This keto lemon pound cake recipe delivers a sweet treat with a tart lemon flavor and an optional glaze. It's a lemon loaf to love, perfect for those craving a lemon-y dessert without the carbs. This recipe offers a delightful twist on the traditional pound cake, maintaining a dense, delicious texture while remaining keto-friendly.
Why This Recipe Works
Traditional pound cakes are heavy on butter, flour, sugar, and eggs. This keto lemon pound cake recipe doesn’t carry that kind of weight, while still being dense, delicious, and holding its own as a crave-worthy and mouth-watering dessert. Instead, this keto recipe primarily uses almond flour, cream cheese, sour cream, keto-friendly sweetener, and yes, there’s still a bit of butter involved.
The Magic of Lemon in Keto Baking
Lemon is a wonderful flavor to incorporate into keto baking, adding a delicious tartness without the carbs. This keto lemon loaf strikes the perfect balance between dessert and snack, without any guilt.
Key Ingredients
Here's what you'll need for the cake:
- Almond Flour: Superfine or blanched almond flour is ideal.
- Coconut Flour: I like a mixture of super fine almond flour and coconut flour (I always use Anthony’s!).
- Whey Protein Isolate
- Sugar-Free Sweetener: Granulated monk fruit is often found as a blend of monk fruit and erythritol.
- Butter: You want it to be room temperature.
- Cream Cheese: Cream cheese makes a perfect pound cake texture.
- Sour Cream: The secret ingredient to a moist lemon pound cake!
- Eggs: Set out butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and eggs to let them come to room temperature.
- Lemon Zest: The zest is what really gives you most of the lemon flavor.
- Lemon Juice: Customize the lemon flavor. If you’re a lemon fiend like me, you can add fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to take it up a notch.
- Vanilla Extract
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Xanthan Gum
- Salt
And for the optional lemon glaze:
Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
- Powdered Sweetener: For the lemon glaze your best option is allulose (or xylitol*) because barely any after taste.
- Lemon Juice
- Lemon Zest or Extract: for a stronger lemon flavor increase the lemon zest or extract in the glaze to 2 teaspoons. Or more. You can add as much as you want!
- Vanilla Extract
- Butter
Step-by-Step Instructions with Photos
Here's how to make this delectable keto lemon pound cake:
Part 1: Making the Cake
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Line (or grease and flour) a loaf pan.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, whey protein isolate, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. This helps break up the almond flour to prevent any lumps.
- Combine Wet Ingredients: In a large bowl, add the eggs, sweetener, and lemon zest. Beat together with an electric mixer until truly lightly and fluffy (about two minutes). This really helps with the rise and final texture, so take your time. Mix in the vanilla extract and the melted butter until well incorporated.
- Combine Wet and Dry: Add in the dry flour mix in two parts, alternating with the sour cream and lemon juice. The dough will be very elastic (and prone to climbing up your electric mixer). So just do your best to mix quickly and use a spatula at the end to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed.
- Bake: Distribute batter evenly into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing out the top with wet fingertips. Bake for 50-60 minutes (I did 55 minutes), until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Check in on it after minute 15 though, and tent with aluminum foil (ensuring its not resting on the loaf!) as soon as the top is fully set and beginning to brown.
- Cool: Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before removing, and cool completely on a rack before glazing.
Part 2: Whipped Cream (Optional)
- Using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 tablespoon keto confectioners sweetener, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract on high until peaks form. Top the cake with whipped cream.
Part 3: Making the Lemon Glaze
- Combine Ingredients: Make the lemon glaze by mixing the powdered sweetener with the lemon zest and juice. Add lemon juice as needed until desired consistency is reached, but watch out as you want it fairly thick so it sticks nicely.
- Glaze the Cake: Once the cake is completely cooled, drizzle the lemon glaze over the top.
Tips for the Perfect Keto Lemon Pound Cake
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Make sure the butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and eggs are at room temperature. This is one of those recipes where it actually matters! Set those items out on the counter at least an hour before you start baking. Room-temperature items mix together better to create a perfectly emulsified batter.
- Parchment Paper is Key: Line baking dishes with parchment paper to easily remove the bread after baking. I leave paper hanging over the sides of the pan which I then use to lift the loaf out after it has cooled.
- Don’t Over-Mix: You don't want to over-mix the batter.
- Sweetener Selection: I’ve found that erythritol behaves much more like sugar in these cases in terms of texture and rise… while allulose has the unfortunate quality at times of behaving more like a wet ingredient, resulting in dense, over-browned (deep yellow/orange?) and wet centers. If you’re opting for the lemon glaze (and I’m totally twisting your hand about it!), your best option is allulose (or xylitol*) because barely any after taste. So get your blender out, make sure it’s completely dry, and process your sweetener of choice until powdered.
- Customize the Fat: Using butter will create an extra dense texture in this lemon pound cake, a bit more true to a traditional pound cake. A few different oil varieties that will work include olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil. If you're using coconut oil, be sure to let the eggs and sour cream come to room temperature.
- Customize the Lemon Flavor: If you’re a lemon fiend like me, you can add fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to take it up a notch.
- Prevent Over-Browning: If the top of the pound cake begins to brown around 30-45 minutes into the baking time and the center isn't done yet, place a sheet of parchment paper over the loaf to protect the top from getting too dark.
Variations and Additions
- Add Poppy Seeds: Add more lemon flavor. Add poppy seeds.
- Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: Make a lemon cream cheese frosting. Or make a whipped lemon curd frosting. Make a batch of my keto lemon curd.
- Swap the Pan: Bake the cake in a square pan or bundt cake pan.
- Dairy-Free Option: As for the fat content, I've found that I like it best with grass-fed butter or extra virgin olive oil (opt for that if you're dairy-free). Olive oil cakes are delightful, and the flavor of extra virgin olive oil is extra nice with lemon. Overall, oil will make the cake a bit less dense compared to butter, but the differences are pretty subtle.
- Make Cupcakes: Yes, absolutely, you can make this low carb lemon cake into cupcakes. You will need to prepare the batter as directed. Instead of adding it to a loaf pan, simply use a muffin tin. The biggest thing you will need to adjust for the cupcakes is going to be the baking time. Bake them for 20-25 minutes then check them.
- Make a Bundt Cake: Yup! You can definitely make this into a bundt cake. Want a lemon treat in a hurry? Try this Lemon Bar in a Jar!
Serving Suggestions
Serve this keto lemon pound cake with fresh berries and sugar-free whipped cream!
Storage Instructions
- Room Temperature: You can keep any extra, un-glazed pound cake in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Refrigerate: If you do add the sour cream glaze, it's best to store the pound cake in the refrigerator.
- Freeze: Store in an airtight container for 3 days and freeze for up to three months. Either freeze the entire batch in a large freezer-safe container or in individual servings. Feel free to slice your cake and then freeze it for a later date!
The Next-Day Phenomenon
Pssst! I've definitely noticed that this lemon loaf is always better the day after (in both taste and texture), once all the flavors and essential oils from the lemon have had a chance to properly mingle.
Nutritional Information
This keto lemon pound cake is moist, tender, and full of lemon flavor, you won’t believe it is low carb! Simple ingredients and topped with a sweet lemon glaze.
Assuming you’d slice this into 10 equal slices, one slice of cake (frosting not included) has approximately 3 net carbs. Keep in mind I’m using Kirkland Blanched Almond Flour for this recipe. If you’re using a different brand, the carb and net carb count will vary. This low-carb lemon loaf is such a great treat if you're following a keto diet because one slice contains only 2 grams of net carbs.
Read also: Keto Calorie Counting: A Detailed Guide
Other Keto Lemon Recipes to Explore
- This keto cake trifle with olive oil lemon curd. In fact, it's another way to use this pound cake!
- Keto lemon bars with a raspberry center are the ultimate lemon lover's treat! Gf, dairy-free and low-carb, you'll love the tart lemon filling with a raspberry layer.
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