Kentucky butter cake is a moist and buttery pound cake with a sweet butter sauce that soaks through the cake. This indulgent keto kentucky butter cake is going to blow your mind! It’s easily one of the best low carb cake recipes I have ever made.
Sometimes, size matters and sometimes, bigger is better. I know many of you are enjoying my mini low carb cakes and keto desserts for two, but that’s not where we are going today, my friends. Oh no, today, we are going big, bold, and beautiful. And we are heading down into the heart of Dixie and taking inspiration from our beloved Southern friends, who do big, bold and beautiful better than the rest of the world. Take, for example, the beloved Kentucky Butter Cake.
I mean, people in the south know how to use butter in a big, BIG way. And anyone who can liberally throw huge amounts of butter in a cake and then drizzle that cake with butter sauce has my respect.
I am pretty certain that I’ve never been to Kentucky. I have a decent sense of US geography but some of those states down in the southeast corner of the country confuse me so I might not even be able to place it on a map. Sorry, Kentuckians, but it’s true and I wager that many of you wouldn’t be able to place the Canadian provinces, so there!
But I have plenty of respect for you because hey, you created bourbon, you’re pretty awesome when it comes to horse races, and you know how to knock it out of the park when you make pound cake.
I confess I’d never heard of Kentucky Butter Cake until I saw this glorious salted caramel version from Wishes and Dishes. Quite literally, I sat there with my jaw hanging open and there is a slight chance that I may have drooled a little. I instantly knew I had to make a low carb Kentucky Butter Cake recipe.
How To Make Kentucky Butter Cake
Creating a low carb recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake needed some careful thought, since low carb ingredients don’t behave the same way as flour and sugar.
Butter: You need ridiculous amounts of it. Well, of course you do, it’s a butter cake after all. You need a full cup of butter for the cake itself and even more butter for the glaze. Please don’t ask me how to make this recipe dairy free. It’s a butter cake.
Almond Flour: This is where the keto version of Kentucky Butter Cake differs from the original. Now this presents a bit of an issue with all that butter, because almond flour already contains much more fat and moisture than wheat flour. Which means it could be too soft and too moist.
Coconut Flour: To offset the moisture content of the almond flour, I also added some coconut flour. It’s incredibly absorbent and helps soak up all the moisture and give the cake some structure.
Protein Powder: Yes, you need it. It doesn’t have to be whey protein, it can also be egg white protein. But you need it. Because gluten is a protein and since this cake is entirely gluten free, adding in a dry protein powder helps the cake rise and hold its shape.
Room Temperature Ingredients: This goes for almost all keto cakes, but it’s really important to have your butter properly softened and your eggs at room temperature. For the butter, you should be able to easily press a finger into it and leave a dent, but not have it squish all over. And if you add cold eggs to that, it’s just going to clump up all over again. So make sure you leave them out for at least 30 minutes before using.
Grease It Good: This cake is so tender, it has a tendency to stick in the pan. Do yourself a favour and grease that pan really well. Not once, but twice. I like to grease once with butter and once with coconut oil spray. Then I like to dust lightly with almond flour. Be sure not to use a pan with deep crevices, where the cake is more likely to stick. And try to use a very good non-stick pan.
The Glaze: Glaze may not be something of a misnomer, since you aren’t glazing the top of the cake. Rather you are poking the cake with holes and allowing this amazing buttery syrup to soak into it. So good! Feel free to make some of the best low carb caramel sauce to drizzle over yours, if you prefer.
Everyone loves my Keto Kentucky Butter Cake
Ever since I first published this recipe, it’s been a beloved favorite among my readers. You don’t have to look much further than the comments to see that.
There are also a lot of copycat recipes out there now. I’ve even had people take this full recipe and pretend that they created it themselves! Yep, one woman on YouTube made a video and took full credit for my recipe. And a lot of other low carb bloggers have now copied it, changing just one or two little things and giving me no credit whatsoever. That’s unfortunately the way things seem to be these days. I might be old school but I believe in giving credit to my inspiration.
So make no mistake, my friends, this is the original low carb Kentucky Butter Cake recipe. And I feel confident that it will stand the test of time!
Check out all my best Keto Desserts here!
Keto Kentucky Butter Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 ½ cups almond flour
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup unflavoured whey protein powder
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup Swerve Granular
- 5 large eggs room temperature.
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup whipping cream
- ½ cup water
Butter Glaze:
- 5 tablespoon butter
- ⅓ cup Swerve Granular
- 2 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish
- 1 to 2 tablespoon Confectioner's Swerve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a bundt cake pan VERY well and then dust with a few tablespoon 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 cake is firm to the touch. A tester inserted in the center should come out clean.
- 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
Elizabeth Lawrence says
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!
Yonni says
Hi,
I am from Tel Aviv.
I would like to know the Pan size for this cake in Centimetre.
Thank you
Carolyn says
It’s about 9 inches across so you can google cm to inches.
Donna says
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.
Carolyn says
It can work but the bake time will be less with the 9X13 so watch it carefully!
Dianna Quay says
Can you tell me if the baking blend THM would work in this? Or what can I sub for almond flour.
Carolyn says
I am sorry, I don’t use it. It’s very dry compared to almond flour.
Roe says
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
Carolyn says
What size and shape is your bundt pan? If it’s quite wide, the cake is going to be flatter.
France says
delicious very easy to do thank you !
Jann says
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.
Carolyn says
Sounds perhaps like the cake wasn’t baked long enough?
Shirley says
This cake is a 5 star, of the low carb cakes I have been baking/ eating this Kentucky butter cake exceeds them all. Deliciously beautiful I am in love 🥰
Carolyn says
Glad to hear it!
Sara Pomish says
I’m making this next week for a Derby party and thinking about adding a shot of bourbon to the glaze….because Kentucky. 😉
Carolyn says
Sounds fab!
Nicole Sandelius says
What if i have half and half instead of heavy whipping cream?
Carolyn says
Sure.
Kim says
Can I use unflavored garden of life vegan protein powder? I accidently ordered the wrong one.
Carolyn says
I think so… I can’t be positive but I think so!
Nicole says
Can you substitute something other than the whey protein powder?
Carolyn says
Egg white protein powder works.
Mary Blaize says
This was so delicious! I made it to take to my sister who had knee surgery and it was sooo good. I came home and made another one. Problem is to just have a slice and not slices** 😂😂 Going to share this one with my daughter when she comes over. Whipped some heavy cream and have berries alongside. Thank you!
Kathy says
Great recipe, I added about a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the butter mixture (3 carbs ). We think it would be great with walnuts or pecans too. Moist cake and great flavor.
Kim says
Can I substitute the granulated swerve with monk fruit sweetener?
Carolyn says
Take look at the back of your bag of sweetener. If the main ingredient is erythritol, then yes.
Mary says
Best cake ever. Omg will try with different icing flavour but honestly doesn’t need anything
Debi Frank says
This is by far the best Keto cake I have ever tasted!!! I served this at a dinner party and people loved it and were shocked to find out it was Keto! Like you, I believe credit is due where credit is due, so I find it irritating people are stealing this exquisite recipe without giving you the credit. Shame on them!
Nicole says
can I sub egg white powder for the whey?
Carolyn says
Yes, that’s fine.
Amy says
Love,love,love! My all time favourite treat. Perfection.