There’s nothing more I hate than getting super excited about a cake recipe I see online and then scrolling down to the nutrition information. My heart stops for a minute when I see the macros: “150 calories and 2g net carb for a slice?”
When it’s too good to be true, it usually is. I’m not in the business of mucking with my macros and breaking things into 24 or 30 slices, I’m in the business of enjoying the food. This cake will make 8 slices – each slice being 4.7g net carbs and filled with awesome fats! Who wants to only eat a sliver of cake, anyway?
You may notice that the cake batter looks familiar. Well, it’s the same recipe I used for the Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins! This batter will be used by me for a long time, as it’s one of the best, most moist cakes I’ve made in the past year and a half of baking.
It doesn’t fail here, either, bringing a deliciously moist cake that’s filled with poppy seeds and the faint aroma of lemon. When you add the icing in, you get a burst of sweet and tangy blackberry with a finish of lemon that you just don’t find in most desserts nowadays.
I also wanted to give a big thanks to everyone that visits the site – it’s grown tenfold in the last 10 months, and I couldn’t have done it without YOU! So a BIG THANKYOU to everyone that has shared the recipes, pinned on pinterest, and liked on facebook. It’s been an awesome ride, and I hope we can continue this journey together 🙂
So, what’s your favorite cake? If you share with us in the comments below, I’d be happy to try to make a keto rendition of you favorites!
Yields 8 slices of Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Blackberry Buttercream
The Preparation
The Icing:
- 1/2 cup erythritol, powdered
- 1/2 cup blackberries, strained
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
The Cake:
- 1/3 cup butter, salted
- 1/4 cup erythritol, powdered
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 2 tablespoons psyllium husk powder
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 large egg
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon liquid stevia
The Execution
1. Start by putting your 1/3 cup of butter into a pan over medium heat. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Grind 1/4 cup erythritol in a spice grinder until powdered completely.
3. Add 1 1/2 cups Almond Flour, powdered Erythritol, 2 tbsp. Psyllium Husk Powder, 2 tbsp. Poppy Seeds and 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder into a bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together 2 large Eggs, 1/2 cup Sour Cream, Zest of 1 Lemon, 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract and 1/4 tsp. Liquid Stevia.
5. Keep an eye on your butter until it browns, it should look a deep golden color.
6. Slowly pour the browned butter into the wet ingredients while mixing with your spoon.
7. Add dry ingredients a little bit at a time while mixing until your batter forms.
8. Grease a round cake pan (I used an 8 inch pan), then press your batter into the pan.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F until the cake is golden brown on the top.
10. Let the cake cool slightly, then remove from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.
11. Grind 1/2 cup erythritol in a spice grinder, then grind 1/2 cup Blackberries until a paste is formed (you can use a food processor for this, or your spice grinder if you immediately clean it out). Strain the paste into a separate container, making sure no seeds get through.
12. Add 2 tbsp. Lemon Juice and powdered Erythritol to the blackberry puree and mix together well.
13. In a separate bowl (or clean out one of the bowl you used earlier), beat together 6 tbsp. butter with 1/4 cup heavy cream using a hand mixer.
14. Slowly mix in the blackberry puree until a thick icing is formed.
15. Plop the icing on the cake and cover the entire cake, sides included.
16. Place in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, then serve!
This makes a total of 8 servings of Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Blackberry Buttercream. Each serving comes out to be 372 calories, 34.3g fats, 4.4g net carbs, and 7.3g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1/2 cup erythritol | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 cup blackberries | 31 | 0.4 | 6.9 | 3.8 | 3.1 | 1 |
| 2 tablespoon lemon juice | 5 | 0 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 0.2 |
| 6 tablespoon butter | 610 | 69 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.7 |
| 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream | 202 | 21.5 | 1.6 | 0 | 1.6 | 1.7 |
| 1/3 cup butter | 537 | 60.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.6 |
| 1/4 cup erythritol | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 1/2 cup almond flour | 973 | 84 | 37 | 21.8 | 15.1 | 35.3 |
| 2 tablespoon psyllium husk powder | 112 | 0 | 25.6 | 22.4 | 3.2 | 0 |
| 2 tablespoon poppy seeds | 90 | 7.2 | 4.8 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 3.1 |
| 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder | 4 | 0 | 1.9 | 0 | 1.9 | 0 |
| 2 large egg | 157 | 10.5 | 0.8 | 0 | 0.8 | 13.8 |
| 1/2 cup sour cream | 228 | 22.3 | 5.3 | 0 | 5.3 | 2.8 |
| 2 teaspoon lemon zest | 2 | 0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | 12 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 |
| 1/4 teaspoon liquid stevia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 2993 | 275.5 | 87 | 52.1 | 34.9 | 59.3 |
| Per Serving (/8) | 374 | 34.4 | 10.9 | 6.5 | 4.4 | 7.4 |
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Blackberry Buttercream
Ingredients
The Icing
- ½ cup erythritol powdered
- ½ cup blackberries strained
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 6 tablespoon butter softened
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
The Cake
- ⅓ cup butter salted
- ¼ cup erythritol powdered
- 1 ½ cup almond flour
- 2 tablespoon psyllium husk powder
- 2 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large egg
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon liquid stevia
Instructions
- Start by putting the butter for the cake into a pan over medium heat. Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grind erythritol for the cake in a spice grinder until powdered completely. Let settle before removing lid.
- Add almond flour, powdered erythritol, psyllium husk powder, poppy seeds and baking powder into a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, sour cream, lemon zest, vanilla extract and liquid stevia.
- Keep an eye on your butter until it browns; it should look a deep golden color.
- Slowly pour the browned butter into the wet ingredients while mixing with your spoon.
- Add dry ingredients a little bit at a time while mixing until your batter forms.
- Grease a round cake pan, then press your batter into the pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cake is golden brown on the top.
- Let the cake cool slightly, then remove from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.
- Grind remaining erythritol in a spice grinder, then grind blackberries until a paste is formed (you can use a food processor for this, or your spice grinder if you immediately clean it out). Strain the paste into a separate container, making sure no seeds get through.
- Add lemon juice and powdered erythritol to the blackberry puree and mix together well.
- In a separate bowl (or clean out one of the bowls you used earlier), beat together remaining butter with heavy cream using a hand mixer.
- Slowly mix in the blackberry puree until a thick icing is formed.
- Plop the icing on the cake and cover the entire cake, sides included.
- Place in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, then serve!
This cake sounds amazing! Definitely on my list!
Here’s a challenge for you. My mom has always made me a Date Chocolate Chip Nut Cake for my birthday, it’s my favorite. Of course, being of the Dr. Ornish school of eating, she replaces half of the sugar with Splenda, and the fat with prunes. I think I could re-create the whole thing, except for the dates. Any ideas?
Here’s a similar recipe: https://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-chip-date-nut-cake-403588
Hmm, now this IS an interesting one. The dates are the hardest part to recreate I’d say. The texture is hard to replace (from what I’m thinking) and I’d just end up replacing them with some fresh berries. Raisins, prunes, and dates are just…a lot of carbs/sugar and there’s not too much textually I think could replicate it. I’ll keep thinking about it and if I come up with something I’ll let you know!
Tough, I know. I’ve seen some low-carb zucchini bread/cake recipes that seem to have a similar texture, but I haven’t tried them yet. But since my Mom has been making them low fat for so long, I may not realize what the actual texture should be!
Haha, I’ve been making LC cakes for so long I can barely remember a real cake 😛
Your recipes are pretty fantastic! I just tried this one and the flavors turned out great, especially the icing, but the texture is way off. I used room temp butter and substituted a mix of xylitol, stevia powder, and erythritol because I only had about 1/4 cup left of erythritol (it came out at just under half a cup), but I ended up with a very tasty blackberry liquid instead of icing. Do you know any way I can thicken it without resorting to cornstarch or sugar craziness?
Thank you Myra! Did you powder the sugar mixture in a spice grinder? That may be a reason for it. The other reason is that the blackberry mixture didn’t reduce enough in the pan. Those are my 2 guesses because everything sounded on point. Glad you like it either way, though! You could probably thicken it with some xanthan – although that might result in a gel type of thickening rather than an icing that you want.
Wait, what? in the above recipe you never said to reduce the blackberry mixture in the pan? was this left out by accident?
You say to add the lemon juice and erythiol but nothing about reducing? it looks like its in a pan so may have been reduced some? going to give this a go today, might leave it on the backburner until i hear back though
Woops, sorry. I mistook it with another recipe while writing this. I have a few recipes that reduce blackberries – you’re correct.
Awesome thanks for the reply! will be making this one next.
Sure thing – hope you enjoy 🙂
This was amazing! I made it yesterday for my niece and ended up keeping half the cake for myself!
So glad to hear it Rochelle! Hope your niece didn’t mind – but at least now you get more for yourself! 🙂
I’m allergic to psyllium but I’d still really like to make this recipe and a few others in here that contain it. Can you recommend a replacement or can I just leave it out?
I’ve heard ground chia seeds work pretty well in place of it.
Do I melt the butter before I add heavy cream and how long do I beat it?
I have made icing twice and it failed.
I typically just use room temp butter for buttercream icing. If you don’t have it at room temp, you can cream the butter first in the bowl before adding other ingredients. The heat from the whisk/friction should bring it to room temp relatively quickly.