This cake takes about 2 hours to make, and the leftovers are excellent - just as good as freshly baked cake. I love cakes. Who doesn’t! I’m so grateful that one can enjoy wonderful cakes even on a low-carb diet. A few of my favorite cakes are keto coconut cake, keto chocolate cake, and keto pound cake. I knew that this keto carrot cake was a keeper when my toughest tester, my teenage daughter, reluctantly tried it, finished it all, and said she was “pleasantly surprised.” I nearly fainted.
Ingredients
Recipe Card
Eggs: I use large eggs in most of my recipes, this one included. Avocado oil: I love using this neutral-tasting oil. Sometimes I use macadamia nut oil instead. Sweetener: I use stevia. You can use a granulated sweetener instead. Almond flour: I use blanched, finely ground flour in this recipe and don’t recommend using a coarse almond meal. Cinnamon and allspice: Make sure they are fresh. A stale spice can easily ruin a dish. Kosher salt: I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. Baking powder: Make sure it’s fresh. And if needed, also verify it’s gluten-free. Fresh carrots: It’s best to use finely grated carrots. For the frosting: Cream cheese, sweetener, and vanilla.
You can also add a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to the batter. It won’t make a huge difference, but it will add an extra layer of flavor. I also knew that I wanted to frost this cake. It’s excellent without frosting, and when you don’t frost it, you can serve it for breakfast. But there’s something about carrot cake and cream cheese frosting - it’s such a classic combination. So I settled on a simple and easy cake that you mix in one bowl and bake in a square 8-inch pan. The frosting is very simple, too - it’s just cream cheese, vanilla, and a sweetener. Scroll down to the recipe card for detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps for making this cake: Mix the ingredients. Use a hand whisk to whisk the ingredients together in the order listed, starting with the liquid ingredients. Transfer the mixture to a well-greased pan. Bake the cake for about 25 minutes in a 325°F oven. Cool it completely, then frost and serve.
Frosting the Cake
I use the simplest frosting - cream cheese, vanilla, and stevia. Lacking butter or powdered sugar, the frosting is on the soft side, but it’s delicious and sturdy enough that you can keep the frosted cake at room temperature for a couple of hours. For a sturdier frosting and a milder flavor with less tang from the cream cheese, you can use half cream cheese (4 ounces) and half unsalted butter (4 ounces). I usually prefer to cut the cake into squares and then frost each square. It makes it easier to remove the cake from the pan. But you can line the pan with parchment paper with an overhang so that you can pull the cake from the pan when it’s cool, place it on a platter or on a cutting board, and frost it. Then, you can cut the frosted cake into squares. Just like any other spice cake, this cake actually improves with time. It’s moister and more flavorful the day after you bake it. You can also freeze this cake, provided it is not frosted. Once frosted, I don’t recommend freezing it.
