Ridiculously tender, moist, and easy to whip up! Your go-to gluten free, paleo and keto carrot cake (or cupcakes!)… at just 3g net carbs!
Paleo & Keto Carrot Cake (Cupcakes) 🥕
With Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting! ☁
Whip it up as a fancy-pants layered cake, or keep it simple as cupcakes. Either way, you can expect a classic carrot cake experience through and through!
And don’t be turned off because ‘carrots aren’t keto’ (of course they are, just not in huge amounts!). The added carrot here is very similar to say pumpkin puree: while you can’t chug an entire can of the stuff, you can surely enjoy it sparingly.
Keto is a metabolic state after all, not a list of foods (and thaaank goodness for that!).
Oh, and an absolute must is it’s ideal companion: our cream cheese buttercream frosting.
The Flours
What works best here is a mixture of super fine almond flour (I love Anthony’s the most!), psyllium husk (I like NOW) and golden flax seed meal best. No xanthan gum is needed here to yield a wonderful and moist crumb (hurray!)
Just keep in mind that for best texture and rise, you’ll always want to regrind your psyllium husk (or powder) and golden flaxseed meal in a dry blender or bullet. And it seems that, by regrinding your psyllium, you are lowering the odds of it turning your baked goods purple (hooray!).
The Sweetener
You’ve got good options here. Erythritol (Lakanto is awesome here), allulose and xylitol (non-corn though to avoid tummy troubles!) are my top choices (no aftertaste at all!).
Pyure is also a good one for muffins and quick breads, particularly if you’re trying to limit your sugar alcohol consumption (it’s added stevia makes it twice as sweet as sugar… i.e. you add half!).
Oh, and if not restricted by sugars (i.e. paleo), simply sub 1-to-1 with coconut or regular sugar.
Gluten Free, Paleo & Keto Carrot Cake (or Cupcakes!)
Ridiculously tender, moist, and easy to whip up! Your go-to gluten free, paleo & keto carrot cake (or cupcakes!) at just 3g net carbs!
If baking a layered carrot cake rather than cupcakes, change the serving size to 12 for two layers and 18 for three.
Oh, and if baking with cups rather than grams is your thing, just click on US Cups for an instant conversion.
Ingredients
- 48 g almond flour
- 30 g golden flaxseed meal finely ground*
- 2 tablespoons psyllium husk finely ground*
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch ground cardamom optional
- pinch ground ginger
- 57 g grass-fed butter or coconut butter, at room temp
- 1/3-1/2 cup erythritol or xylitol, to taste (we use 1/3 cup)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon orange zest optional
- 2 eggs
- 100 g finely grated carrots
- 30 g coarsely chopped pecans
For the frosting
- 1/2 batch cream cheese buttercream frosting
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line (or grease and flour) a muffin pan or cake pans, set aside.
Whisk together in a medium bowl almond flour, flaxseed meal, psyllium husk, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. Set aside.
Cream butter in a large bowl until softened (1 minute), add the sweetener of choice and continue to cream until light and fluffy. Mix in vinegar, vanilla extract and orange zest until fully incorporated. Mix in the eggs one at a time, the batter will appear slightly 'broken' (don't worry!).
Add in the dry flour mixture in two parts. Mix for 2 to 3 minutes until fully incorporated and elastic, the batter will thicken as you mix. Fold in carrots and pecans.
Distribute batter evenly into pan, smoothing out the tops with wet fingertips. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, until deep golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Check in on them after minute 10, and cover with aluminum foil as soon as they begin to brown (minute 13 for us).
Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before removing, and cool completely in a rack before frosting. If building a layered cake: once cool refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Make your cream cheese buttercream frosting while your cupcakes or cakes are cooling. And frost away!
If frosted, keep covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Without the frosting store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
*For best texture and rise, always regrind your psyllium husk (or powder) and flax meal in a dry blender or bullet.
Please note that nutrition facts were estimated without the buttercream frosting.
I love these cupcakes! They are by far the best keto dessert item I have baked. I made them for my son’s birthday party. His were regular flour, but these were the cupcakes that everyone wanted. Thank you!
Delicious and easy! Satisfied my hankering for a cupcake