This slow cooker cake recipe may just be the best low carb hocolate cake I’ve ever made. So rich and moist, it doesn’t need any frosting. And no need to heat up the kitchen when you make a low carb chocolate cake in your slow cooker or crock pot!
There is a serious dearth of low carb slow cooker recipes here on All Day I Dream About Food, and for that I apologize. See, slow cookers aren’t really my thing. At least, they weren’t until about a month ago. I know people who love them and swear by them and there are whole blogs devoted to them, but I never really saw the appeal.
I understand the attraction of popping a whole bunch of ingredients into a slow cooker, setting the timer and walking away, but all the recipes I ever tried turned out rather flavourless and uninspiring. The most action my old slow cooker got was when I went through a bout of making homemade crockpot yogurt. It turned out to be pretty useful in that regard. But most meals were best made on the stove top and in the oven, in my opinion, so my slow cooker hung out down in the basement, gathering dust.
I now think that part of my prejudice against slow cookers was due to not having a particularly good one. The old crock pot we had always gave off a funny smell when it was heating and it took forever to cook things through. I mean, I know slow cookers are supposed to be slow, but this one truly took ages. I finally gave up on it completely after a recipe for slow cooker cabbage and sausage never truly cooked at all and had to be finished off in our oven. That was it for me and slow cookers, I thought.
But this slow cooker cake recipe changed my mindset and my opinion on making low carb chocolate cake in a crock pot is forever changed.
Game Changing Slow Cooker Cake Recipe
Fate, however, thought otherwise. I was invited to be a part of a slow cooker charity cookbook that will be coming out in the fall, and Hamilton Beach very kindly supplied me with a brand new slow cooker to test out for my recipes. I’d met the good folks from Hamilton Beach at a recent conference and they showed me then and there that slow cookers have so much more to offer than I ever thought. They were whipping up plenty of tasty items right there and one of them happened to be a crockpot chocolate cake recipe. Um, chocolate cake in a slow cooker? I was floored. And determined to make a low carb, gluten free chocolate cake to rival it’s high carb, sugary counterpart.
Oh. My. Word. This low carb chocolate cake was so good, so unbelievably moist and rich, I actually made it twice within three days. That is saying a lot, my friends. I love experimenting with recipes so much that for me to make something twice, exactly the same way, is a really big deal. It was a huge hit with the whole family, and if you own a slow cooker, you are going to want to make this as soon as possible. Like…right now! And if you don’t own a slow cooker but are looking for one, I highly recommend the Set & Forget 6 Qt Programmable Slow Cooker from Hamilton Beach.
PLEASE NOTE! I’ve updated this recipe to make the low carb cake a little smaller and a little less carby. Although I loved the original, it was pretty big and each serving came in at a whopping 11.5 total carbs (about 5g net carbs). So I decided to try making it with ¾ the amount of batter and you know what? It was just as good. Possibly better, because then I could top it with some ice cream and chocolate sauce and not feel overly full afterward. And interestingly, the cook time was exactly the same.
Watch and see just how easy this slow cooker cake recipe is to make!
Video: How to Make Low Carb Chocolate Cake
But for those of you who loved the original recipe, don’t worry…just scroll a little further down, it’s still there!
Slow Cooker Dark Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoon almond flour
- ½ cup Swerve Granular
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoon unflavoured whey protein powder can sub egg white protein powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoon butter melted
- 3 large eggs
- ⅔ cup unsweetened almond milk
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup sugar-free chocolate chips optional
Instructions
- Grease the insert of a 6 quart slow cooker well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, sweetener, cocoa powder, whey protein powder, baking powder and salt.
- Stir in butter, eggs, almond milk and vanilla extract until well combined, then stir in chocolate chips, if using.
- Pour into prepared insert and cook on low for 2 to 2 ½ hours. It will be gooey and like a pudding cake at 2 hours, and more cakey at 2 ½ hours.
- Turn slow cooker off and let cool 20 to 30 minutes, then cut into pieces and serve warm. Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Original (larger) Cake Recipe
1 & ½ cups almond flour
¾ cup Swerve Sweetener
⅔ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup unflavoured whey protein powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, melted
4 large eggs
¾ cup almond or coconut milk, unsweetened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips (optional)
Grease the insert of a 6 quart slow cooker well.
In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, sweetener, cocoa powder, whey protein powder, baking powder and salt.
Stir in butter, eggs, almond milk and vanilla extract until well combined, then stir in chocolate chips, if using.
Pour into prepared insert and cook on low for 2 ½ to 3 hours. It will be gooey and like a pudding cake at 2 ½ hours, and more cakey at 3 hours.
Turn slow cooker off and let cool 20 to 30 minutes, then cut into pieces and serve warm. Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Serves 10. Each serving has 11.65 g of carbs and 5.38 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 6.27 g.
Food energy: 275kcal
Saturated fatty acids: 9.62g
Total fat: 22.94g
Calories from fat: 206
Cholesterol: 99mg
Carbohydrate: 11.65g
Total dietary fiber: 5.38g
Protein: 9.91g
Sodium: 209mg
Kara says
This looks so rich and tasty it’s hard to believe it’s healthy. Can’t wait to try it!
Julie Blanner says
Yum, this is making my mouth water! Can’t wait to make this!
Suzanne says
This was great! A new favorite chocolate cake. I did substitute Lakanto monk fruit sweetener.
Daphne says
This came out really good but Holy Cow was it chocolaty!! I’ll cut back on the cocoa next time. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Andie Thueson says
I love making slow cooker desserts and this one looks freaking amazing! Must make!
Jessica Burgess says
Wait… low carb chocolate cake AND I can make it in a slow cooker?! SIGN ME UP! Lol! This looks and sounds amazing!
Jamielyn says
Love this idea! Sounds so healthy and delicious!
Beth K. says
The cake looks so nice and moist. Thanks for all the great tips too.
jkim says
Oh oh, I’m having trouble posting an edited question–I meant to ask if I should COOL the cake with the lid on or off. I can’t remember what i did when I made it before.
Thanks!
Carolyn says
You can cool it with it off.
Jkim says
Thank you. That made sense to me, but I wasn’t sure.
skim says
Oops, typo! I plan to make this tonight or tomorrow. Should I COOL the cake with the lid on or off? Sorry for the error.
jkim says
Should I cook the cake with the lid on or off? I made this some time ago and can’t remember which I did. What I do remember is how moist and rich the cake tasted. Baking a cake in my crockpot was a revelation–I’d no idea it would be so delicious!.
Chelsea says
I made this recipe out of your cookbook & it never listed whey powder. Is my cake going to be way off?
Carolyn says
No it will be fine. Sometimes I change things and try new things out for the cookbooks.
Tanya says
Hi Carolyn,
For the amounts of butter, eggs, almond milk, etc do I just look at the original cake recipe and use those amounts?
Carolyn says
So it looks like my recipe got totally messed up when I was transferring to a new recipe plug in. But it should all be fixed now!
Raquel says
Will this recipe work without the protein powder and egg powder?
Carolyn says
Yes but it may not rise as well.
Mary says
How do you get it out of the cooker, or do you serve right from it? Have made twice, second time I put parchment inside and lifted out, but just wondered.
Carolyn says
I serve right from it, like a snack cake!
Donna Lewis says
I would like to make a smaller version of this cake in a round four quart slow cooker because my six quart cooker will be simultaneously cooking a Mississippi pot roast. Do you think that using about 2/3 or 3/4 of the recipe would accomplish that? Thanks so much for your help.
Carolyn says
Sure.
Meseidy Rivera says
This looks perfectly fudgy! And in a slow cooker? Genius!
Erin @ Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts says
I love my crock pot, and making this cake it is genius!
Jennifer Blake says
I love my slow cooker but I have yet to make a dessert in it… I think it is high time I try it!
Jennifer Farley says
Chocolate cake sounds perfect right about now! I’m going to try this out!
Anita says
Hi Carol, I have a oval shape 5.5 Quart Reval slow cooker and just made this in it. I followed the recipe and cooked it for 2 hours at high. It is a little burnt around the edge and I couldn’t take it out from the pot despite having greased the pan with avacado oil. However, it was delish!! We had to use a spoon to scoop it out, which my husband didn’t mind at all. And idea how I can improve it and also what should I do differently to grease the pan?
Thanks for a great recipe again. Love your blog!
Carolyn says
It’s not meant to be taken out of the pan, but really served like a snack cake from the pan. However, you can line your slow cooker with parchment if you want to be able to lift it out. It will have some funny edges from where the parchment folds over but it works. Also, obviously your slow cooker is a hot one so bake it a little less and then just let it sit in the warm slow cooker when it’s off to keep cooking through.