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
Free Bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Sign up for your favorite recipes delivered straight to your inbox plus get our FREE bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
I have not liked low carb/keto desserts or artificial sweeteners. But this was really good and I will make this again. Thank you!!
Are net carbs ok?? I think it’s 3.04g not 2.04g!!
I was wondering this as well?
I wish I had read more of the comments before I made this cake. It was a disaster as far as getting it out of the Bundt pan. I followed the recipe exactly, being very careful to grease and flour the pan. It never did come out and finally dug it out with a serving spoon. Every plate was a different kind of mess. Good news is that it tasted fabulous!! Go figure.
Needs a lot of grease.
Just made the cake and it tastes delicious!next time I’ll use less sweetener, I had used a monk fruit/erythritol blend. But I am wondering if the cake is supposed to be a little ‘mushy’ for a lack of a better word. I cooked it until golden brown and toothpick came out dry, except for an oily look on it. I’ve never had butter cake before so have no idea what consistency it should resemble. Thank you!
No, it definitely should not be mushy.
First, delicious. But holy moly it’s sweet. Second I buttered the crap out of my Bundt and it still wouldn’t come out, became a crumbly mess. Not sure if it’s because of my pan or maybe I didn’t cook it long enough. I think it’s the pan though. This has happened once before and maybe that’s because I found it in a thrift store. They gave up on it too ??. If I made it again I would use a regular pan and cut the sweetness alot. But it’s very good in little bites!
What a delicious cake. I made it in a 9×13 pan and turned it into a rum cake with pecans on top. I subbed 1/4 cup of rum for 1/4 cup of water in the cake and 2 T rum in the glaze. Definitely a keeper for our house. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Can you make a chocolate cake version of this?
If I wanted to make this into a rum cake, any idea which ingredients to replace with rum? I know baking has to be very precise but I am clueless when it comes to this stuff.
Some of the water at the end (maybe 1/4 cup) and then I would be tempted to add a few tbsp of rum to the glaze.
This cake is SOOOO good. On the 3rd time making it, I divided the batter in half and added 1/4 cup cocoa powder to half. I poured the chocolate half in the pan first then the vanilla half. It made a perfect half and half cake. SUPER GOOD! Thanks for all the great recipes!
I just finished making this and oh my!!! This was my first keto friendly dessert that I’ve made that wasn’t a flop. So delicious! Thank you! ♥
So glad to hear it!
Hi, I am Candyce. I love your recipes. I have been on THM since January 2016, and you have been one of my favorites for S recipes. My family liked this cake so much I even made it for my 3year old’s birthday party. I also featured it in a recent blog post which you can view here http://candycomforts.com/19-weeks/ If you have any problem with this please let me know and I will remove the link.
Also I was wondering why you add water to the glaze. I made it with and without and I did not notice much of a difference. Thank you again for all of your wonderful recipes.
Hi Candyce, the water is just to thin it out a bit, that’s all. 🙂 Thanks for sharing my recipes.
Well, I just tried to leave a comment on your blog and I was blocked as a “suspected bot”. 🙁
Thank you! I just disabled a plugin that may have been blocking comments.
🙂
I do keto by myself. My husband tries to be supportive. But he doesn’t usually try to many of my experiments. So I took this recipes and divided by 16 servings and did a little rounding. I baked it in a ramekin. I mixed a fraction of the glaze and topped it after baking. It was still warm when I ate it. It was awesome!
Sounds perfect. I have a number of other small batch desserts I hope you will try!
Hi Carolyn,
Great name by the way. I saved your recipe last year when I started LCHF, and at the time I didn’t know where to get the whey protein. I managed to get some of that a few months ago, and still had not got around to making your cake, till last weekend. I had some non LCHF family over, and decided to finally make it. I don’t normally serve a new recipe to friends/family until I’ve tried and tested it first. But this looked so good, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Absolutely nothing too worry about.This cake is amazing! I’m from Australia, and never had Kentucky butter cake before, but I bet if I did, I couldn’t taste the difference. This cake is so moist, and melt in your mouth delicious. This is better than my old favourite non LCHF cake, that I made for years. This is awesome. I’ve just made another one, and I’m struggling to wait for it to cool down, before I devour it. Thank you so much.
I am so glad to hear it, fellow Carolyn!
Hi Carolyn,
Love all your recipes. Was wondering if this could be made in 2 loaf pans? One for enjoying right away and one to freeze for later? I’m thinking half the batter in each pan? What do you think?
Thanks
I made this cake last weekend for my sister in laws birthday. (I decided to make it in the bundt pan anyway) There were some non LCHF deserts there as well. Every one loved and I mean loved this cake. Especially my pregnant niece who had 3 pieces! The regular deserts got tasted but this cake was almost gone! This recipe is a keeper, will be making it again and again! Thanks for all your hard work developing these recipes for everyone to share.
Hi! What if I dont pour glaxe on top to save the colorie!
Would be still nice n sweet?
Thanx
Yes, it would be great.
This was amazing! I made it for a dessert for non-keto folks. Everyone loved it. Thank you for the recipe!
My husband made this cake for me this week for my birthday. He’s not a baker, so he followed the recipe exactly to be sure he got it right. It browned up well in the oven but when he took it out of the bundt pan it literally collapsed into chunks and pieces. It was delicious, but we basically had to eat it out of a bowl with a spoon because it’s nothing but crumbs. What went wrong?
Without being in the kitchen with your husband, I can’t say what went wrong. What type of almond flour did you use? What sweetener?
Any suggestions on getting it out of the Bunt Cake pan? I have made this 2x so far in a well buttered-and sprinkled with the almond flour as suggested-the bunt cake pan (food network brand) and it has broken both times coming out on the cake plate. Seems like it could be a friction stick. The sides come out fine. Actually the sides pull away from the pan even before the cake is done. The top rounded part is the problem. I still get a few perfect slices but I hate that some of the cake breaks off. I want a perfect cake
It’s a tricky one. If you have a really good thin rubber spatula, work it down the sides. And don’t try to take it out of the pan too early.
Trying again today… The rounded top (when flipped) is what sticks and breaks the cake. I am gonna try releasing the cake first while still warm but before I add the butter glaze. Release but keep in the bunt pan then add the glaze. I am thinking that the extra moisture cooling with the cake is what makes it stick at the top.
Ima 9×13 pan, cut into 16 slices and I’ll have the same nutritional facts as you, right???
Yes
I made this for the holiday weekend – it tasted GREAT but stuck to the pan. I buttered and almond floured the pan very well. And followed all of the ingredients and directions exactly. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Some bundt pans are worse than other, sadly. Is it one with a lot of deep crevasses? Because that can be an issue too. I “double grease” often with both butter and coconut oil spray.