cream in the pan, you add the whole amount. Slowly, whisking all the while.

      Reply

  34. I’ve been trying to find the recipe the Boston Crème poke cake. Sorry to say, I can’t for the life of me find it. Help me please!!!! My family has been watching carbs for about 2 years now…so I’m excited to find a YUMMY Boston Crème cake that is carb smart!

    Reply

    • There is a very large link in the post which says “Please see my low carb Boston Cream Poke Cake”. It’s in blue. You should be able to see it easily.

      Reply

  36. Carolyn, I hope you had a great birthday! You have much to show for your 43 years! You have come into our lives with yummy recipes that I cannot thank you enough for! Love that you are promoting Low Carb lifestyle and creating all these great recipes!

    Reply

  37. I am so glad I made this cake. I almost gave up baking because my husband and son wouldn’t eat anything with “this mean sugar”. So this was my first try with swerve and it is a winner in our house.
    Both husband and son asked for seconds and wanted the cake for breakfast, yeah.
    The cake is absolutely delicious, I could eat the vanilla cream by itself and the chocolate ganache was not too sweet.
    Thanks again- and happy belated birthday.

    Reply

  39. Dear Carolyn,

    Been low-carb for about a month and your website and yummy recipes do not make it difficult at all!! 😀

    One question I do have is regarding the protein powder. There’s been a couple of recipes I wanted to try out but they all use the protein powder. It’s quite difficult to get in the Netherlands and I was wondering if this was necessary for the structure or just to give it some proteins to fill you up? Do you have replacement suggestions, preferable lactose-free ?

    Keep posting delicious recipes, its really helping this sweet tooth to stick to low-carb! 😀

    Reply

    • It’s definitely for structure. In the absence of gluten (which is a protein), a dry protein powder helps the baked good rise and holds its shape. Similar in function to the gluten. If you can find egg white powder (also known as meringue powder, but just make sure it’s unsweetened), that’s your best replacement.

      Reply

  40. I made this today for my family for Easter dinner. I was HUGE hit – even with my family members who eat a “regular” diet. I did sub egg white protein powder for the whey – but they both act the same, so it turned out fine. Otherwise, followed the recipe pretty well! It was moist, delicious, not overly sweet, not too crumbly. Over all a very good recipe! Will definitely make again.

    Reply

  41. 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?

    Reply

    • 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.

      Reply

      • 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!!

        Reply

  42. 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

    Reply

  43. 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!

    Reply

  44. 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.

    Reply

  46. 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!

    Reply

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