Sugar-Free Low Carb Sponge Cake (Keto, Gluten Free)
This Sugar-Free Low Carb Sponge Cake is also keto, gluten free and nut free with all the traditional flavors and textures of a sponge cake.
Low Carb Sponge Cake
A sponge cake is basically just a very light and airy cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, but this recipe is low carb and just as delicious as it’s higher carb cousin!
This Low Carb Cake is a masterpiece made grain free, gluten free, nut free and just around 100 calories per slice with less than 1 gram of carbs!!!!!
Funny thing is, making this sponge cake was never my intention. I was trying to make an angel food cake. And after 4 attempts of it deflating I just gave up and adapted my recipe to include yolks and turn a failed recipe into a winning one!
Don’t you love when the unexpected happens and turns out better than you would have thought or imagined?
Yep. Some recipes are like that for me. This one is beyond good.
Better than I would have expected considering it’s made without grains and gluten and sugar.
I want to note that although the angel food cake had 4 failing attempts, the family still ate it all up. The taste was incredible. The height was another story. But I will attempt again!
So with that I set my heart on the sponge cake and of course it came easily and without any angst on my part. No height needed in this beauty. It is perfect as is. A soft, light, and airy sponge cake.
After completely cooling I added some sugar-free whipped cream and fresh berries. Since there were left overs after each of my 3 kids and hubby and I had a piece, I needed to refrigerate it. If I hadn’t added the topping I probably could have left it out on the counter.
Guess what? It tasted even better the next day.
In fact these last two pics are straight from the fridge. The chilling time made it a bit more dense but the spongey texture was still just perfect.
Tools to Make Keto Sponge Cake
Stand Mixer- Helps whip egg whites to perfect stiff peaks in no time at all!
or Electric Hand Mixer– If you don’t want to spend the money on the stand mixer, this is the next best thing to whipping up egg whites in no time!
8 inch Spring Form Cake Pan-This spring form pan is not only helpful for this cake recipe and easier removal of it than using a regular cake pan, but it works well forLow Carb Cheesecake and my Carrot Cake and just about any other dessert you want to make.
It’s an easy cake, don’t let egg white whipping scare you. This comes together without a problem and the batter is light enough to fold the egg whites into.
Wonderful idea for Mother’s Day I think!
Brenda’s Notes:
- If you don’t have Swerve and are using another granulated or confectioners sugar free sweetener I would eliminate the vanilla stevia. Swerve is much less sweet than most other sugar free substitutes.
- You don’t need to use a vanilla protein powder, plain is fine, that is just what I had in my cupboard.
- Other Mother’s Day recipes you might like: Carrot Cake Cheesecake, Almond Ricotta Cake, Coffee Cheesecake
Sugar-Free Low Carb Sponge Cake
Sugar-Free Low Carb Sponge Cake
Ingredients
- 9 eggs separated
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp vanilla liquid stevia
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cup coconut flour I used Bob's Red Mill
- 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder I used Jay Robbs, 1 scoop
- 1/2 cup Swerve confectioners sugar- free sweetener
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp butter melted and cooled
- optional toppings: fresh sugar-free whipped cream and berries
Instructions
- Grease an 8 inch spring form pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place your egg whites and cream of tartar in a stand mixer and mix until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- Place your yolks in another bowl and whisk with vanilla extract, liquid stevia and lemon zest.
- In another bowl whisk together the remaining dry ingredients.
- Combine the yolks and dry ingredients together until smooth.
- In small portions a little at a time, fold the egg whites into the yolk and flour mixture, be careful not to over mix and deflate your egg whites.
- Drizzle the melted, cooled butter on the side of the bowl to slowly fold it into the batter.
- Pour batter into pan and bake 30 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick in center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely before removing and adding optional toppings.
- Keep 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.
I forgot to mention, since I used allulose in place of the stevia, I omitted the Swerve as well.
So I only used 1/2 C plus 1/3 C. allulose and no other sweetener.
I used two 9×13 sheet pans to make this because I wanted to be able to roll them into a log, filled with mousse/frosting. worked out great (except I forgot to spray the parchment paper, so it did stick a bit)! I also cut down on cook time to 12 or so minutes. Since I split this between 2 pans, it cooked much faster. I didn’t have liquid stevia, so I used 1/2 C. plus another 1/3 C. of allulose. I didn’t have lemon zest so I added 2 Tbsp lemon juice. Everything still worked out great, but the lemon zest would have given it more depth. I didn’t want to wait until I bought lemons, lol. One cake I made whipped cream filling with lemon juice added. It was good, but definitely needed more lemon flavor – lemon zest would help a lot here, too. The other cake, I made a chocolate mousse filling. Again, it was good, but I need to make a stronger tasting mouse.
overall, the cake was great, I just need to tweak my fillings. Will definitely make again!
Sounds wonderful!
I used your recipe to make my girlfriend strawberry raspberry mousse cake with fresh sliced strawberries coated with monk fruit sweetened puree strawberries glaze birthday cake.
Hello! Can I sub out the butter with applesauce or yogurt? I also do not like coconut flour. Would chickpea or tapioca flour suffice? TIA!
Are the degrees celcius or fahrenheit? thanks!
Fahrenheit
I only have whey protein Isolate do you think that would work instead of the protein powder.
Brenda, this was EXCELLENT!!!
I really needed cake and I had bookmarked your recipe and decided to give it a try. WOW!
I was leery because I don’t like coconut and try to minimize any flavor of it when I use coconut flour. But, I try to make a recipe once as it is written, before I make changes. Well, I am not going to make any changes on this one!!
Even my son, who is not keto, liked it!!
It was soft and had great texture and taste. A real gem.
Thanks again!!
Please help: I can’t find unsweetened pure egg white protein powder anywhere where I live. Any substitutes? Just plain egg whites?
Egg whites will work.
I’m late to what looks like is going to be a delicious party! Planning on making this for my sister’s dinner party- have you ever added anything, like matcha to the recipe? Was thinking of making a matcha sponge with berries and whipped cream.
This was fantastic! I actually split the cake in half and filled the middle with a layer of low-sugar banana pudding, then put some sliced/diced strawberries and peaches on top along with a *generous* helping of homemade sugar-free whipped cream. It was delish!
I just had one minor issue… it seemed as though there ended up being a layer of denser eggy-ness at the very bottom of the cake, a thin layer – just not the same consistency of the rest of the cake (which was marvelous)… might my “extra large eggs” need to be “medium” or “large” instead? Or might I have not folded the egg whites in through enough? (I didn’t want to over-mix.) Any thoughts on what I can do to prevent this next time? (Because there definitely will be a next time!)
Definitely related to the size of the eggs I think.
Hi there,
Thank you for the recipe. Just 1 question:
On the traditional sponge cake I had to mix the egg yokes til it form a slow ribbon, etc. But I am noticing here your instruction stated to simply whisk it. Is this correct?
Thanks,
Maile
You’re correct. You can certainly do it the traditional way, not sure it will work like traditional though, but please let me know if you try it.
I have no Swerve confectioners sugar I only have Stevia 100% natural plant extract, it is 250-300 times the sweetness of sugar. I’m not sure how much to use to get the right sweetness. What would you recommend?
Could I use just egg white to
Lower the fat and calorie count? 🙂
Not sure you’d get the same texture here. May be much drier. The fat in the egg helps with moisture.
Hi Brenda, can I replace the protein powder with vanilla and coconut flour? Or something else please? I live abroad, and cant get but a huge protein powder package.
I think almond flour would be a better sub for the protein powder but I’ve not tried that in this recipe.
Is the per serving, one slice or is it for the whole cake?
An if it is per slice, how big is the slice or weight of the slice?
So my diabetic partner can have a slice or whoel cake eithout any need of insulin.
Thank you
Right under the title is shows 12 servings. So slice the cake into 12 pieces and the nutrition info is for one piece.
This looks great–but I have a question about this comment: “You don’t need to use a vanilla protein powder, plain is fine” –do you mean plain vanilla flavoring? Or plain protein powder? I’ve thought about buying some protein powder for some of my keto recipes–just now sure how often I would use it (to warrant the expense).
Plain protein powder is what I meant.
Could it be made without the protein powder all together? Would you increase or su something else?
No I don’t think the texture will be as good without the protein powder.
Hi, I’m pretty new to baking recipes with as little sugar as possible as my Dad is a diabetic so I try to make some nice treats for him. I’ve found your recipes to be really great, he loves them!
I’m trying to make an apple sponge cake and I was wondering do you think this sponge would work well if I layered apples on top and then baked it?
If I don’t have vanilla stevia or vanilla whey protein (both unflavored); should I add more vanilla extract or perhaps even scrape in a vanilla bean in addition to the extract?
I think the vanilla bean would be better to use.
I made this cake this afternoon and am enjoying a slice right now. So YUMMY!! The hint of lemon is delightful–
Thanks so much!
From one blogger to another, thought you should know that it looks like this click bait site has stolen your posts… apologies if they have asked your permission, but doesn’t see that way x
http://aboutdiabetescure.info
Thanks so much!
This looks wonderful. Can’t wait to try making it.
For Passover I usually make a traditional sponge cake in a spring form pan so it rises (lots of sugar, eggs and matzoh meal & matzoh cake meal). Since I am trying to reduce the sugar in my diet due to diabetes I’d like to make this cake for Passover (not really strict so cream of tartar & baking soda don’t phase me. Do you think this could be made in that sort of pan?
I made this in a spring form pan.