Two layers of sweet sugar-free chocolate cake with a creamy fudge buttercream filling.
Only 5.5g net carbs it’s the perfect sugar-free cake for diabetics or anyone following a sugar-free diet or keto diet.
The Best Sugar-Free Chocolate Fudge Cake
There is a misconception that you can’t enjoy your favorite baked treats on the keto diet and for many, the thought of giving up chocolate cake is too much of a personal sacrifice!
Sure, traditionally baked cakes are very high in carbs and sugar which is why this Sugar-Free Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe swaps out whole wheat flour for almond and coconut flour, as well as refined sugar for healthier sweeteners.
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It’s low-carb, sugar-free, and gluten-free!
How To Make A Double-Layer Sugar-Free Chocolate Cake
Once I’ve combined all my cake mixture ingredients together following the recipe below, I pour the sugar-free chocolate fudge cake into 2 sponge tins and sandwich them together with my chocolate fudge cream cheese frosting or vanilla cream cheese frosting.
How To Reduce The Carbs?
The easy healthy cake recipe makes a substantial size celebration cake so if you want to cut down further on your carbs, then I suggest treating the two layers as separate cakes rather than a double-layer cake.
You can even get creative and use this cake mixture to bake keto chocolate cupcakes or a square cake that can then be frosted and sliced.
If you don’t want the frosting, simply serve it with whipped cream and a few berries.
How To Make Sugar-Free Chocolate Frosting?
If you can’t enjoy chocolate cake without frosting, I’ve got you covered. You can make a quick and easy sugar-free chocolate frosting (keto chocolate buttercream) with only a few ingredients and it takes less than 5 minutes.
Alternatively, you can make a vanilla sugar-free frosting too.
This cake requires a creamy decadent frosting/icing, but not as sweet as you may be used to, and that’s for good reason. To live sugar-free, you need to slowly adapt your tastebuds to less sweet foods.
The cream cheese provides some sharpness to the overall flavor which I quite enjoy since I have finally lost my sweet tooth.
How Much Sweetener Do You Need?
You can also play around with the sweetener quantity, either adding more or less depending on your current sweet tooth. Just beware that adding more sweetener can sometimes add to a bitter aftertaste when using a sweetener such as stevia.
If this is day 1 of sugar-free living for you, you may require twice the amount of sugar as someone who has been living sugar-free for years. So don’t be afraid to add more sweeteners. The longer you live sugar-free, the less sweetener in time you will require.
Lastly, add some double cream which will not only give the frosting the thickness of chocolate fudge but also helps to make the cream cheese a spreadable consistency.
I have used coconut cream in another Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting recipe of mine that you can use here too but avoid it if you don’t want the subtle coconut flavour.
With the cake mixture baked and the frosting added, you won’t believe that a double-layer single slice of this Sugar-Free Chocolate Fudge Cake is only 5.5g net carbs!
Can You Eat Cake And Stay Low-Carb?
Whether you are celebrating a birthday or just have a love for cake, this Sugar-Free Chocolate Fudge Cake is a lifesaver for all those chocoholics following the Keto diet.
It’s disappointing when store-bought desserts that are labeled as keto don’t live up to the taste test, but this recipe is definitely one to bookmark for your next special occasion or guilt-free treat.
It’s not only drool-worthy, but is low-carb, sugar-free, AND gluten-free!
Sugar-Free Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing Bowls
- Cake sandwich tins
Ingredients
Sugar-Free Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cake
- 110 g butter softened and cubed
- 25 g granulated sweetener of choice or more to your taste
- 2 tsp vanilla extract extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 80 ml strong coffee hot
- 70 g cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 250 ml heavy whipping cream
- 150 g almond meal/flour
- 60 g coconut flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 eggs – medium
Sugar-Free Chocolate Fudge Frosting
- 225 g cream cheese softened at room temperature
- 55 g butter melted
- 25 g powdered sweetener or more to YOUR taste
- 45 g cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Sugar-Free Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cake
- In a large mixing bowl add the softened and cubed butter, sweetener, vanilla, salt, hot coffee, and mix until dissolved.
- Add cocoa powder. Mix until smooth and lump-free.
- Add heavy/double cream and almond flour/meal. Mix until smooth.
- Add coconut flour and baking powder. Mix until smooth.
- Add 1 egg at a time, mixing after each addition.
- Divide the Sugar-Free Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cake into 2 greased and lined cake tins.
- Bake at 180C/350F for 25 minutes. Please adjust the time according to your oven and whether you are using fan bake, fan forced, regular convection etc.
Sugar-Free Chocolate Fudge Frosting
- Place the softened cream cheese into a mixing bowl, pour the melted butter on top. Mix until smooth.
- Add the powdered sweetener, cocoa, vanilla and salt. Mix until smooth.
- Add double/heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the thickness of chocolate fudge frosting that you desire.
Notes
- The coffee is not enough to make this a mocha cake, it is there to enhance and amplify the chocolate fudge flavour.
- For the coffee, you can use a good espresso or use 2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1/3 cup of hot water.
- If you overheat your cream cheese when making the fudge frosting, it will become very sloppy and runny. Simply pop it into the fridge to solidify for 1-3 minutes.
- The nutrition is for 1 double layer sugar-free flourless chocolate fudge cake with frosting. To reduce the carb value, you can reduce how much frosting you require or enjoy just one layer at a time.
Nutrition
If you are interested in trying out some other delicious low-carb cakes, be sure to have a look at some of my favourite recipes which I have tried and tested:
- Sugar-Free Birthday Cake
- Sugar-free double chocolate mug cakes (keto friendly)
- Low-Carb Instant Pot Chocolate Cake
- Slow Cooker Low-Carb Chocolate Lava Cake
- Low-Carb Mug Cakes
- Low-Carb Slow Cooker Vanilla Berry Cheesecake
- Sugar-Free Instant Pot Chocolate Mousse
- Keto Double Chocolate Chaffle + FREE cookbook
More sugar-free chocolate recipes
If you are having a cake emergency and want to stay on track, why not make my chocolate almond flour keto donuts or my 1-minute low-carb mug cakes, with directions and recipes for 4 flavors.
You might love chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon swirl, or even lemon curd (my favorite).
Or why not try them all?
- Baked flourless chocolate ganache cake (keto chocolate cake)
- Low-carb double chocolate mug cake
- Low-carb lemon curd mug cake
- Sugar-free cinnamon roll mug cake
- 1-minute keto vanilla berry mug cake
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No clue what went wrong but followed recipe exactly. It was dry and crumbly. Tossed it. Bummer. Costly mistakes with Keto desserts.
Noooooo 😭 something has happened Jan. Did you use the wrong flour perhaps? Not enough eggs? Let’s see if we can figure it out. I want you to fall in love with this cake.
Mine turned out dry and crumbly too. Maybe it’s because I used coconut cream instead of heavy cream? I was able to save it by patching it up with frosting but still dry as a desert
Hello. Just wondering if I could use dates in the cake batter instead of a sweetner?
If I can, then what amount would you recommend I use?
You could but I’m afraid the recipe would no longer be sugar-free or low-carb. You can see how much sugar is in dried fruit here. And this is the supreme guide to which low-carb sweeteners are good to use.
Hi Libby, this looks awesome! What size tin did you use?
I used 2 18cm (7inch) sandwich tins. I have also baked it in a rectangle dish so it became a brownie – yummo!
I love the idea of sugar free recipes but every time I try they just end up tasteless. My cake texture was great, the frosting lovely but my cake sponge was just so bitter and tasteless 🙁 I used stevia sweetener, I’m new to this so maybe needed more?
Yes, you may need more. The hardest thing to judge is how much sweetener every reader may need to use. All the recipes on my site are a guide and I always state “or more to your taste” because what might be acceptable to one person may be over sweet or bitter to another. All my readers are on different paths in their sugar-free life. Some are absolute beginners so may require double what I state in a recipe, and others have lived sugar-free for years and so may only use half or even zero! So ALWAYS taste a recipe BEFORE baking and don’t be afraid to use additional sweeteners. But as time passes you will require less.
TOP TIP: If you forget to taste and adjust before baking and the cooked recipe is not sweet enough for you, serve with sweetened whipped cream.
Which sweeteners do I use? – here is The Ultimate Guide To Sweeteners – which ones I use and which ones I avoid.
Can i replace the coffee with something else? I dont like coffee. And when it says hot coffee what do you mean?
You can omit the coffee entirely, but you will need to add the same volume of hot water. Coffee is well known to enhance the flavour of chocolate so I add just enough, but not enough to be overpowering. Hot coffee, I mean a hot cup of regular drinking coffee.
Hello, The cake is lovely. Much bigger than expected though. Can I freeze it in portions?
Yes, this flourless chocolate cake freezes really well. You can either freeze an entire layer (if you bake it in two cake tins) or as individual slices with pieces of [eafl id=”35876″ name=”Baking parchment paper” text=”baking parchment”] in between each slice. Leave each slice to defrost on your kitchen bench for 20 minutes or warm in the microwave for 30 seconds. Serve with whipped cream or cream cheese frosting.
I’d like to try the “brownie” version in the rectangular dish now that I read 😉 What size of dish did you use? Metal or glass/ceramic?
I have various dishes, I pick which ones are clean 😉 I have a square ceramic dish and a rectangular glass one too. Just adjust cooking times until the center is “almost” cooked to make a “brownie”.
The Frosting ingredients states granulated sweetener …shouldn’t it say powdered?
You can use either, they both dissolve with the cream cheese, but I have amended it to the powdered as it is probably preferable. 🙂 Thanks for the nudge.
Hi there! I’m planning to make this cake this weekend – what size tins would you recommend using? Thanks so much 🙂 xx
I usually use two 18cm/7 inch baking cake tins. Alternatively, you could use a large ring tin that is 22cm/9 inch. Have a wonderful baking weekend. 🙂
How many tablespoons is 4 oz of butter. I weighed it on a scale and 110 G or 4 oz is a little over a tablespoon. Is that really all to use? Thanks for letting me know
100g (4oz) of butter is actually 8 tablespoons of butter. You can see my butter conversion charts here. It can be confusing but if you use electric scales, there is no room for error.
Thanks for this recipe. To make it even healthier I substituted a combination of olive oil and coconut oil for the butter and silken tofu for the cream – and it was delicious.
Is there any other low carb flours you can use instead of nut flours?
You could try one of the new seeds flours such as pumpkin seed flour or sunflower seed flour, but I have never tried it so cannot vouch for how the cake recipe will turn out. Please come back and let me know how it goes. I love to give alternative flours when I can.
Any adjustments needed if baking with a nut flour at high altitude?
Great question, unfortunately, I have zero experience baking at high altitudes because I live near the beach (so sea level) so I won’t even pretend to have any expertise BUT Bob’s Red Mill does. “Generally, we recommend decreasing leavening agents, increasing liquids, and increasing baking temperature and bake time. In some cases, it may be necessary to use less flour or more flour, depending on what you’re baking, or perhaps a different type of flour entirely. “. You can read their full guide High altitude baking tips.
This did not work. Followed recipe exactly. Cake came out of the pan in large moist crumbles, wouldn’t hold together at all. Flavor wasn’t bad, however. The baking powder doesn’t seem to work to leaven this cake, maybe separate the eggs and use whipped whites plus yolks? Or cook in 9X13 and use as brownies cut in pan? Sorry, this was a waste of expensive ingredients
It could be a couple things. 1) baking powder might be old or expired. 2) theingredients were scooped when measuring and not spooned into the cup when measured. Scooping flours compact it and makes it so they actually use more flour than needed by almost double. That would explain the crumbles. However, keto cakes are more fragile than a regular cake and need to be handled gently.
The cake might have also been under cooked and not cooked until the middle set.
Hubby wanted a quick chocolate dessert as a treat so I made this cake. Quick, easy, and totally delicious. As it was for dessert, I made a chocolate ganache to pour over it, and topped it with coconut ice-cream. The rest of the cake is in the freezer for another time. Thanks for yet another awesome recipe.
Great to hear Trudy, thank you.