Amanda Dawn I don’t really consider myself to be a baker, but I really like cooking in the kitchen. Decorating a perfect looking cake is an art form that I just haven’t mastered, so please don’t judge this Zucchini Cake based on the looks alone, because the flavor is SO GOOD! You could even bake this cake in a loaf pan without any frosting and eat it like a Pound Cake too and that would even be perfect. It has just the right combination of spices and fluffy cake texture, you wouldn’t even know that you were eating something that could be considered Low Carb.
I got the inspiration because one of our favorite cakes at home (aside from Cheesecake!) is a good Carrot Cake. Seeing as how we aren’t supposed to eat carrots while trying to maintain ketosis, it seemed natural to bridge the gap between Zucchini Bread and Carrot cake and make a “Best of Both Worlds” type of attempt. I sat down and looked at my traditional carrot cake recipe and figured that I could make some easy substitutions for the Sweetener, The Carrots, and the Flour and that would make this cake pretty on-par with what most people would consider Low Carb or Keto.
You can use a different brand of sweetener on the cake or the frosting if you want to, but just be sure to pick the brand of sweetener that you like the taste of before you commit to putting it into a cake. We use different sweeteners in this house for different things, from sweetening our coffee to making cheese cake, or baking a cake.
Now you can have your cake AND eat it too!
KETO ZUCCHINI CAKE RECIPE
[Frosting]
Ingredients:
- 8 Ounces of Cream Cheese (Softened)
- 4 Ounces of Salted Butter (Softened)
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Flavoring
- 1 Cup Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener
Instructions:
- Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix for a few minutes with a hand mixer until well blended. It’s that easy, you can even go ahead and make this frosting recipe on its own from time to time when your fat intake is down for the day. You’ll feel like you’re having a cheat day!
[Zucchini Cake] Single Layer – Double the Recipe to Make a Two-Layer Cake
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Large Zucchini
- 1/3 Cup Coconut Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 3/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/4 Teaspoon Ginger
- Pinch of Nutmeg
- 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Flavoring
- 5 Large Eggs
- 1/3 Cup Crushed Walnuts
- 3/4 Cup Lakanto Golden Monkfruit Sweetener
- 1/4 Cup Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener
- 1/4 to 1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
Instructions:
- Combine All of the DRY ingredients in a Large Mixing Bowl and stir together to get them evenly distributed.
- Add in the Coconut Oil, Vanilla Flavoring, and Eggs and blend together for a few minutes with a Hand Mixer.
- After mixing the other ingredients together, grate or shred the zucchini and add that to the batter and mix again with the Hand Mixer.
- Pre-Heat Oven to 350*F
- Grease a 9″ Cake Pan or other suitable pan, depending on your intended use for the cake.
- Pour ingredients into the cake pan and make sure that they are spread out evenly.
- Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes (depends on altitude, etc). Pay extra close attention to it after the 20 minute mark to make sure that you take it out when it reached your desired consistency. Don’t take it out too early though, so make sure it isn’t runny in the middle.
- Set the cake on the counter to cool for about 15 minutes before attempting to remove it from the pan.
- After the cake has cooled a little carefully tip the cake upside down to get it out of the pan.
- If you choose to Ice the cake, wait for the cake to cool closer to room temperature before spreading the frosting, otherwise the warm cake will melt the frosting. While that does taste delicious to eat the cake right away with warm cake and melted frosting, it doesn’t photograph well. We opted to rush our cake in the video and pictures because we wanted to eat it that night. You will need to refrigerate any uneaten cake within about 2 hours, and simply cut off your slices the next day and warm them up a little to soften the cake and frosting.
A NOTE ABOUT MONKFRUIT SWEETENER: Monkfruit Sweetener contains no net carbohydrates and has zero calories, yet you will see a number of Erythritol listed on its nutrition label under carbohydrates. It is commonly accepted to have amounts of Erythritol in your Keto or Low Carb Diet.
Just to clarify, approximately how many ounces or grams of zucchini is called for, and is it shredded similar to the carrot cake?
Yes, you shred it just like making a carrot cake. I think once you’ve shredded it you will use about a cup and a half to two cups. Sorry, I did not weigh it. But I could weigh a similar Zucchini and find out soon.
Thanks for number of cups of zucchini, I was concerned about that
How many cups IS one-half of a large zucchini?
Recipe confusion! The recipe states HALF a zucchini, but in the comments 1.5 – 2 cups of shredded zucchini is mentioned.
Maybe the recipe writer uses huge zucchini?! Either way it would be great if this was confirmed. I’d like to give the recipe a go when my zucchini plant is in glut mode. 🙂
what is the difference between monkfruit sweet and golden monkfruit sweetener?
The Golden version is like a light brown sugar. That is all.
Is golden Monkfruit necessary or can I use regular for the whole thing?
You can make it with regular monkfruit too. We just like the brown sugar flavor that the Golden Monkfruit provides a hint of.
Can an alternate keto approved sweetener be used
If you don’t have monkfruit
Yes, but I would personally avoid Stevia since (to me atleast) that comes out bitter after baking.
I use Truvia as my sweetener, do you happen to know the exchange amount I would need to use?
The sweetener we used measures equally to sugar. Truvia themselves do NOT even recommend baking with their own product, unless you use their baking blend, which contains 25% sugar in it.
I ues brown Splenda very little. Is this okay.
For some people they can eat Splenda without issues, for other people it kicks them out of Ketosis so it all depends on what you prefer and what your body likes. 🙂
Read about what Dr. Gundry has to say about Splenda. I won’t consume it based on what he’s saying. I won’t give it to my family.
I use Truvia in my baking and I love it, I have baked the LCHF Earthquake cake, turns out divine…
Can swerve be used
Looks so good!! I assume I can replace the monkfruit with my sweetener of choice (Erythritol and liquid stevia) and then Sukrin Gold for the Golden Monkfruit…am I right? Can’t wait to try this 🙂
Between your two choices I would go with Erythritol. If you use this much Stevia the cake might become bitter.
I read in the comments that the zucchini is grated or shredded. It is to be added with the WET ingredients??? That ingredient was left out of the entire recipe.
That’s the result of me staying up to 1am posting a recipe online. Thanks for pointing out the oversight. I added that step in!
I ahve never heard of Monkfruit. Where can I get it?
I hyperlinked the words to Amazon so if you click on the sweetener name it can take you there. Otherwise I have had luck buying some at Sprouts Grocery Store near my house.
Walmart carries Monkfruit
If I use Erythritol, will it be the same equivalent as the Monkfruit?
Monkfruit is equal to sugar in measurement so use the erythritol equivalent as sugar.
I’m allergic to eggs. Have you ever tried making this with an egg substitute.
No, I personally haven’t. But I do have a Vegan friend who makes Flax Eggs and bakes almost everything that way for himself. Something like that might work.
Can’t wait to try this recipe. Can I substitute the coconut flour for almond flour?
Yes, but you will need to look up the conversion of it and feel out the texture of the batter for yourself.
Did you use coconut flour? How much? & did it turn out?
Yes, I used Coconut Flour, and it turned out Glorious!
Michelle is that you?
I am glucose and lactose-free. I can’t wait to try this as a pound cake. As I see it I got two recipes for one because I can use the same recipe and use 1 1/2-2 cups of carrots and have a carrot cake. I use coconut and pineapple in my carrot cake. I think I will play with incorporating both when I try making the carrot cake. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I also LOVE Pineapple Upside Down Cake, if it werent for there being no substitution for pineapple that I can think of I would so be looking to make one of those keto-friendly too.
I know this wouldn’t substitute pineapple, but what about a berry upside down cake? With fresh berries on the upside down? ????
I made the zucchini cake and it was delicious but the bottom is white. Like the oil maybe settled to the bottom. What did I do wrong.
Did it only turn white AFTER you refrigerated it? If so, that might just be coconut oil solidifying, which to me would mean that maybe you added a little too much? No harm though, as coconut oil is very good for you. Also, if you refrigerate the cake as directed with the leftovers, you can warm the slices up a little before eating them to make them nice and warm.
Same thing happened to me. It was like a gelatinous off white color not the bottom and the whole thing was extremely oily. I used the indicated amount of coconut oil but man, it seems like a lot. It wasn’t after it cooled either.
I made this and its gooey but the taste is very good
Looks wonderful! Did I see correctly that in the video 8 eggs were used but in the written recipe only 5 eggs are listed?
Thanks for clarifying 🙂
Irene
The video shows 8 being used, which 2 more were added off camera to make the texture the way I wanted it after mixing (video shows a double layer cake). The recipe is PER LAYER, because I figured that most people may not want to make such a large cake.
I see your Keto cookbooks for which I am interested. However, is this for an actual hardback book? Or is this offer for an on-line download? I got took before paying for what was shown and advertised as a physical hardback book, but ended up being just a download. My dollars taken and of course no response on the inquiries I submitted.
Thank you in advance.
~Laura
Laura, I do not sell a cookbook yet. Perhaps those are ads that Google puts on my site that you are referring to? I am definitely going to be making a cookbook of my own in the near future though!
I have also been misled before, thinking I’m ordering a hard back book and only receiving a download book. Very aggravating!
What can I use instead of
Coconut oil?
Avocado Oil, Melted Butter, or similar.
Hey, This cake sounds marvelous!
Did you have a chance to verify the specific amount of zucchini? Thanks
How long would you leave muffins in when making them? Baking
They would probably cook up a bit quicker. Don’t have exact details for you on that yet.
Looks wonderful! My cousin is allergic to coconut, could I substitute it with oat fiber?
Can you freeze this cake
I baked this cake tonight and it is cooling. I am so excited to try it! I thought I had cream cheese and of course I didn’t! I did have mascarpone cheese and used that instead! The icing tastes divine! Thank you for such a yummy looking recipe!
Marscapone sounds like it would taste even better!
I made this cake last night. I’m wondering if I might have undercooked it? It is a bit oily. Would that be the reason or is it just oily due to how much oil is in the recipe? It was firm just oily.
Thanks,
Melissa
Ours generally turn out what I would call “moist” but not oily. Perhaps not cooked quite enough?
I made the frosting as directed and it is very grainy. Is there anyway to prepare this recipe so that the monkfruit sweetener isn’t grainy in the finished product?
Usually it’s grainy after refrigerating it, so we warm our slices up. You could also opt for powdered monkfruit sweetener next time you make frosting. We have trouble finding the powdered version in our local stores, so we have had to buy it on Amazon or directly on their site so far.
I often blend my granular sugar subs w/a pinch of cream of tartar & make my own powdered version. Then, no grainey frosting !
You may want to powder your sweetener. I have put mine in a blender to powder it. Some people use coffee or spice grinders to powder theirs. I assume it would be good to measure the sweetener first then powder it and use it that way. The volume could be different from one form to the other.
I used powdered Monkfruit and it was not grainy at all.
Powdered does work best. It’s harder to find in stores though.
I just made the cake. I had to bake it an additional 25 minutes, which is unusual for our oven. At the initial 20 minute mark, the batter was still runny. It’s done now, and it looks and smells great!
Good thing you followed your instinct on that! I bet that kitchen smells fabulous!
2 things,
may be your oven was not preheated well
or
there is a problem with the slow heat in your oven,
You need to check that !
Also, it just occurred to me that there are different types of coconut oils too. I’ll have to look at the kind I have )got it from Costco).
I’m following the directions exactly the way it’s written for a double and it looks nothing like the video. It doesnt look like batter. I’ve already cooked for 30 min and it’s not even close to being done. Hmmm …I wonder what went wrong. The frosting however tastes amazing. Maybe we will be eating just that if the cake doesnt turn out. Haha
Cook the cake until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle. It should turn out delicious, and I am sure your kitchen smells amazing from it too. And yes, sometimes I make that frosting on its own to get more fat in for the day in a very tasty way!
Do you melt the coconut oil and measure. Or measure it solid… Thank you.
I poured it as liquid, as it melts at most room temperatures, so you could say that I melted it.
I cannot have cheese…not cream cheese or mascarpone….any substitute for icing that stays away from sugary
If you are still able to use the sweetener you could attempt to make a simple buttercream with powdered sweetener and butter.
Can you use wholesome organic co i it palm sugar as substitute for the golden monkfruit
If you are not worried about eating sugar, then yes you can. This recipe tastes good whether you are eating Keto or not 🙂
When I made the cake; I used almond flour instead and the cake had to bake over 40 minutes and was still too moist in the bottom. I pulled it out because it was getting too dark on the top. Would exchanging the coconut flour to almond cause this to happen?
When you switched to Almond Flour did you triple the amount of flour compared to the coconut flour? Almond and Coconut flour exchange for each other at a 1:3 ratio.
Hi! I pinned this keto cake from your blog but when I went to open it in Pinterest, it said it was blocked due to spam. This site is obviously not spam but looks like they have blocked/hidden you. Just letting you know so you can contact them to make you public again. It’s usually due to posting the same pin in multiple group pages. Hope this helps!
Hi, we are currently working out this issue with Pinterest. Apparently their system thought that the unusually high number of pins coming from the site were a sign of spam. They didn’t realize that lots of people actually just wanted to save the recipes to their Pinterest Boards for later.
Emmelle, we think that the issue has been resolved now! Let us hope it doesn’t happen to us again 🙂
I’m making this cake now and I added raisins. I know we aren’t suppose to have them but a once and awhile treat is not so bad! Do you have other recipes you can share?
Shelley, I post recipes every day or every other day on here just about. I will keep adding more!
Hey ! I’m not a huge baker. What vanilla flavoring did you use ? Vanilla extract ?
Hey ! What vanilla extract did you use ?
Can Swerve sweetener be used in place of the monkfruit the recipe calls for? I would use granulated for the cake and confectioners for the frosting. Advice?
Confectioners for the Frosting is the best choice there. I haven’t baked it with Swerve personally. I’ve baked a few things with Swerve and those all turned out to have a bitter Stevia flavor when there was a lot of it used. Plus, The Golden Monkfruit is like a brown sugar which gives the cake some flavor. Does Swerve make a brown sugar too?
Tjanks for your wonderful recipe. I used Swerve and Swerve confectioners for icing and turned out great. I bake with Swerve a lot and remain strict keto. Swerve is made of erythritol and has No Stevia, so is never bitter!
Hi. I can’t wait to try this recipe. Do you think I could make this into cupcakes instead of a cake? This way I can freeze them and take them out when I want them.
Cupcakes would probably be even easier.
I made this cake and it was runny and wouldn’t cook all the way through. Way too moist.
I make this as a regular recipe and it takes 40 to 50 mins to bake, so I think the length of time is ok, its just i make my loaf not a cake or cupcakes, loaf pan like a bread. I am going to try the keto diet so I will use your recipe
Why does the video show 8 eggs but the recipe calls for 5?
It’s like watching a video of one recipe and then making a different version of it? I’m baking the cake now and followed it measurement for measurement but mine still came out runny looking compared to your video.
In the video I made a double layer cake, and added 2 eggs off camera. Follow the written recipe for each single layer you want to make 🙂
Looks yummy , will definitely try it. Can you tell me what can be substituted for Zucchini? It’s not available in our place. Thanks.
I can’t wait to try this. But if you get a chance, if you figure out the time for cupcakes, please amend the recipe to include baking time. I love you recipes! Can’t wait to try this.