Layers of low carb dark chocolate topped with creamy orange mascarpone frosting. This healthy grain-free cake is a journey for the senses.
I am no cake decorator, but I truly love creating eye-catching, delicious low carb cakes. I lack the patience and the talent for elaborate frosting creations, those hombre, rainbow, or rose studded cakes you might see in a bakery store window (or online by some of my talented food blogger friends!). I have no illusions about being truly good at cake decorating and I don’t really care to become so. But I flatter myself that I do a pretty great job at making homemade cakes that delight and entice, even without all the fancy decorating techniques. While some cakes are true works of art that you don’t want to ruin by cutting into, mine scream “Eat me! Eat me now!”. I don’t know about you, but for me the eating part is very important. Very, very important.
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So let me give you a few tips on how to make a cake look luscious and inviting, even when you are seriously lacking in the decorating department. First of all, start with deep, dark chocolate layers. And don’t make a single layer, that’s just laziness. Even two layers really isn’t enough. It’s getting there, but you need three or more to really stun your friends and family. Don’t worry that it’s more effort, because it’s not. If, like me, you only own two round cake pans, you simply wait for the first two to be done so that you can empty a pan and bake the third. And don’t worry that it makes for a bigger cake, because you simply divide the same amount of batter into thirds. Thin layers look best anyway and have the added advantage of baking faster.
Got those three layers? Good. Now you need to make a thick, luscious frosting. Your flavour options are wide open here but I recommend something that contrasts sharply with the dark chocolate, like a cream cheese based concoction. Ooooh, or mascarpone! Yup, definitely a mascarpone because it just sounds fancier. And more luscious, of course. Now, don’t feel you have to cover the whole cake. It significantly cuts down on the work you have to put in by just slathering each layer with a thick coating of frosting while leaving the sides bare. Then, on that final layer of frosting, swirl it around with the back your spoon to leave an interesting texture. Finally, find something to sprinkle it with, like chocolate shavings or orange zest.
Voila. Perfectly luscious, mouthwatering low carb cake with minimal skill. I knew you could do it!
Please see my low carb Chocolate Cake with Orange Mascarpone Frosting on Swerve Sweetener.
Nutritional Information: Serves 16. Each serving has 3.89g NET CARBS.
Food energy: 362kcal
Total fat: 33.51g
Calories from fat: 301
Cholesterol: 121mg
Carbohydrate: 7.44g
Total dietary fiber: 3.55g
Protein: 9.67g
Erythritol: 22.5g
patricia says
Can I use just more cream cheese instead of the mascarpone cheese? I never have it on hand
This looks so delicious
Carolyn says
Yes, although it’s a bit thicker so you may find you need a touch more cream to get a spreadable consistency.
AZ@...And A Dash of Cinnamon says
You may say you’re not much of a cake decorator, but it looks good to me!
Kim says
My husband’s birthday is coming up & he would like a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Being diabetic, your cake recipe sounds like the ticket but I need a different frosting. Do you happen to have a chocolate icing recipe?
Jimmy says
Kim use the same recipe but add some cocoa powder to make chocolate icing.
Carolyn says
No, I am afraid that wouldn’t work. Adding cocoa powder would make the frosting thick and unspreadable.
zlatka says
The decoration is simple but absolutely beautiful! I love the contrast!
May I ask which one is your all time favorite vanilla cake/ cupcake? Call me weird but I am a vanilla lover! Thanks!
Karen says
Chocolate and orange – one of my all-time favorite combinations. Being Italian, I always have mascarpone on hand. Loving this!
rhonda koch says
HI
I am getting your daily recipes but am not able to find the actual recipe? The pic but not how to make it. How do I find it?
Thanks
Rhonda
Carolyn says
There is a link at the bottom taking you right to the recipe. This one is one Swerve Sweetener.
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
Healthy, chocolate, cake and mascarpone in one sentence? SIGN ME UP. I love the combo of chocolate/orange, so I need a few slices of this beauty! Pinned!
carrian cheney says
Beautiful layers on that cake!!
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles says
That mascarpone sounds absolutely lovely with the chocolate layers!
Matt says
One of my favorite flavor combos, this is awesome!
Kim Wilson says
alldayIdreamaboutfood.com
Tara says
Hi! I’m guessing that the carb count does not include the Swerve – is that right? My son is on the modified Atkns diet for seizures, and he can subtract fiber but not sugar alcohols from his carb count. It seems like the carb count is per slice – is the erythritol amount listed per slice as well (so I add back 22.5 grams), or is that in the whole cake (so we can divide 22.5 by 16 servings)? I’m guessing it’s the former, but I’m praying it’s the latter. I’m always excited to find a new dessert for him. His birthday is next week, and I’d love to make him something special. He only gets 15-20 carbs per day, so this makes all the difference between whether he can or can’t eat this. THANKS! (And if anyone has any recipes for low carb desserts, side dishes, etc. that don’t subtract sugar alcohols, I’m all eyes!)
Carolyn says
I am sorry to hear about your son. Yes, the carb count and the erythritol is per slice, so it’s 22.5 g of erythritol per slice.
Carolyn says
I wanted to follow up to say: there are a lot of my recipes that don’t rely on the sweetener for texture or consistency, and those would be more appropriate for your son because you could use any sweetener you like in them. I’d love to email you and discuss what we could figure out for him. Even this recipe could work with other non-sugar-alcohol sweeteners because the frosting is mostly mascarpone/cream cheese based so it’s the cheese that gives it the right consistency (as opposed to a buttercream, which relies primarily on powdered bulk sweetener for its consistency). What sweeteners can you use for him?
Sara says
Yum! This is delicious!! The only comment is that the cake was very crumbly so I had to be careful when stacking the layers. The combo of orange and chocolate is perfect and the tang of the mascarpone/cream cheese cuts the sweetness perfectly. Thanks for another great recipe. (I tagged you with a pic on Instagram).
Julie says
Tried this and while it tastes great, the cake was dry and fell apart. I barely got two of the layers together, the third completely fell apart and is in a bowl. Do you have any tips for keeping the cakes together?
Carolyn says
Are you using almond flour or almond meal? If it’s the almond meal, that’s likely the problem. What brand is it?
Sara Ysunza says
I used King Arthur blanched almond flour and had the same issue. I was able to piece it together and make it work, but my middle layer was pretty crumbly.
Carolyn says
I can’t account for it because this is my go-to chocolate cake recipe and I’ve made it several times. No crumbliness. In fact, it’s also in THIS recipe, with the exception of having less cocoa powder so it should be LESS crumbly, since cocoa powder is very dry. It may be the KAF flour, I don’t know since I’ve never used it. Sorry about that, but I just can’t identify the problem in this case.
Carolyn says
Oops, forgot to link to “THIS” recipe: http://www.swervesweetener.com/recipes/chocolate-layer-cake-with-whipped-chocolate-ganache-frosting/
Julie says
Hi. I used Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour, super fine grind.
Cookin Canuck says
I’m with you on the three layers – it makes for such a pretty presentation. As for that mascarpone frosting, I could eat that with a spoon!
Erinn says
If I wanted to make this as cupcakes would it still turn out ok?
Mari says
Where is the recipe, please – I can;’t see it anywhere?
Carolyn says
There is a link at the bottom of the post, just above the nutritional count.
MarieMcC says
I made this last night. I don’t have round cake pans, so I made it in a 9×9 glass baking dish. It has fewer cups of almond flour than the Almond Crusted Butter Cake recipe, which worked in the same pan, so I figured it’d be the right size. After 40 minutes at 325, the center was still liquid. Checked a few other chocolate cake recipes (all made with wheat flour), and they all said to bake at 350. I had the same problem with the low temperature in the almond cake recipe, so I turned it up to 350 and baked for another 17 minutes. Knife in the center came out clean. It rose beautifully, was nice and moist and not too crumbly when cooled. I didn’t even frost it. Delicious!
I know your recipes recommend not to use Bob’s Red Mill almond flour, but I did. I was running out of Honeyville and didn’t want to use half of each, so I thought I’d just use the Red Mill and see how it turned out. To my eye, the consistency of both Bob’s and Honeyville look exactly the same. Maybe the Red Mill flour is more finely ground now than it used to be, but I’ve never had a problem using it so far.
Carolyn says
Sounds to me like your oven runs a little on the cold side. But do keep in mind that this recipe was meant to be baked in THREE layers. It’s not the same as the almond cake at all, because it contains coconut flour. Very different and will bake differently. I bake at 325F because after MUCH trial and error, I found that it helps low carb, gluten free recipes rise better. But if your oven runs cold, then you will need to bake at 350 from the sounds of it.
Bob’s has indeed changed their grind of almonds and now their Super Fine Almond Flour is all I use! But their old almond meal was a little too coarse for many recipes.
Barbara says
I made this for a friends birthday party and everyone loved it. It was moist with a deep chocolate flavor. The orange rind and orange extract complimented the chocolate perfectly. I only changed one thing. I used liquid sucralose as the sweetener in the frosting. I was afraid the swerve confectioners would crystallize as its done many times on mr. Worked great. Thanks so much.
Barbara says
On me not mr. Lol
Sandee Wichkoski says
In order to get the net carb count, are you removing the carbs in the Swerve? At the website link it says there are 2 net carbs for a 16th of the cake.
Carolyn says
I don’t ever count Swerve as carbs because it has zero impact on my blood sugar.
Sandee Wichkoski says
Thank you. I was looking at a recipe on another site, keto diet app, and she includes those carbs so i was a bit confused as to how to count them.
Carolyn says
Well, I just looked at her last recipe and she doesn’t actually include the carbs from Swerve/erythritol. https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/post/2017/12/21/low-carb-chocolate-and-cardamom-ganache-tart
Because the erythritol alone here would add 9.4g of carbs per slice and with all of those other ingredients, there is no way it would only be 14.4g per slice if she was also including erythritol. The almond flour and chocolate alone would add up to that!
Carolyn says
And in this recipe, the Swerve carbs alone would be 19.7g per slice. https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/post/2017/12/15/keto-chocolate-zucchini-bundt-cake
So no, she’s not including the erythritol in the total carbs OR the net carbs… I don’t either.
Sandee says
This is the portion of what I read, link included, that mentions adding those carbs in. I must just be misunderstanding the process 🙁 I appreciate your help.
“2. Low-carb Sweeteners
The vast majority of low-carb sweeteners are often advertised as “sugar-free”, “carbs-free” or “zero-carb”. However, this is not always true. Some sweeteners like stevia, Erythritol or monk fruit extract contain very little carbs while others like Xylitol or Tagatose contain more carbs. When using Swerve, Erythritol, Xylitol or sweeteners containing fructooligosaccharides (FOS), always remember to add carbs. What I noticed is that some people subtract all low-carb sweeteners and count them as “zero” – this is not right. I have explained my “safe” method of calculating carbs in sweeteners here.”
https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/post/2014/11/30/Total-Carbs-or-Net-Carbs-What-Really-Counts
Carolyn says
Well, whatever she states there…her numbers on her recipes don’t include it. And in my somewhat expert opinion, I don’t think should include them because they have no impact on blood glucose. I test my blood sugar so I see it first hand.
Sandee Wichkoski says
Thank you!
Daniel says
Made this last night for a friends birthday. The cake is a little crumblier than I expected but on the whole it was a hit. I highly suggest microwaving slices for 7-10 seconds as it seems to make the cake softer, letting the cream cheese soften into the cracks a little. The icing is the real star here… I could eat it by the spoonful!