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 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) Swerve Granular
- 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) Swerve Granular
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Garnish
- 1 to 2 tbsp Confectioner's Swerve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. 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 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
Nutrition
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Love love loved this! Made this all for me and love having this for breakfast, coffee, and dessert! Thank you for teaching me to bake keto.
I love this recipe however every time I figure out the carbs it’s much higher. I think it’s the Swerve. Please explain how the difference
Yep… you’re probably using Carb Counter or one of the online systems and they will include the erythritol. Erythritol has “carbs” but they don’t have any impact on blood glucose, so should not be counted as a carb.
Maybe just not my kind of cake. Glad I cut the recipe in half, without something like fresh fruit on it, not a great cake by itself.
Two questions: 1) Do you think I could sub lemon juice for the water (plus some zest) to make a lemon version? 2) When you double grease a pan, when do you do the dusting of almond flour? After the first hard fat? Or after the spray? Thank you!
Yes to the lemon… dust AFTER all the greasing.
Delicious and easy to make! Thanks for the recipe!
Ok- I’m making this one 2morro! The only thing I don’t have in my pantry is protein powder, so fingers crossed I find it- I might sprinkle pecan pieces on the bottom of the pan- that’s like the rum cake I used to make at christmas- maybe rum in the glaze too!
Thanks for your recipes!-do you think powdered egg whites would work if I can’t find whey protein powder?
So far, the best keto dessert recipe we’ve tried.
I plan to make this today but have a question about salted or unsalted butter? If it was in the blog I missed it. Thanks in advance!
It really doesn’t matter in terms of consistency. I have a high tolerance for salt so I usually use salted.
Thanks, I’ll use 1/2 salt and 1/2 unsalted. We’ll see!
holy moly ???? thanks a million for creating and sharing this unbelieveable yummy recipe❣️ my new favourite ❣️ too delicious to be true! i made 4 small cakes instead a large one and added some fresh lemon juice to two of the pretties ???? i need to freeze 2 immediately – otherwise, all of them would not survive the day ????
I was excited to make this cake… It was easy to prepare and came out of the oven a gorgeous golden brown… after 55 minutes.
My husband and I found the cake a bit “grainy”, not sure why… I sifted the Blue Diamond brand finely sifted almond flour and Anthony’s Coconut flour and followed all instructions exactly as written.
If this helps….It was a low humidity day here in Pennsylvania and the sun was shining.
Can you tell my what I did wrong?
Please and thankyou.
GrammyG
I did forget to add that I used a Tupperware bundt cake pan with flat sides instead of my larger bundt pan with grooves.
Honestly, from what I understand… the blue diamond brand sometimes is gritty to people – sifting it isn’t going to change that if it’s not finely ground enough. I never use it, I always use Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour.
Bob’s Red Mill or King Arther flour it shall be! Thank you…!!!!!!!
This cake is amazing. I still dream about it. Thank you.
Just saw Wes from Highfalutin make your cake and I can’t wait to make it this weekend!!
Enjoy!
So delicious !! I’ve made it three times and my husband snd I absolutely love it!
For someone who can’t have whey is there an alternative for the protein powder you might suggest?
Egg white protein powder.
Can you provide the name or link of whey protein you use. Thank you in advance and that’s for encouraging.
It’s linked right in the recipe already. 🙂
What size Bundt pan do you need?
Just a standard bundt pan. 9 cups or so.
New family favorite! I can’t seem to make enough of this since my sister first discovered it. When following the recipe exactly and in correct order the results are delightful! I like that it doesn’t use a ton of dishes. I use a silicone Bundt mold and it never sticks. This time I’m using cupcake molds since I don’t have the Bundt mold at hand and I’m sure will make great cupcakes too. Shuckers Sugar free caramel syrup on top btw is A+. If I wasn’t being lazy I’d use Keto Copy’s keto salted caramels recipe to make a syrup for it that’s even better than the smuckers.
OMG. This looks great. As I love creamy deserts and doing Keto, I can’t wait to make this! I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Hi
Can you use two regular cake pans or a very deep spring pan instead of a Bundt pan?
I have not tested it that way. If you do, please line the bottoms with parchment to help it come out more easily.
Your absolutely right on the parchment which I didn’t do as I saw your response after making the cake. I used an Angel Food Cake pan that was one piece. It didn’t budge so I scooped out a small piece and when I serve tonight hope the next few come out easier. Not dissapointed to have to cut out a tester piece because I was able to taste the cake and it is absolutely AWESOME!!! my new favorite and I’m a pie person. Thank you for your response…I think if I don’t invest in a bundt pan, i’ll try my five inch deep cheesecake pan and then I can release the spring after loosening the edges.
I highly recommend a silicone Bundt cake mold. Doesn’t stick one bit! No greasing required either. Be sure it’s a good quality silicone with no fillers though. You can test the silicone using the pinch test. If your pinch a couple pieces of the silicone together you should not be able to see the bent part turn white. If it turns white it’s got filler and makes things stick to it which defeats the purpose of silicone molds.
Great tip
Hi,
Is it possible to use vital wheat gluten instead of whey protein powder?
I honestly don’t know. It’s not an ingredient I use often.