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.
Low Carb Strawberry Lemonade Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 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
Frosting:
- 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
Instructions
Cake:
- 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.
- In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, whey protein, and baking powder.
- In another large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Beat in granulated sweetener, lemon zest, and lemon extract until well combined.
- Beat in eggs, then half of almond flour mixture. Then beat in almond milk. Finally beat in remaining almond flour mixture.
- 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.
- Remove from oven and let cool in pan at least 10 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Frosting:
- 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.
- In another large bowl, beat whipping cream with remaining sweetener until stiff peaks form. Fold carefully into cream cheese until combined.
- 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.
- Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.
Nutrition
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.
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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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!! 🙂
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.
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.
Do you need to use whey protein powder
Yes, you need some sort of dry protein to help it rise properly but you can use hemp or even powdered egg whites.
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.
No idea but you’re more than welcome to use a different whey protein.
I love low carb desserts. this sounds amazing!
Carolyn, Can you think of a reason why you couldn’t make this into a 2 layer cake instead of 3?
Thanks, Deb H.
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.
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.
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 🙂
Would this work in a 9×13 pan! If so what would baking time be? Thanks for sharing your great recipes with us.
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.
Oh thank God my powdered Swerve finally came! We were thinking of picking strawberries this weekend….now it’s definite!
OH MY GOODNESS, A STRAWBERRY LEMONADE CAKE??
Day made.
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
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.
this looks really good, do you think I could omit the lemon if I just wanted a strawberry cake?
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.
thanks so much!
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!
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.
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!
You’re most welcome!
How do you cut a cake into 20 slices? Even if 3 layers, the slices must be paper thin.
They’re not. A 9-inch cake pan makes a much wider cake. It was a BIG cake, believe me.
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.
Good morning Carolyn,
Does it matter if I use Splenda in my receipes?
Shelley
It’s going to matter at least somewhat, particularly in the frosting. Powdered Swerve is truly finely powdered, just like icing sugar.
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!
Thanks Taylor!