This Keto Gingerbread Cake recipe is hands down my favorite dessert recipe and is insanely perfect for the holiday season! Gingerbread can be tricky on a keto diet since it usually requires molasses or brown sugar to get that deep flavor, but we found the perfect trick to achieving the deep flavor along with keeping it super low carb. Watch me make it below and serve it at your holiday dinner this year.
Our Secret To The Ultimate Gingerbread Recipe
I bet you’re itching for the secret to this recipe. Well, it’s browned butter! I was stuggling to find the perfect solution to this recipe until it dawned on me that all those times I burned the butter, and it has a delicious aroma, I was tossing it instead of using it for good. I figured if there was a perfect time to use the browned butter method, it was during the holiday season when all foods were not only brown, but rich, buttery and nutty or spiced! Trust me on this one.
If you are passionate about everything ginger-related, make sure to check out our Keto Gingerbread Cookies recipe you’ll definitely love!
The Perfect Low Carb Frosting To Top!
Not that this decadent, spiced cake needs more richness, but with it being holiday season and all we thought it was only perfect to top it with a cream cheese frosting! It’s simple to make and the perfect topping to all your desserts year round. You can ice the entire cake or just the top like we did and even get a little wild and add some spices to the cream cheese frosting. Double the recipe if you want to put some extra out on the table for those who like to indulge a little harder!
Holiday Keto Gingerbread Cake
I can’t imagine that a moist, rich, spiced cake with cream cheese frosting wouldn’t be all your dreams coming true this season, but if this isn’t your choice of dessert we’ve got plenty more to choose from. Check back next week for our almond ricotta cookies, but be sure to glance over lasts year pumpkin pie cheesecake and chocolate fudge cookies! Whether or not you’re a gingerbread fan we can almost guarantee everyone else at your holiday dinner will love this gingerbread cake, so be sure to make it for them!
Recipe can be quickly added to MyFitnessPal – Search “KetoConnect – Gingerbread Cake”
Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients:
Gingerbread Cake
- 1/4 cup browned butter
- 3/4 cup Coconut flour
- 3/4 cup Low Carb Sugar Substitute
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp maple extract
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup Low Carb Sugar Substitute
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
Instructions:
- Make the brown butter: heat a bottom heavy saucepan to medium-low heat and add the butter.
- Once fully melted combine with a spoon until it starts to froth over. This should take about 5-7 minutes. At this point it is important to keep an eye on it as it browns, but make sure it doesn’t burn. Once it gets a deep brown it is done – remove from heat.
- Strain the butter into a small bowl and set aside to cool.
- Grease a 8×4 loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Make the cake: In a medium bowl combine the coconut flour, erythritol, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and allspice. Combine with a whisk. Set aside.
- Once the butter has cooled, about 15 minutes, add the maple extract, eggs, and browned butter to a large bowl. Whisk together.
- In two batches add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine.
- Pour the cake into the greased loaf pan and bake for 43-45 minutes. Ovens vary in temp so do a toothpick test at 40 minutes!
- Allow the cake to cool for atlas 20 minutes prior to cutting, and if you are frosting it, allow it to cool completely prior to frosting!
- Make the Frosting: Using a hand mixer, cream together the room temperature cream cheese and butter until fully incorporated.
- Add the salt, vanilla extract and confectioner and cream together until combined.
- NOTE: we used 3/4ths of the frosting recipe on the gingerbread cake, which is reflected in the recipe!
Notes
Written by
Megha Barot
Megha has always been a passionate cook, but she took this to a new level after starting her keo journey in 2015. She loves creating new recipes and producing educational content for KetoConnect, which she co-founded in 2016 with Matt. Her passion for healthy eating and personal development continues to thrive. She's the proud mom of two awesome kids.
Horrible! Dry and hard as a brick and doesn’t at all taste like gingerbread!
I made this recipe in an 8×8 cake pan and it turned out pretty dry. I’m not sure if that’s because it was too thin and/or overcooked or what. I did use 1/2 cup butter for the cake, though I strained out a lot of dark brown bits, so I’m not sure if I ended up with the full 1/2 cup amount of butter after straining. I’d be interested in suggestions for getting it more moist!
Definitely a smaller pan <3 Good luck next round, girl!
I made these and while the flavor was wonderful, they were very dry and I reduced the baking time by 10 minutes. I think Ill add some coconut milk next time and see if that helps.
Can I sub Swerve?
Sure can!
Fun fact: The French use brown butter in many recipes. The culinary term is buerre noisette, literally hazlenut butter.
Oh that’s amazing!
I am confused by “strain the butter”. What exactly are you straining? Wouldn’t you just put all the browned butter in a bowl?
Sometimes the butter creates pan solids or burned pieces. Straining it creates a smoother consistency.
I’m confused… aren’t the browned milk solids what make the butter what it is? I’ve never strained that out, and I bake a lot with brown butter.
However, I’m trying this recipe right now and I’m excited! I always add just a bit of black pepper to my gingerbread for extra spice 🙂
This was delicious right after it cooled but it was even better two days later.
I gave this a try tonight and I think maybe my oven gets too hot because mine came out dry after 40 mins. I think I should have taken it out a little sooner. Also I didn’t have any erythritol so I used granulated stevia and the icing just seemed a little bitter. The taste of the cake, dry or not, is outstanding. I may give this one a go again at Christmas time and just reduce the heat. Thank you so much for these amazing recipes! I am 3 months into Keto and your blog has been a game changer!
I haven’t made your gingerbread cake yet, but I wanted to let you know that I used the chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe and omitted the chocolate. I replaced it with gingerbread spices, rolled the dough out and made gingerbread men!! They were super cute and turned out delicious!! I love the chocolate chip version too! I pressed those out into a chocolate.chip cookie cake and cut into bars. My father in law ate the entire batch while babysitting.
Hugs to the father in law, let’s get started on the next batch!
Hello,
I am trying to make the gingerbread and you say in the video 4T browned butter, but the recipe says 1/2 browned butter. Can you clarify?
thank you
What would the measurement of allulose vs erythritol be? My local store was out?
I just started browning my butter…recipe says 1/2 cup, video says 4T. Help…which is correct???
The 4 Tbsp is in the icing.
No, the recipe used to say 1/2 cup for the cake and 1/4 cup for the icing. Looks like they have updated the info in the recipe to follow the directions in the video though…
If I were to make this in a 9 x 13 pan, how would I adjust the recipe and cooking times? Thank you so much!
How would you store this?
Wondering the same thing. I covered it and put it in the fridge, but the cake gets very hard and crumbly when it’s cold. I assume it’s got a bit too much dairy to store out at room temperature for days though.
What does step 12 mean? Reflected in the macros? or the recipe amount given is only 3/4 of a full frosting recipe?
I seem to get higher net carbs when I plug the ingredients in. Any suggestions on what might be the culrpit? My cream cheese has one net carb per tbspn..
Can’t wait to make this! One thing though, in the video you say you’re using 4tbsp of the browned butter but in the recipe you say a 1/2 cup. Which one is it?
How long do you think the bake time would be in a 8×8 brownie pan? Thinking about making these for Christmas but I might like them a bit thinner than the loaf thickness. 🙂
Probably reduce the cook time by 10 minutes and check every 3 or so minutes with a toothpick.
I used an 8×8 dark pan and it was done around 30 minutes. I had set my time for 40 minutes but it was getting brown so I checked and the toothpick came out clean. 30 minutes may have been too long because it’s really dry
Looks like a great treat. How sturdy is it? Thinking cookies…
The butter amount for the cake says 1\2 cup but the video says 4 tablespoons which is 1\4 cup.
I noticed this too. I made the cake with 4T butter and it turned out well.
I tried it with 4 tblsps and it came out very dry.
It looks like it’s 1/2 cup butter total, divided between the cake and the frosting (1/4 cup for each).