Classic Italian Cream Cake goes low carb and keto! This rich layer cake is a truly special dessert recipe, and it’s worth the time and effort.
Some recipes make me do the happy dance. And this keto Italian Cream Cake is one of those recipes. I really am quite excited to bring this one to you today as it is seriously fantastic. I rank it up there among my best cake recipes, easily.
So here’s the deal. As most of you know, I’ve been hard at work on a keto dessert cookbook. Easy Keto Desserts will be coming out on July 3rd and I am so excited about that one. Because let’s be honest, that’s where my heart lies. Creating healthy low carb desserts just makes me happy. And apparently it makes a lot of you happy too. But the recipes in that book are, obviously, on the “easier” side of things. They are delicious treats you can whip up without a whole lot of effort and without getting out every pan and whisk in your kitchen. They are still creative and innovative, but they aren’t overly complicated.
And while I know many of you will appreciate that, I actually have a bit of a thing for more complicated desserts – the kind that really do have you getting out multiple bowls and beaters and whisks. The sort that has every cupboard open and every spare surface of kitchen counter covered. When I have the time for them, I really love those recipes…just burrowing into my kitchen and losing myself in the creation of something delicious.
I’d never heard of Italian Cream Cake before I moved to the US. It’s just not a Canadian thing…and with good reason. It’s actually not really Italian at all, but instead a kind of vintage southern cake recipe. But regardless of origins, it’s an astonishingly good cake and makes for a perfect low carb makeover. I realized it was perfect as a recipe to showcase Bob’s Red Mill products, because I would not only be using almond flour, but also their unsweetened shredded coconut and a little coconut flour as well. I always rely on their low carb flours and meals, as I know they will produce excellent results. And they came through for me as always!
How to Make Keto Italian Cream Cake
One thing I would do differently for this cake, however, is use smaller 8 inch pans. At the time of creation, I only had 9 inch round pans. They worked just fine but the layers weren’t as high and impressive looking as I would have liked – the cake was rather wide and squat-looking…but the amazing flavour more than made up for it. If you choose to use 8 inch pans, the baking time will be longer, of course. My guess is anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes longer. This is a big, rich cake, so whether you bake it in 9 inch pans or 8 inch pans, it serves about 16 people.
So here’s to easy desserts and here’s to complicated desserts. They both have a place in my heart!
Want more amazing keto cake recipes? Check out my new Keto Desserts page. All recipes under 7g TOTAL carbs!
Love to bake? You need this cookbook!
Low Carb Italian Cream Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- ½ cup butter softened
- 1 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 4 large eggs room temperature, separated
- ½ cup heavy cream room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ cup butter softened
- 1 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream room temperature
Garnish
- 2 tablespoon shredded coconut lightly toasted
- 2 tablespoon chopped pecans lightly toasted
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325F and grease two 8 inch or 9 inch round cake pans very well (the 8 inch pans will take a little longer to cook but the layers will be higher and I think they will look better). Line the pans with parchment paper and grease the paper.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sweetener until well combined. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the heavy cream and vanilla extract.
- In another bowl, whisk together the almond flour, shredded coconut, chopped pecans, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat into the butter mixture until just combined.
- In another large bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until they hold stiff peaks. Gently fold into the cake batter.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and spread to the edges. Bake 35 to 45 minutes (or longer, depending on your pans), until the cakes are golden on the edges and firm to the touch in the middle.
- Remove and let cool completely in the pans, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove the parchment from the layers if it comes out with them.
Frosting
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Beat in the sweetener and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Slowly add the heavy whipping cream until a spreadable consistency is achieved.
To Assemble
- Place the bottom layer on a serving plate and cover the top with about ⅓ of the frosting. Add the next layer and frost the top and the sides.
- Sprinkle the top with the toasted coconut and pecans. Refrigerate at least half an hour to let set.
Candace says
This is the first time I’ve ever bothered to comment on a blog. This recipe popped up in my Pinterest feed a while back. I saved it thinking “yeah whatever” because, you see, I had pretty much given up on finding any keto desserts that actually taste good. But lately I’ve been noticing recipes using Swerve which I had never tried. So given that I ADORE Italian cream cake, I thought I’d give this a try. And it was better than you-know-what! I will be trying others of your recipes going forward. Since Swerve is so expensive, I might have to pace myself though! Thank you so much, and keep up the fantastic work.
Carolyn says
Candace, I am honoured that you would take the time to comment on my blog for the first one. And that everything turned out so well! Thanks so much.
Macy says
This is fantastic!!! My family loves it, even those who aren’t low carb. This has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl so having a delicious low carb option to enjoy is so wonderful.
Connie Clampit says
I have everything that this recipe calls for but the powdered sugar! Did I read one time that you could put sugar in a blender and make powdered sugar!?can I do the same thing with this srevia?
Carolyn says
No, this won’t work with stevia.
S says
I made this cake for the second time because my husband requested it. He said that this was the best low carb cake he’s ever had. I would have to agree with him. I didn’t have any pecans so I used walnuts instead and it tasted great. Thanks for a keeper recipe, Carolyn!
Carolyn says
WE loved it too and walnuts would be delicious!
Margaret Bern says
I love you for having posted this recipe! Seriously, I was going to email you directly to lobby on its behalf!
(I’m hosting an Italian-themed birthday party for my women’s group tomorrow night. This cake will be the star of the show—fingers crossed—and I promise to give you {almost} all the credit. ????)
Happy Mother’s Day! ????
Vanessa says
OMG, I’m so happy to find this recipe! I was just about to search your website to find a cake recipe I could adapt to make a low carb Italian cream cake. So imagine my delight to find you have one already! Amazing! This was my favorite cake when I lived in Texas and wanted to make myself a birthday cake. Can’t wait to try it!
Marcia smoak says
I added up the amount of carbs in the swerve granulated and the confectioners per teaspoons and got 336 carbs with both sugars in the cake and that isn’t the carbs in the rest of the ingredients, what am I not seeing or what am I doing wrong. I really want to make this cake and have all of the ingredients but how much is a serving? How many carbs per slice. Thanks
Carolyn says
Please understand that while erythritol technically has carbs, they have zero impact on blood sugar. I state this very clearly in my nutritional disclaimer, and that I do not count them at all as carbs. Since I actually test my blood sugar, I know this to be true. So the carb counts stand as written. Erythritol is the ONLY sugar alcohol that can be discounted like this.
CArol says
Will I ever learn to bake the low carb way? I am a gourmet baker with flour and sugar, but am not doing so well with keto recipes.I have noticed that my cakes get too brown and too done when I bake at the recommended temperature. I have an oven thermometer and it registered exactly 325. I set the timer for 30 minutes–5 minutes less than the recommended 35-40 minutes. It is browner than it needs to be but still is a medium brown. My cake tastes good, but it pretty dry. I am assumiing it will get moister in a day or two. The Kentucky butter cake had a perfect texture when I used Splenda. The zucchini cake had a perfect texture with half erythritol and half Splenda. The Italian cream cake has a very dry texture and I used 1/2 Splenda and 1/2 erythritol, since I don’t have Swerve. I used four large eggs, but they seemed smaller than some large eggs. Could that have made a difference in the texture? I almost added another egg, but wanted to stick to the recipe on my first try. Any suggestions appreciated. I may need to order Swerve, but it seems very expensive.
Carolyn says
It should absolutely not be dry. This is an overly moist cake, if anything. If you used Splenda, that may be part of it. And you should follow the recipe as written, even accounting for egg size.
Shawn A Anderson says
Swerve is expensive, but I have found it to be the best for doing anything Keto or low carb. I purchase it from Amazon, and now only use sugar free syrups in my coffee, so I hardly use any swerve unless I am baking sweets! I think it tastes the most like true sugar, but we are all different. I have a tough time purchasing pricy ingredients, as my rent is 4 months due, but I have swerve. Go figure? I know I like to cook, and attempt to bake, though I have never been that good at it, I can watch cookies burn through the glass window of the stove, GAH! My advice is to purchase a 12oz package of swerve, about $8.99 on Amazon, and I have Prime, so I get free shipping. It is still a lot of money, but if you are going to do that, splurge and get the powdered also. It works the best for frostings! I can’t believe there is a low carb recipe for an Italian Crème Cake. I never knew I liked it until my niece bought one for my mom’s birthday about 15 years ago, and not I have a new favorite cake! I will be getting some coconut most likely when I go to the grocery tomorrow, so I will attempt to create this tomorrow. My biggest issue will be eating the whole thing in 2 days! Yikes. Thanks again Carolyn for this recipe. I will let you know how it turns out.
Shawn.
michele says
I followed this recipe exactly as written and it is dry and crumbly. It has an ok flavor. I would not make again as it calls for expensive ingredients and I feel like I wasted them.
Carolyn says
Did you follow the recipe exactly as written? Because this is not a dry crumbly cake. You may have mismeasured something, or perhaps you used dark cake pans and didn’t account for that (they tend to overcook things). You can see from the comments that this is a recipe most people love.
Wona says
Ok for this recipe I soaked my sugar free coconut flakes in enough silk coconut/almond milk to cover the flakes. And I let this set for a bit while I prepared everything else. Probably not quite 1/2 cup. This will rehydrate the flakes and make them moist just like most sugar coconut is. Then instead of adding it to the dry ingredients I added it to the wet ingredients before combining the wet and dry together. It will change the carb count a bit but not much. Mine were I thought the perfect moist and I got rave reviews from my church group when I took them. I am also doing mine as cup cakes. It produces about 24 cup cakes and I bake for about 20 minutes but will add another 5 minutes if they don’t look quite brown enough…so I watch them pretty closely. I also use a silicone cupcake pan. They have to cool for a bit to pop out in one piece but this is my new favorite keto sweet.
Dunia says
Hi,
In the cake you have heavy cream. Is this heavy whipping cream or something else?
Thank you,
Dunia
Carolyn says
Heavy whipping cream. They are essentially the same thing.
Dunia says
I look forward to your new recipe posts. Thank you Carolyn!
Dunia says
Hi there,
Was wondering if I used Splenda granulated in the cake in which I know will have 1/2 sugar do you think it will be fine?
I have enough powdered Swerve to put into the frosting. just trying to use what I have right now. Cant wait to make this.
Thank you!
Dunia
Carolyn says
I honestly can’t guarantee the results but it’s worth a try.
Dunia says
This cake looks amazing and can’t wait to make it. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out with Splenda although I usually only bake with swerve.
Thanks so much for your quick response!
Corinne says
Would this recipe make 24 cupcakes?
Carolyn says
No, probably more like 16.
Elsine says
What is baking time for cupcakes?
Sarah says
The cake is delicious. I made it in 3 8×8 square pans to make a 3 layer cake but I wouldn’t recommend doing that – the layers were a little dry and thin. My trouble was that the frosting turned out salty. I always use less sugar in frosting recipes because I hate sweet frosting, but the salted butter and tangy salty cream cheese made a salty frosting. Yuck! Next time I will use a different frosting that I can lower the sugar in.
Also – How on earth do you fold in the egg whites to the batter? It was a really heavy thick batter. The egg whites lightened it a little bit but not enough that it seemed to warrant a whole extra step of whipping them.
Im thinking of using this recipe to make muffins 🙂 I love the pecans and coconut in the batter! Delightful.
Carolyn says
You shouldn’t use salted butter in a frosting. And as for the cake, it shouldn’t be too thick to fold in egg whites so something went wrong on your end.
Wendy Mauzeroll says
Planning on making this cake this afternoon and just want to confirm that the butter called for in your desert recipes is always unsalted.
Carolyn says
Truth be told, I use salted but I have a very high tolerance for salt. Some folks don’t so I generally recommend unsalted.
Lynda Hollohan says
When I made the cake the batter (before the egg whites) was very crumbly.
should it have been more liquid. it just crumbled like a crumble on an apple crisp. I tried to fold in the egg whites but it was very messy.
What am I doing wrong?
Carolyn says
It sounds like it’s much to dry but I am not sure why if you used the correct ingredients at the right amounts. Any chance you used coconut flour in place of almond?
Nicole Slokken says
Thank you for this amazing recipe! I just stuck the cake pans into the oven.
My only question is that I didn’t have granulated swerve so I subbed with THM Super Sweet Blend (3 TBSP). Since it’s such a smaller amount, do you think the consistency will be ok? I sure hope so!
Thank you!!
Nicole
Carolyn says
I honestly can’t tell you…any substitutions can throw signs off. Good luck!
Cata says
I think I should use about half that butter, but it is very tasty
Tara says
I just popped this into the oven and cannot wait to try a piece. Italian Cream Cake is one of my all time favorites and I just know this one of yours will be a winner! Thanks so much for sharing your gift with us!!! 🙂
Joe G says
Made this last night and it is halfway gone…It is absolutely deliciously moist and flavorful.
JO says
If I substitute the swerve for Pyure how much do I use?
Sherri says
Help lol my icing separated not sure why everything was at room temperature etc I still was able to spread it in as it was just for us but don’t know what happened
Carolyn says
You over-beat it. That can happen although it’s kind of rare.
Sherri says
Oh ok I don’t like this new hand blender that I bought think I will look for new ones. Thank you again your recipes are amazing !
Lokee says
Please could you mention the amount in Gramm the next Time you do this? I have no idea for which ingredient you use which sort of cup.. I have already seen that flour / butter etc differs from One another ans am so confused 🙁
I would Love to prepare this for my moms Birthday in July
xx
Carolyn says
Sorry but I use American volume measurements. The only thing I can tell you is that a cup of almond flour is about 100g and a cup of coconut flour is about 110g.
Jennifer says
Can the baked and unfrosted cake be frozen for a couple of days until ready to use?
Carolyn says
I can’t see why not!