A lemon-scented low carb, grain-free layer cake with the most delicious strawberry cream cheese frosting. This sugar-free creation will win over your harshest critics.
Strawberry season is drawing closer and closer and I am so excited I can taste it. I can taste those sweet berries in my mind, freshly picked out of a sun-warmed New England field. I can smell the straw they put down around the beds, and hear the high-pitched lisping of little ones clamouring “I found one, Mummy. I found a big one!”. My own children come out of those fields weighing significantly more than they went into them, and I probably do too. Those pick-your-own strawberry farms must add a premium to the price per pound, knowing that people will eat their weight in berries before they ever fill up their green quart baskets. It’s hard to resist, there is nothing like a strawberry freshly picked and popped into one’s mouth.
But we still have a few months to go and until then, I suffer through the big, less flavourful store bought berries. I don’t actually buy fresh berries in the off-season much, because they just don’t live up to that dreamy berry flavour in my mind. We do usually keep a big wholesale-club sized bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer because my husband is a smoothie man. The man loves his smoothies and his “strawbs”, as we call them. So if I am inclined to make a strawberry recipe in the middle of winter, I am likely to skip the fresh and grab a few of the frozen kind. And I was very much inclined to make this recipe. In fact, from the moment I saw it, I knew I had to make it.
This, my friends, is my healthy low carb take on a gorgeous Strawberry Lemonade Cake I saw on the cover of Southern Living while visiting my parents in Florida. I hadn’t even opened the magazine to look at the details, I just held it up to my husband and said “I am going to make this”. His response: “No arguments from me!”. And I knew just exactly how I would make it too. I did actually refer to the article to see how the frosting was made. As I had hoped, it was cream cheese-based so I knew I could easily replicate it in low carb form. And let me tell you, it’s the frosting that made the cake, without question. The cake itself was good, but the frosting was absolutely divine. It wasn’t overly sweet and the lemon juice and zest gave it the perfect tang. I could have easily eaten a bowl of the frosting all by itself.
- 2 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/3 cup unflavoured whey protein powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cup granulated Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 tsp lemon extract
- 5 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 2/3 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener divided
- 1 cup frozen strawberries thawed and chopped, juices reserved
- OR 1 & 1/2 cups fresh strawberries chopped fine
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
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Preheat oven to 325F and grease three 9-inch cake pans well (line bottoms with parchment if you are worried about it sticking). You can also use 8-inch pans but your cakes will need to bake longer.
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In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, whey protein, and baking powder.
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In another large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Beat in granulated sweetener, lemon zest, and lemon extract until well combined.
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Beat in eggs, then half of almond flour mixture. Then beat in almond milk. Finally beat in remaining almond flour mixture.
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Divide batter between prepared baking pans and smooth the top with a knife or offset spatula. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
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Remove from oven and let cool in pan at least 10 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
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In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/3 cup of the powdered sweetener until smooth. Beat in strawberries, lemon juice and lemon zest until combined.
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In another large bowl, beat whipping cream with remaining sweetener until stiff peaks form. Fold carefully into cream cheese until combined.
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To assemble the cake, place one layer on a serving platter and spread top with about 1/4 of the frosting. Repeat with second and third layers, and then spread remaining frosting over sides of cake.
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Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.
Cook’s Notes: Now, I will say that I recently bought some beautiful new round baking pans from USA Pans. They are amazingly non-stick but they are also 9 inches, instead of the old 8-inch pans I used to have. So my layers turned out lower and wider than I originally anticipated. In fact, I first only made enough batter for 2 layers and since I was bringing this to Easter brunch at some friends’ house, I felt it wouldn’t be enough. So I quickly whipped up batter for a 3rd layer. You could do this in 8-inch pans as well, but expect taller layers and longer baking time.
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
Gimme that cake! This cake is SO gorgeous…I LOVE the combo of strawberries and lemon (and my hubby requested that I make him lemon strawberry muffins…I think he’ll like cake better!) Plus, I can sneak healthy food into him. WIN.
Pinned!
Carolyn says
Thanks Taylor!
shelley newman says
Good morning Carolyn,
Does it matter if I use Splenda in my receipes?
Shelley
Carolyn says
It’s going to matter at least somewhat, particularly in the frosting. Powdered Swerve is truly finely powdered, just like icing sugar.
Eric says
How do you cut a cake into 20 slices? Even if 3 layers, the slices must be paper thin.
Carolyn says
They’re not. A 9-inch cake pan makes a much wider cake. It was a BIG cake, believe me.
Carolyn says
And considering that most of my cakes are only 2/3 of this recipe and make 12-16 servings, I felt that 20 servings was appropriate.
Melanie says
This is absolutely gorgeous! It just got bumped to the top of my cooking list of things to make. Thank you for all the amazing recipes you share, Carolyn!
Carolyn says
You’re most welcome!
Diane says
This looks delish – thanks for the recipe! I’m thinking I’d like to make cupcakes. Any idea how long to bake cupcakes and do you think the cake would freeze well? Truly enjoy seeing all your delicious creations but must wait to try them as I’m a super low-carber right now. This looks like another keeper!
Carolyn says
Yes, this would make great cupcakes. I can’t say how long for sure, but I would set the timer for 15 minutes and check every few minutes after that.
charlotte says
this looks really good, do you think I could omit the lemon if I just wanted a strawberry cake?
Carolyn says
Sure! I’d add some vanilla extract to the cake batter in place of the lemon extract. And some cream instead of the lemon juice in the frosting.
charlotte says
thanks so much!
Alice B. says
Carolyn, I almost wrote you to request a LC version of that cake on Southern Living’s cover!!! Oh, I am so excited to see this! Thank you, a million times over!!!
Alice
Carolyn says
Ha, isn’t that funny. I didn’t follow them to the letter, they used some strawberry lemonade jam. I skipped that bit and just went all cake and frosting.
Sarah G says
OH MY GOODNESS, A STRAWBERRY LEMONADE CAKE??
Day made.
Shannon says
Oh thank God my powdered Swerve finally came! We were thinking of picking strawberries this weekend….now it’s definite!
Barb says
Would this work in a 9×13 pan! If so what would baking time be? Thanks for sharing your great recipes with us.
Carolyn says
Yes, but I don’t have a clue on the baking time. I would start with 15 minutes and check every few minutes after that.
John Harris @ Shortcut Workouts says
I’m always on the look out for good low carb recepies. Tim Ferriss’s book the 4 hour chef has also good wines to pair with the cake 🙂
Deb says
Carolyn, Can you think of a reason why you couldn’t make this into a 2 layer cake instead of 3?
Thanks, Deb H.
Carolyn says
Nope, you absolutely could do it and I almost suggested it the body of my post but decided it was too much info. Personally, I would make 2/3 of the batter (should work out easily because I made the 3rd layer at the last moment). But I’d probably keep the frosting amount the same, because it is SO good. But you could cut that down to 2/3 as well.
Deb says
Thank you so much. My husband and I started eating low carb and gluten free about a year a go and we have really enjoyed your recipes!
Deb H.
dina says
I love low carb desserts. this sounds amazing!
Cecelia says
Do you need to use whey protein powder
Carolyn says
Yes, you need some sort of dry protein to help it rise properly but you can use hemp or even powdered egg whites.
Amy says
You’re sure that the Glutamine in this whey isn’t derived from wheat protein? I didn’t see anything on the label stating GF.
Carolyn says
No idea but you’re more than welcome to use a different whey protein.
Penny says
I made this for my husband’s birthday. It ended up looking and tasting great but the recipe should say “use parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pan”. My layers stuck to the pan so bad and I tore it up quite a bit trying to get it to come out. It was like cornbread stuck to a pan that wasn’t greased. It just kept crumbling! I did use coconut oil on the pans but no flour like I would with “normal” cake recipes. I kind of pieced it back together and made all three layers but when I sliced it up many of the slices fell apart before I could put them on a plate to serve. I also had a medium sized bowl of the frosting left over. I may use it in a smoothie later.
Carolyn says
I think it’s going to depend on how good your pans are. I just purchased some new USA pans and they are so non-stick, the cake layers fall out of it. But I will amend the recipe for parchment too.
Vivian says
I plan to bake this for my Birthday Cake this week, but I must respectively ask why would one go to the trouble of eating healthy and yet use a non-stick pan to bake in? I mean this respectively and I genuinely do not understand why one would… considering the dangers of using non-stick cookware? I do not use aluminum or any non-stick cookware at this point. Am I missing something? I am very grateful for the recipe. Your recipes look fantastic but I do not get the nonstick pan thing at all!! 🙂
Cecelia says
Do you have any cookbooks?
Darlene says
Hello Carolyn!! I have a problem….this doesn’t really concern a certain recipe, but some of my cake recipes, no matter if mine or someone else’s that I’m making, sometimes have an off taste. Almost bitter. The best way I know to describe it is that it has a “green” taste. I know that don’t make a lot of sense. Green is a color, not a taste. Its just an odd taste and odor. I’ve tried narrowing it down to one certain ingredient by making small batches and leaving out different ones, but still can’t pin point it. Would flavoring that contains alcohol cause this? Do any of you other ladies have this problem?
Carolyn says
Hmmm. It could be anything, that’s the problem. It could even be the almond flour. Do you know if you experience this with regular almonds? What brands of sweeteners are you using?
Darlene says
I use Erythritol and sometimes splenda, which ever I have on hand at the time. I have experienced this with Bob’s red Mill Almond flour and Nuts.com as well as slivered almonds that I grind myself. Its not everytime, but more often than I want to have happen. I know that old baking powder or baking soda can make it taste like rotten eggs, but this is a total different taste. I even bought new baking powder for this particular cake to make sure that didn’t happen, as it was for my daughter’s birthday. If you let the cake sit overnight, I’ve noticed the taste will become less noticeable, but still there.
Carolyn says
Strange! Could be the erythritol, some people are very sensitive to it and detect an aftertaste.
Melanie says
Made this for my 2-year-old’s birthday! Everyone loved it! I used fresh strawberries and my frosting didn’t get quite as pink and lovely as yours (frozen, thawed strawberries still have more juice in them, I think), but it was still delicious! YUMMMM.
Carolyn says
So glad! What a great 2nd birthday cake!
Christine Christoffersen says
Can this be made with all Almond Flour? What would the amount of Almound Flour be? Thank you.
BethH says
Looks like I’m going to have to try this one out. I’m not into chocolate and love love love lemon… thanks for the recipe.
Joy says
woukd it be okay if I used vanilla protein powder?
Carolyn says
Yes but it will definitely have more vanilla flavour…you may need to up the lemon in the cake to get it to stand out a bit more.
Cynthia Litchfield says
Thank you for making this a printable recipe.
Sue says
Recipe looks so yummy. Your site is my go to always for desserts. Question on frosting, can I make this the day before and does this frosting freeze well?
Kate says
Made this for Easter. I reduced the recipe to 2/3 to fit a 9″x13″ pan. Baked at 325ºF for 22 minutes in my oven. I made the full amount of frosting, but had about a cup or so left over 😀 Absolutely delicious…and my grain and sugar eating relatives all loved it with many going back for seconds.
Carolyn says
So glad!
Alexandria says
I made this cake for Easter. Neither the cake nor the icing were sweet. 🙁 I followed the recipe faithfully, except I did not add the strawberries. We threw the cake out.
Katy says
I made this for dessert on Easter, so good! The family liked it as well. The only thing I would do differently would be to make a double batch of frosting, so good! Thank you for sharing this with all of us! 🙂
Denise says
Carolyn, thanks so much for this recipe. This cake turned out fabulously! I think this would be an excellent blank canvas cake that can easily be adapted with other flavours. With 8 inch pans, it really wasn’t necessary to add a third layer, so I’ve got a spare cake to boot!
Alicea says
Making this tonight for the second time in two weeks!! It was such a hit at my sisters bridal shower she requested it for her friend bridal shower tomorrow. It is one of the tastiest cakes I’ve ever had.
Carolyn says
Wonderful!
Shayna says
How many cupcakes would this recipe make?
Carolyn says
Not positive but at least 12.
Susie Solis says
Ok this is the second recipe that I have commented on in all of internet land. I just had to say something about this cake. It is amazeballs. Like absolutely freaking delish! I made it for my birthday because I wanted some damn cake like normal people but didnt want to break my diet. This cake was moist and I couldn’t even tell it was grain free. The icing was light and fluffy and so sweet. Just perfection. Since its my birthday week and I can do what I want, I had a slice everyday for breakfast because life is too short to wait to have it after dinner. No regrets! Best cake ever!
Ps. All my friends loved it.
Carolyn says
I love comments like this and I am so flattered you took the time to write it!
Aggie says
Could I use coconut cream instead of regular whipping cream in the frosting? Want to make for my birthday, but I am also dairy free. Can get by with a little cream cheese.
Carolyn says
Yes, I think you could. And Kite Hill makes a delightful almond milk cream cheese!
Melissa says
Thanks Carolyn for sharing!
Looks Amazing! Am going to make this for my Father’s birthday next week!
Can I use powdered stevia here?
Any idea if I can use Strawberry Protein Powder (for shakes) for the strawberry frosting instead? I am hoping to make the frosting and keep it frozen; how many days can it last?
Thank you!
Carolyn says
Powdered stevia would be fine in the cake but I am really not sure if the frosting will work with protein powder.
Janice says
Just found this recipe and want to make it for my daughter’s birthday. Wanted to clarify the reserved juice from the frozen strawberries… do I use that when I make the frosting, or do you just mean to reserve it and use in something else? Thanks. Your recipes are some of my favourites, so hoping this cake turns out as good as yours!
Carolyn says
No, use the juice in the frosting. I just mean don’t let them drain in a colander and waste all that lovely juice!
Janice says
Wow! Thanks for such a quick response! Went grocery shopping tonight to pick up a couple of the ingredients I didn’t have and I’m going to make it on the weekend. Can’t wait to try it! Thanks again.
Anna C. says
Does it matter if I leave out the whey protein powder? Thanks in advance!
Carolyn says
It does, because it helps it rise properly.
Sara Pomish says
Just put this cake in the oven using 3 9 inch pans. Wish I’d made more batter, I fear they’re going to be too thin.
Michelle says
Have you ever used all coconut flour for this cake? I have an intolerance to the almond flour but this looks soooo yummy!!
Carolyn says
No but I think you could. This recipe for vanilla cupcakes uses all coconut flour and you could adapt it to be lemon flavoured. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/vanilla-bean-coconut-flour-cupcakes-and-teaching-children-about-kindness/
Krissy Allori says
This looks so good! I love strawberry lemonade.
Jen says
This is such a fun flavor for summer! Love that I have eat it without any of the guilt.
Kara says
Strawberries and lemon is a perfect flavor combination for summer! The cake looks beautiful!!
Julie says
I agree that there’s nothing better than popping those farm fresh berries into your mouth! This cake is amazing! Perfect for strawberry season and the combo of lemon and strawberry is divine!
Becky Hardin says
Such a perfect summertime cake! Everyone will love it when I serve it at my next get together. YUM!!
Sandy says
Planning to make this for my mom’s 80th birthday this weekend! Can’t wait to taste it!
Clara says
Question? I see in the instruction that you have Cream of Tartar, Stevia Extract and Apple cider vinegar. they are not listed as part of the cake Ingredients. do we have to use them? also could i use Spender granulated Sweetener
Carolyn says
Sorry about that. I updated the recipe to simplify it and forgot to fix the instructions.