Sugar Free Lemon Coconut Pound Cake {Low Carb and Grain Free}
This Lemon Coconut Pound Cake is made entirely grain free, sugar free, gluten free and low carb!
Learning to embrace and truly love coconut flour has it’s challenges. If you love the flavor of coconut as I do it’s not that hard to love recipes that include it. But what about those times when you don’t want the taste of coconut and you just happen to have a child that has a tree nut allergy AND you want to eat low carb?
Options are limited since almond flour is out. Sunflower seed meal is great to sub almond flour and I’ve been happy with many recipes using it like my Grain Free Cinnamon Roll Muffins or my Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies.
But when you want a light and bright and pretty colored pound cake sunflower seed meal will not work. Getting my predicament?
They’re just aren’t any low carb flours as light in color as coconut flour.
And my aim is to get my family eating low carb and loving it.
So by embracing the coconut flour I also must take on the very many experiments and failures of using a temperamental ingredient.
And I hate failure. And I really don’t like having to make and buy triple the ingredients to get recipes perfect, but I must succumb to this fate as a food blogger.
At least the hubby is quite supportive when I go through more butter and eggs than anyone I know in a given week.
I think we need to buy ourselves some chickens so I can have all the organic eggs I want and need.
I’m quite serious. 🙂
So this recipe looks perfectly perfect doesn’t it?
I mean it’s beyond amazing when you can offer a pound cake like this to non sugar free, low carb friends and they leave you nothing to go home with on your plate.
That ALWAYS makes me smile.
I served it just like the picture above to a church event and it was gone within minutes.
Even if you’re not a fan of coconut you can make this pound cake more lemony with the adjustments I mention in my notes.
Happy Baking to you!
Brenda’s Notes:
- I’ve made this twice with similar fantastic results. The first time I used coconut milk in place of the heavy cream. The second time I had simply run out of coconut milk so using the heavy cream was just as delicious. I did notice less coconut flavor and more lemon flavor. You could also try unsweetened almond milk if you prefer.
- If you don’t have Swerve and use a stevia baking blend or Truvia, I would suggest leaving out the liquid stevia in the recipe.
- If you want even more lemon flavor remove the vanilla extract and use 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract.
Sugar Free Lemon Coconut Pound Cake {Low Carb and Grain Free}
Ingredients
- 2 cups coconut flour
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut I use Let's Do Organic
- 1 cup Swerve sweetener
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 eggs
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 3 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon coconut liquid stevia or lemon liquid stevia
- optional topping: unsweetened coconut flakes I use Let's Do Organic
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Generously grease a 9 by 5 loaf pan.
- Whisk the first 6 ingredients together. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer beat the eggs then add the remaining wet ingredients to the mixer.
- Once well blended pour half the dry ingredients into the wet and blend until combined.
- Pour the remaining dry ingredients and blend until just combined.
- Pour batter into loaf pan.
- Sprinkle with optional coconut flakes if desired.
- Bake 1 hour or until a skewer in center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool 1 hour then take a knife and run it along the edges to loosen.
- Carefully invert onto a serving plate or cutting board.
- Allow to completely cool before slicing.
- Best if kept refrigerated.
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
made it-took 1 hr 45 min to cook before a clean knife was shown.. looks great.
It taste good. It looks like the pix-maybe little darker due to cook time.
It is crumbly . I will make again maybe more flour of less cream, maybe some cream cheese, but will add xanthine gum.
Could I sub the sweetener for honey?
Of course, use whatever sweetener you prefer.
I made this today. It is still in the oven. Can you advise what density the batter should be? Mine was very thick like some of the other comments.
Yes it is pretty thick.
It’s peach season so I want to make an upside down cake (keto friendly) using this recipe. Wondering if I could bake this cake on top of peaches. Concerned it may not bake properly on top because of the juices and moisture that the peaches produce. Look foreword to your thoughts…
I think it will bake up just fine, maybe reduce the temperature and bake a little longer.
Thrilled to find your website as I’m on a candida diet – for a good long time. And I want to make this for a bridal shower this next weekend. I’m hoping to adapt a bit for candida and I also want it to be all coconut flavor (or maybe slightly lemon?) Any recommendations before I try this?
You could remove the lemon or just use 1 tsp not 3.
What other sugar substitutes can be used for this recipe? Coconut sugar? Would you use the same amount as the Swerve?
You might want to use less coconut sugar than the Swerve. Swerve is really not as sweet as other sugars.
I see a total of 3.5 cups of butter and cream! I can’t do any dairy. What can I substitute this with?
This recipe sounds fantastic and I would love to try it without the dairy
Debra, the substitution of heavy cream for almond milk is in the same amount? Thank you
I just made this today and my batter looked more like a cookie dough than cake batter. I followed all the instructions exactly. It was so dry that I decided to just do a test with a mini loaf pan so I could modify the rest of the batter if it didn’t turn out right. Well, it is hard to explain how the test loaf turned out. It was moist yet dry at the same time. It was hard to eat without having a big glass of liquid because it was very dry in my mouth. I added more cream to the rest of the batter but honestly I can’t say it made much difference. If I were to make this again I would definitely use a lot less coconut flour.
Btw – not sure if it makes a difference but the brand of coconut flour I used is Better Body Foods.
I made these today!! They’re delicious. Thank you for the recipe. I made them into 24 cupcakes tho… I sprayed the papers and it made 24 pretty big heavy muffins…. trying to figure out the breakdown tho on nutrition…. how would I find the nutrition, specifically NET carbs per muffin??? Thanks
LOVED IT!. Had to make some changes since there are some ingredients which are not available where I live and some others which I didn’t have at the moment.
I substituted : Swerve for Sucralight (around 1g. per slice), butter for sunflower oil, sour cream for yogurth, heavy cream for coconut milk and left out the liquid Stevia.
Thank you!! ?
Regards from Uruguay,
Adriana
I am new to keto and thought this bread looked like “the real deal”…maybe I just don’t like the texture of coconut flour but I thought this was a huge waste of a ton of ingredients. I tried to like it but just couldn’t get past the texture. If you are not sure I suggest halving the recipe so you don’t waste as much if you end up not liking it.
Something must have gone wrong bc I just made it and I made muffins with mine and they’re delicious. Heavy… but that’s how baked good are with Keto… due to the ingredients allowed, but these were super moist, 25 min st 350 for larger muffins…. moist, flavorful, I added a tad more lemon zest bc I love lemon… but so so good!
I’ve made this before as the lemon loaf cake and it was amazing! Loved it!
My family has a traditional, round, two layer coconut cake ever Easter. I’m planning to use this recipe this year., omitting the lemon elements so I get the full coconut experience.
Do you think this recipe will work as a layer cake? Or will it be too heavy? Will it make enough batter for two 8 inch round pans?
I’m also planning to make a sugar free butter or cream cheese icing and top it with shredded coconut. Haven’t found or figured out that recipe yet. 🙂
Thanks for the terrific recipe!
I do think it will work as a layer cake and there should be enough batter for two 8 inch round pans.
I was looking for a low carb pound cake recipe and came across this recipe yesterday. I had most of the ingredients on hand, so I gave it a whirl. I’m happy to report it was delicious! I actually halved the recipe, and put into my silicone muffin tins. I pushed the batter down, and filled each muffin to the top. I didn’t have any liquid stevia, and also realized halfway through that I was out of lemons for the zest. Honestly it seems sweet enough to me, with a very faint coconut taste. I baked at 350 for about 20-30 mins. Placed in the fridge for about an hour, then assembled my strawberry shortcakes! Used fresh whipped cream and strawberries that I mascerated with stevia. Amazing!! AND, I just had a muffin 24 hours later after it sat in the fridge even longer. The fridge is the key I think. I didn’t mind the texture yesterday, I’ve had things made with coconut flour before and I knew what to expect. But after sitting in the fridge even longer, the cake wasn’t as grainy as I find coconut flour to be. Delicious! Can’t wait to think up some new frostings to go on top 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
Hi! I see above that you recommended the cream on top of canned coconut milk to sub for the sour cream. What substitute would you recommend for the heavy cream? Thank you so much!
Hmmmm not sure, maybe more coconut cream.
Thank you for this recipe! I’m diabetic and hubby has a tree nut allergy, so we have the same situation at our house. Finding recipes for a sweet treat that work for both of us is a challenge. I haven’t heard of sunflower seed meal before. I’m off to search through your site to learn more about it and find some recipes.
I LOVE your recipes and the fact that you even include a thumbnail photo when printing ( now that’s style). My mom loves lemon and coconut and I am GF/LC. This will be a wonderful surprise from me to her! I think I’ll make a test loaf to try out on my picky family. Thank you and many blessings to you and your family.
Thank you!
My son is lactose intolerant. Is the a non milk substitute for sour cream?
Canned Coconut milk- the cream part on top will work as a substitute.
I made this tonite following the recipe exactly. It is so moist and delicious!
I made as directed and got a full angel food cake pan tall cake. There are at least 24 servings which cuts the carb count down significantly. I also glazed it with the following glaze:
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup Swerve sweetener
3 drops liquid sucralose
1/8 tsp. xantham gum
Boil together 3 minutes, add 1 tsp extract (vanilla, lemon or almond) and 1/4 cup butter. Stir until butter is melted. Spoon over warm cake until all sides are glazed.
It was a big hit around here. Thanks for the recipe
Mine came out great, but I had so much batter it made two loaves. And yes, they were 9×5 pans. I used pyure as my sugar, which is a stevia blend. Didn’t notice it read that it’s twice as sweet and should use half the amount. I did followed the note to not use liquid stevia if using a stevia based sugar. To make up for that liquid, I used 1 teas of lemon juice. Maybe that made it rise, but I had two loaf pans almost full. It was done in a little under an hour. It turned out great, not dense at all. And not overly sweet. I’ll make that mistake again.
My recipe says 2 cups 1c 1 c 1 1/2 tsp baking powder!
Is it 2 cups coconut flour & 1 1/2 tsp baking powder?
issue with recipe plug in working on fixing it
Just found your site. Curious as to where you get “coconut stevia” and “lemon stevia”. Is that a brand or something you are mixing? I cook quite a bit with coconut flour and coconut sugar and wonder if the coconut sugar can be used instead of Stevia/Truvia, etc? These recipes will be put to good use in our home. Just need a bit of clarification. THANKS A BUNCH!! 🙂
I buy my flavored stevias at iherb.com and my discount code is YAJ035. You could use coconut sugar, here’s my conversion chart for comparing it to stevia:https://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/stevia-differences-in-liquid-packets-powdered-pure-a-stevia-conversion-chart/
If I omit all the coconut and double up the lemon would it pass for lemon pound cake?
That would be taking away a huge portion of a heavy dry substance (coconut) and replacing it with a liquid (lemon) so I do not think it will hold together.
Sorry, I should have been more specific. I didn’t mean the coconut flour I meant the coconut stevia, and the shredded & flaked coconut. And, instead, used lemon stevia with some lemon zest. And as I think about it, perhaps some of the cream could be replaced with a little lemon juice (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup). You’re the expert, would it work?
Oh sorry I had misunderstand. Yes a simple sub of different flavored stevias will work just fine. I would suggest just 1/4 cup lemon juice if not even a little less maybe just 2 tbsp.