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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I made this for a 2024 Kentucky Derby dinner party. My friends also eat the Keto lifestyle so we were excited to try it. Everyone loved it. I didn’t have a bundt pan so baked it in a 9×9 pan and it cooked perfectly in 50 minutes. Thank you Carolyn!
hi – can you use ghee instead of butter in this recipe?
I think that would be fine.
This is one of the absolute best keto cakes I’ve tried! Do you know if I can freeze it?
Absolutely! Make sure to wrap it up tightly so it doesn’t get any freezer burn.
Yay! I’m bringing it to a family vacation. Thank you!
Hi
I just made this cake. It’s in the oven.
I followed all instructions but my batter seemed not as thick as yours.
Wonder why?
We will have to see what happens .
Thanks
Love your recipes.
Yvonne from Newfoundland Canada
Sounds like you may not have had quite enough flour. How did it work out?
Ive made this several times as the bundt and its amazing, although difficult to keep its form as my bundts always stick a bit. I’m hoping to make in silicone cupcake size this time, since we are just going to break them up for parfait cups anyway. Has this been tried before and any suggestions for adjusting the time/temp?
I’m planning to bring this to my new Pokeno game tonight. Do you think allulose (All-u-lose brand) would work? I have it on hand and am, generally, a big fan.
No, it won’t. This cake bakes for a long time and it’s going to get overly dark with allulose.
What can be used to substitute whey protein powder? Would superfood protein powder work?
I really can’t say. Probably, but I can’t guarantee it.
Made this several times and it is awesome. Wonder if you can use chocolate whey protein powder? Think?
What went wrong? my room temperature egg mixture curdled during the beating step. I used Swerve granular. Help
No idea… but just keep adding the remaining ingredients, it should smooth out.
Carolyn,
Since I don’t have heavy cream on hand, I’ve read I could use H&H and melted butter. Or would straight H&H work for the water & Cream? Just trying to not have to make a run to the store.
Planning to bring this to New Years Eve party.
Straight half and half would be fine.
seemed to work well with the H&H. Found my “top” is a lot darker than yours in the image, and did not fully come out of the pan. Wonder if this would work in a 9×9 cut in squares. But recipe is a keeper, most LC/Keto desserts with Almond come out too dry for me.
Could this be turned into a Rum Cake? My mother is obsessed.
I can’t see why not. Add a bit to the batter and replace the water in the syrup.
I just finished making this cake. Everything worked out perfectly, except the top of the cake stuck on the bottom of the pan. It’s okay, though. I just pieced it back together and sprinkled the confectioner’s sweetener on top, and snacked on the stick cake. So good!!!! It reminds me of a cake my mom used to make years ago, called a Bacardi Rum cake. It has Rum in the cake, and Rum in the butter syrup that gets poured over to top like this one. It also has chopped walnuts in the bottom of the pan (top of the cake). I’m going to try that next time. Thank you for this recipe!
Bundt pans are tricky!
i use a silicone bundt pan inside of a metal bundt pan…slides out easily.
Would this work with granular monk fruit in order to cut the carbs down? I believe it sweeter, so I think I would have to cut the amount, correct?
What brand are you talking about? They are all formulated a little differently…
WOW! just took this cake out of the oven. It’s so crazy moist without even using the glaze. I opted to NOT put the glaze in the cake, but used a keto cream cheese glaze on top. The cake doesn’t really need any glaze or icing of any kind, but we happened to be in the mood for a cream cheese glaze.
This is amazing – just amazing!!
Sounds great!
Monkfruit in the raw (without erythritol)
If you think maltodextrin is going to save you on carbs, you are sadly mistaken. It spikes most people’s blood sugar (including mine). Whereas erythritol has carbs but the have ZERO impact on blood glucose. I test my blood sugar and can confirm that this holds true for me.
I will probably stick with swerve just to not mess up the recipe. I just asked because my daughter has an Epilepsy and she has a very specific carb allowance.
Oooooh, I get the carb allowance but I would check with her doctors because maltodextrin may be something that affects her!
Can you leave the whey protein out?
Not if you want it to rise properly.
Can you use vanilla flavored whey protein powder? Bought it for this recipe and was going to make it today and noticed it said unflavored. 🤦🏻♀️
Yes, but don’t add any other vanilla.
So YUMMO! Doesn’t seem like a keto cake! But I had trouble getting it out of the Bundt pan! Did all the pro-level tricks (solid oil/butter, spray oil/avocado, dusting of almond flour), wait until cool, still it stuck horribly!! Tasted great! But needed a LOT of whipped cream to hide the crumbles!!
Sounds to me like you might need a new pan, sadly. Bundt pans are tricky!
So delicious!
Haven’t tried it YET, but it’s on my must bake list 😉 looks delicious!
Hello. I am wanting to make this cake for my birthday tomorrow. Can I use whey protein isolate instead of whey protein powder?
Yes, that works.
Hi Carolyn…My mother used to make this cake, once a year, for one of my brothers birthdays. Later, my other brother went on to pastry school, and worked in several restaurants, where a version of this butter cake was always on his menu. (Mom probably got the traditional recipe out of a Southern Living magazine).
While I am not a butter cake aficionado, I have known this cake over the course of a lifetime (I’m 55), and I baked this recipe yesterday, untested & tasted, for my pastry chef brothers birthday.
I had given up on baking recipes verbatim in this keto, or any alternative to the traditional realm (embracing them as inspirational only). Because when I tell you I have traveled to far places (before Amazon home delivery), to purchase equipment, and ingredients, only to create very expensive garbage, I do not exaggerate. The waste was heart breaking for my wallet, and the planet!, The good that came from that, experience, exposure, and confidence in my own abilities…but…, I tell you this, in babbling on fashion, because I can’t grab you by the shoulders and hug you, or drive home the fact, that this is the best cake I have ever baked or eaten! The crumb, the flavor, what a surprise, my heart, this tender, beautiful bundt has won my heart! (and honestly, I am not cake person, but I am now a ADIDAF Kentucky Butter Cake person!)
Thank you!!!!!!!!