Key lime pie meets a classic pound cake, all in a healthy low carb recipe! This tart-sweet keto cake recipe is perfect for brunch or dessert.
I seem to have a slight obsession with cake and the moment. And by “slight”, I mean can’t stop thinking about cake, making cake, eating cake and dreaming up new low carb cake recipes. I already have several keto cake recipes in the queue, waiting to be published. And I have an ongoing list of recipe ideas that seems to be dominated by cake at the moment. I don’t really know what’s going on but cake seems to be the order of the day and I am more than a little willing to let my time and energy but completely consumed by cake. I figure at least it’s not crack, right?
The thing about cake is that the possibilities are limitless. It can be simple or complex, it can be easy to make or take hours, it can be one layer or 10 layers. It can be shaped and molded to look like almost anything. It can be chocolate, vanilla, lemon, strawberry, mocha, Nutella, almond, peanut butter, bacon, maple…any flavor you can possibly think of, cake can be that flavor. Or any combination of these flavors. Really, cake is your imagination at work. And lately my imagination has been hard at work on cake.
This lovely low carb key lime cake is relatively simple, as cakes go. It’s in the pound cake style, although of course I didn’t really use a pound of anything to make it. It’s tender and delicious, with a lovely key lime glaze drizzled over. It’s the sort of cake that you can whip up easily for company and serve as brunch, tea, or dessert. So go grab a bag of key limes and get squeezing those little guys so you too can become obsessed by cake!
Keto Key Lime Pound Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup key lime juice
- 2 tsp key lime zest
Glaze
- 3 tbsp powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 2 to 3 tsp key lime juice
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 325ºF and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan very well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and Swerve together until lightened and fluffy. Beat in the eggs until well combined, then beat in half of the almond flour mixture. Beat in the almond milk, lime juice and lime zest, then beat in the remaining almond flour mixture.
- Transfer to the prepared loaf pan and cover with foil after 45 minutes. Bake at least 1 hour, or until edges are golden brown, the top is firm to the touch, and the middle is cooked through. Remove and let cool in the pan 15 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Glaze
- Whisk the confectioner’s Swerve and lime juice together until smooth (should be somewhat runny). Drizzle over the cooled cake.
Nutrition
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Hi Carolyn! I’m making this for a ladies brunch. I was thinking that I could make another loaf in addition, except take away the lime juice and zest and add vanilla for a vanilla pound cake. Obviously, the juice has to be replaced with another liquid, but I’m trying to decide if I should I use milk, water, or something else. What would you recommend? And I think for the glaze I’ll just replace juice with water and a bit of vanilla. That should work, right? (I’m not a super experienced baker.)
Love your recipes & your videos. Thank you for this recipe – can I substitute a monk fruit/allulose blend for the sweetener? I don’t buy the erythritol anymore due to the cooling nature. Thanks for your help!
Just be aware that allulose browns baked goods much more quickly and the exterior may get much darker.
This is so easy to make and tasted really amazing! Thanks for sharing this key lime pound cake! So helpful, loved it!
Yum!! This really is a refreshing & tasty dessert!! It’s the perfect combination of sweet & tart!
I made this cake yesterday for a friend’s birthday. It was sooo good! Even our non-keto friends loved it! I read the recipe wrong and thought it was 2 T of lime zest instead of 2 tsp. It was awesome and not over-flavored AT ALL so I’d recommend a little more zest for a more lime flavor. Thank you for this awesome recipe. AMAZING!!!!! 🙂
I dont quite understand the bit about “cover with foil after 45minutes” “bake for 1 hour”?
Am I letting it sit out for 45mins, then covering and baking?
Total bake time is 1 hour. After 45 minutes of baking, you cover it with foil so it doesn’t over-brown.
I tried this recipe today. It fell completely apart into crumbs!! A lot of work and expensive ingredients to be a pile of crumbs! What could have went wrong?
Well it’s hard to say without more info, but something definitely went wrong. A few questions: what brand of almond flour? What brand of sweetener? and did you let it cool completely before trying to cut it?
I just keep seeing adverts for your paleo key lime pound cake, but you don’t show the recipe anywhere, just photos. Where is the recipe?
Big link at the bottom that says PLEASE SEE MY LOW CARB KEY LIME POUND CAKE ON SWERVE SWEETENER. Hope that helps!
Can I use macadamia milk in place of almond milk?
Yep that should be fine.
I made this and loved it! Although i must be honest, i use regular sugars and honey so it’s not keto for me, but it is lower carb than using regular gluten free flours. I adore using your recipes for the mix of almond and coconut flours this cake was so good i turned the left overs into cake balls and then used them inside a lime cheesecake and then i made the extra into cake balls dipped into melted white chocolate. Absolutely delicious! If i have leftover cheesecake i will make lime cheesecake no churn ice cream with it.
Can I replace with full cream milk instead almond milk?
Cream will be too thick. You can use half cream and half water.
i can’t pull up the recipe! it keeps saying ‘internal server error’. HELP!
I’m asking them what’s going on right now…
Can I use hwc and water as a sub for almond milk?
Sure!
My challenge is I’m sensitive to almonds ( like reacting with and arthrtis flare in my joints). Can I use a gluten free flour mix instead? And coconut milk. I made this a couple years ago. It was lovely!
You can try but I honestly don’t know what the amounts would be.
Will the THM baking blend work for this and what would the measurements be? And gentle sweet measurements?
You definitely can but I am not sure of the amount. THM has a conversion chart for sugar and since Swerve measures like sugar, try using the conversion for sugar.
Is this really 13 net carbs per slice?
No, it’s more like 4g because you have to subtract the Swerve grams too. Erythritol has no impact on blood glucose.
I am dairy sensitive- can I use coconut oil in place of the butter in this cake?
Yes, although use a few tbsp less because it can be a little greasier with coconut oil.
Gotcha, that makes sense. Thanks for the recipe 😉
The cake had a great flavor but didn’t hold together; the texture was a bit like a sandcastle. I did use fine almond flour….is there a different type I should use or do you suspect a different problem? I would like to try again!
What brand is it? It shouldn’t be the defatted type that’s super powdery. But it is easy to mismeasure using volume and if you had too much, it would make the cake more dry and delicate. A cup of almond flour should only weigh about 100g.
What if you can’t use Swerve?? I am sensitive to erythritol.
For the cake, you can use whatever sweetener you want. For the glaze, you really need a powdered sweetener of some sort.
I don’t know, I think this cake could actually be just as addicting as crack. Looks lovely!
I would like this lime pound cake RIGHT NOW with some tea. YUM.
I saw the recipe and went directly to Amazon and bought the key lime juice and swerve.
Oh, my, that looks good! (and moist!) Can’t wait to try it. While you are on a cake kick… how about the “Lemon Fresh Berry Mascarpone” cake? I had a piece in a tiny country cafe in Little Switzerland, NC, and it has been my favorite cake ever since. It was SO fresh, moist and not too sweet. I have made this version (not low carb) years ago, but need a low carb, healthier version!! I know you can do it! lol Please accept the challenge! Love all your recipes!
https://cakescraps.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/lemon-berry-mascarpone-cake/
Oooh, that is gorgeous, I will definitely put it on the list!