A super moist low carb birthday cake peanut butter chocolate filled with a rich homemade chocolate pudding and frosted in peanut butter whipped cream. Your low-carb-and-ketogenic-layer-cake dreams have come true!
[Before I begin, I would like to thank the kind folks at Sukrin USA for sponsoring this post.]
HOLYMOLY!
Do I have a cake for you!
A low carb birthday cake with peanut butter chocolate filled with chocolate pastry cream (homemade pudding) and frosted with peanut butter whipped cream.... I know, I'm a little impressed myself. And everyone knows that chocolate and peanut butter = best flavor combo ever, right?
This low carb birthday cake is a little different than the other low carb cakes I've posted on the blog so far - a little fancier. Or, maybe not fancy but definitely more of specialty cake or a special occasion cake. Not everyone is going to be into making this cake and I get that. It's not hard to make, but it won't appeal to everyone.
BUT, there are a few of you out there who actually enjoy baking and have tried to keep-up your baking skills -- even with with low carb / gluten-free ingredients, which can be tricky sometimes. This amazing peanut butter chocolate birthday cake is especially for you.
I have a confession to make. This cake doesn't have any peanut butter in it - at all. Instead, it incorporates peanut flour - Sukrin Peanut Flour to be exact. It's a product I absolutely love right now. I've been using it in smoothies, pie crusts, pies, almond milk, and in my kids oatmeal. Well, and in this amazing "peanut butter" cake!
If you are unfamiliar with defatted peanut flour, lemme tell you what it is and what it isn't. This product is not simply ground raw peanuts. These peanuts are roasted, milled, and then some of the oil is pressed out (think peanut oil extraction).
The result? A soft, powdery, lower fat peanut flour perfect for baking or for flavoring your favorite foods. It's tan in color and smells exactly like roasted peanuts or peanut butter!
Sukrin's peanut flour is organic and non-GMO which are two great things in my book. And, if you mix it with a little water, you get a nice low carb, low-fat, and lower-calorie peanut butter. I'm all about guilt-free peanut butter!
Check out these other great recipes I have that also use peanut flour - Peanut Flour Pie Crust, Peanut Butter Pie and Peanut Butter Sex In A Pan Dessert. They look delicious, right? They absolutely are!
[RECIPE] To cream or not to cream, that is the question. Does creaming the butter and sugar for this low carb peanut butter Chocolate Birthday Cake matter? Yes, it does.
Most of the cake and cupcake recipes on the blog are simple dump cakes. Dump cakes are easy to make and since we're using low carb / gluten-free ingredients we don't have to worry about overworking, over-stirring, or over-mixing. But creaming the butter with the natural low carb sweetener introduces tons of micro-fine bubbles into the batter. This results in a lighter texture and a finer crumb -- just what you want for your low carb special occasion cakes.
Low Carb Birthday Cake With Peanut Butter Chocolate Birthday Cake is 6 net carbs per serving
[This post or recipe may contain affiliate links]
Low Carb Birthday Cake With Peanut Butter Chocolate
Ingredients
- 1 batch Low Carb Chocolate Pastry Cream
Peanut Butter Cake
- 1 stick (4 oz) salted butter softened
- ⅔ cup low carb powdered sugar
- 2 cups almond flour
- ¾ cup Sukrin Peanut Flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 large eggs
- 1 large egg white
- ⅓ cup buttermilk (or ⅓ cup almond milk and 2 teaspoons white vinegar)
- ½ teaspoon stevia glycerite
Peanut Butter Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons low carb powdered sugar
- ¼ cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/16 teaspoon xanthan gum, stabilizes the whipped cream
Other
- 2 six inch pans
- 1 large closed-star tip, optional
- 1 large round tip, optional
- 1 pastry bag or plastic ziploc bag, optional
Instructions
- Chocolate Pastry Cream: Follow the instructions for the pastry cream and keep refrigerated until needed. Make at least the day before.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350 and place the rack into the lower third. Trace the bottoms of the 6-inch round pans on a piece of parchment and cut out so that they fit inside the pans. Spray the pans with baking spray and place the parchment circles in the pans. Measure and powder the erythritol if not using Sukrin Icing Sugar.
- In a smallish bowl, add the two whole eggs, the egg white, buttermilk, vanilla, and stevia glycerite. In another bowl, add the almond and peanut flours, baking powder and soda, salt, and xanthan gum. Mix thoroughly with a whisk until combined.
- "Peanut Butter" Cake: In a medium bowl, mix the butter with a hand mixer until soft and smooth. Add the sweetener and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 1 ½ minutes). Add 1 whole egg and beat until completely incorporated and still light and fluffy (1 minute) making sure to scrape down the bowl at least once.
- Remove the beaters from the butter mixture and give the liquid ingredients a quick mix. Add half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix on medium-high speed until fully incorporated. Add half of the liquid ingredients and mix again, making sure to scrape down the bowl completely at least once. Repeat the procedure with the dry and wet ingredients making sure to scrape the bowl with each addition. The mixture should be well beaten, thick and almost mousse-like in texture.
- Visually divide the mixture in half and spoon into the cake pans. Lift the cake pans, one at a time, a few inches off of the counter and let them fall, ridding the mixture of large air bubbles. Do this twice each. Then with a small off-set spatula, spread the batter to the edge of the pans and smooth the tops. I left a very slight dome in the center of my pans.
- Bake: Place the pans into the oven and turn the heat up to 400F for 8 minutes. Then, turn it back down and bake for another 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the cakes completely before assembly.
- Peanut Butter Whipped Cream: (make the day of assembly) Add the peanut butter, sweetener and ¼ cup of whipped cream into medium bowl. Mix until smooth. Gradually add the remaining whipping cream while beating on low. When added, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Sprinkle the xanthan gum and whip until stiff. Put ⅓ of the whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with the large open round tip.
- Pastry Cream: remove the chocolate pastry cream from the refrigerator and whip on medium-high until lighter in color and smooth (about 2 minutes).
- Cake Assembly: Carefully slice the dome off of the tops of the cakes. Carefully, cut the cakes in half horizontally. Lay one cake layer on top of your cake plate. Pick-up the pastry bag with the peanut butter whipped cream and squeeze a "thick ring" of whipped cream around the inside edge of the cake. This serves as a dam to hold the chocolate pastry cream inside. Now, add ¼ of the whipped chocolate pastry cream and smooth all-the-way-out to the whipped cream, with a small off-set spatula. Add another layer of cake, checking to make sure the cake is as level as possible. Repeat the process and add the last layer of cake. Put the remaining whipped chocolate pastry cream into a pastry bag fitted with a closed star tip.
- Decorate: With a large off-set spatula, smooth the peanut butter whipped cream around the sides and top of the cake. Pipe tall rosettes with the chocolate pastry cream. I piped 8 of the chocolate "rosettes". Then squeeze the peanut butter whipped cream into smaller mounds in-between each of the chocolate rosettes.
CHANDRAGIRI nagendra prasad
Absolutely delicious cake recipe and easy to make.Thank you so much for your kind.
Kwhyman
The serving size is listed as 1 gram, is that real? Isn’t that a very very small amount?
Kim Hardesty
No, that's not right. It used to say one serving, but became "1 gram" when I changed to a better recipe card. I changed all of them, but I missed this one. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. -Kim
Connie
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I was wondering if I can you a non-powdered sugar substitute or if I would need to change other ingredients to make a granulated sugar substitute work. I have Lakanto Classic that I would like to use if possible.
Thanks!
Kim Hardesty
Hi Connie. I used powdered sweetener in this recipe just because I noticed that the granulated would crystalize in other cakes. Powdering it in an inexpensive coffee grinder really helps in some recipes. Also, when powdering sweetener, you end up with a greater amount of powdered than granulated. I think that powdering your own sweetener in a coffee grinder or mini food processor (or large one for big batches to keep on hand) is a great thing to do. However..... If you aren't into that, measure a scant 2/3 cup granulated for the cake. I suggest powdering the sweetener for the whipped cream or it may not melt completely.
Please let me know if you have any more questions or if you need my text number to get more information. There is a contact button (it says "contact") at the bottom of any page that you can use to send me an email. Have a nice day. -Kim
Connie
Thanks, Kim!
Ethne Fergusson
Just made this cake for my son’s birthday. Very yummy. I like the chocolate pastry cream especially.
Kim
I'm so happy you liked the recipe, Ethne. Happy belated birthday to your son. Have a wonderful week! -Kim
Kelly
Hi Kim! It's that time of year again so I'm giving another one of your more difficult cake recipes a try for my Dad's birthday. His birthday is on Monday so I'm planning to make the pastry cream on Friday and finish the cake on Sunday. I've got all the ingredients to a "T" and seemed to do alright with the chocolate birthday cake last year, BUT I live in CO. That means high altitude! I can't quite recall what changes I made last year to ensure it came out alright. Do you have any suggestions about adjustments I may be able to make to ensure the cake comes out just as good as yours? Thanks in advance!
Kim
Oh, no, Kelly. I live just above sea level and have no experience with high altitude baking. Make the cake Friday night or Saturday and see how it goes. If it doesn't rise as high as you like, freeze it. You can turn it into crumbs add cream cheese to make cake pops. Another idea is to make it into crumbs, compact them into the bottom of a cheesecake pan and then pour a cheesecake over top and bake. If you need my text number to talk with me, send me an email via the site. -Kim
Kelly
Haha! Well thanks for the reply. I’m going to just wing it and make some adjustments and hope firm the best! It worked last year with the chocolate so I’m sure i’m sure it’s it’s in my brain somewhere. I’ll be sure to let you know what adjustments I end up making and how it goes! If all fails I can just go buy him a store bought cake (he’s not low carb lol) Thanks again!
Debbie
I don't care for peanut butter. Will almond flour and almond butter work?
Kim
Almond flour and peanut flour have different properties. Almond flour is ground raw almonds and peanut flour had been roasted and had the oil pressed out of it. Almond flour does not absorb liquid while the peanut flour does. You can try adding more almond flour instead of the peanut flour but it's not going to be a straight sub. I test the recipes over and over until I get the right amounts of ingredients. I suggest you use a favorite almond flour cake recipe. I have some great cupcakes recipes that don't use peanut flour. You could use one of those, too. If you have any more questions, just ask. -Kim
Melissa Burton
My husband and I recently decided to eat more healthy and have been eating "keto" friendly foods.
I am an avid baker and want to start baking low carb friendly. My husbands birthday is this week and I wanted a special cake for him. This looks great. I am new at getting all the correct ingredients. What is the purpose of stevia glycerine? Acquiring all the ingredients is certainly an investment. I will be glad to have these items on hand for future recipes. Any suggestions on our new way of eating?? Thanks for all your recipes!
Kim
Hi Melissa. I applaud you and your husband's efforts to investigate a new way of eating. Yes, the baking ingredients are expensive. I use the stevia glycerite for a few reasons... Good low carb sweeteners are expensive and since the stevia glycerite is very concentrated, I can cut back on the expensive sweeteners and bump up the sweetness with stevia glycerite. Also, some people dislike the cooling effect of the erythritol sweeteners or some detect a slight burning effect at the back of the throat when using them (me) so cutting back on the amount of them and then sweetening with a stevia product really helps minimize those effects. Since the stevia glycerite is so concentrated, I find a bottle will last all year. I use it for everything.
If you are just starting out, try coconut flour. It is a good investment since it's less expensive and less is needed to make baked goods. Be warned, though... not all bloggers spend time testing their recipes. Some of the coconut flour recipes you can find are not that good. Make sure to look at the texture of the baked good in the picture to see if it looks good. My coconut flour baked goods are very nice. I'm sure that recipes from reputable bloggers like ADIDAF (who is known for her baking recipes) will be great, too. The first few times using coconut flour, you may notice a slight coconut flavor. It will go away as you get used to it.
You may want to make my Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake or Nana's Cheese Pie before you take the plunge into buying low carb ingredients. Sometimes starting with something familiar is a nice way to transition. Before trying any recipe, look at the comments and see what people are saying about it. That may help you determine if it will be a good recipe.
Good luck on your new adventure and ask if you have any questions. Have a wonderful week and enjoy your husband's big day! -Kim
Matt
I know some peanut butter fans that would just love this!
Kim
I hope they enjoy it, Matt. It's a great cake! -Kim
Jessica
Do you really need the stevia glycerite? I can't find it here in UK.
Kim
Hi Jessica. Great questionl I use the stevia glycerite because erythritol burns my throat. I use less erythritol and augment sweetness with stevia glycerite. You may use what ever sweetener you have to taste or use liquid stevia drops per your taste. Enjoy your day. -Kim
Jessica
Thanks Kim, another question- in the chocolate cream filling do you need to use almond milk rather than ordinary milk?
Kim
Hi Jessica. I added the almond milk because it is much lower in carbs than regular milk and it is even lower in carbs that the heavy cream! Using all heavy cream is just too rich, so that is why I added the almond milk. Use your favorite milk sub. Does that answer your question? My kids keep interrupting me. -Kim
Jessica
Yes, thank you! I hadn't realised it was lower in carbs. Have collected all the ingredients now and will be trying the recipe this week for my hubby's birthday....
Best wishes, Jessica
Kim
Happy Birthday to your husband. If you want my phone number in case you have a question, shoot me an email. I hope you both enjoy his day. -Kim