Sugar Free Low Carb Simple Sponge Cake recipe for all your dessert needs. < 2g carbs per slice.
Following the keto lifestyle means having to adapt recipes as well as creating dishes that are tasty and exciting.
Plain sponge is the basic ingredient of many desserts. Of course you can follow recipes for various flavour cakes, but sometimes you just need a plain sponge to work with.
Once you’ve mastered this sugar free low carb simple sponge cake it will become your keto diet staple. Whether you just fancy a slice for breakfast or with a cup of afternoon tea, or you’re creating a more complicated dessert (like my Classic Tiramisù) with filling, icing, or whatever, I promise that you will come back to this recipe time and time again.
Not only is this sugar free low carb simple sponge cake very versatile, it is also extremely easy to make.
Using my favourite method , aka the lazy method ;), everything goes into one-bowl. First you whisk the wet ingredients, then you add the dry ingredients. No need to separate eggs. No need to whisk egg whites in another bowl. Nope! Whole eggs get added one at a time by breaking them directly into the one bowl. Just check that no egg shell falls into the mix. Butter goes in melted, so no elbow work either!
I very much doubt you could find an easier recipe. It literally takes minutes to get the cake mix ready for baking. The important question is: does it taste good? To which I can honestly answer that you won’t be able to tell the difference between a ‘normal’ but unhealthy sponge cake and this one. No-one who has tasted it for me realised it was sugar free and low carb. It even got the thumbs up from a fussy 8 year old!
There is a warning flag with this cake: lupin flour comes from the same legume family as peanuts and may cause a peanut-like allergic reaction in certain susceptible individuals. If this applies to you, you may wish to substitute lupin flour with almond fine flour (click HERE for U.S. option) and/or coconut flour (click HERE for U.S. option) although the end result will obviously be different both in flavour and texture.
You may also use Philadelphia cheese or Mascarpone instead of ricotta, with similarly good results. I have added the macros for those options in the recipe.
So now you have my Sugar Free Low Carb Simple Sponge Cake recipe, all you have to do is give it a go.
Enjoy!
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Sugar Free Low Carb Simple Sponge Cake
Ingredients
- 250 g ricotta - or cream cheese or mascarpone
- 100 g erythritol (U.S. option HERE)
- 1 tsp pure stevia powder (U.S. option HERE)
- 3 large eggs
- 100 g unsalted butter melted
- 70 g lupin flour (U.S. option HERE or world-wide supply HERE - use code QUEENKETO5 for discount at checkout
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch fine himalayan pink salt (U.S. option HERE)
- 1 sprinkle Sukrin icing 'sugar' or make your own or Swerve confectioner (U.S. options HERE and HERE)
Instructions
- pre-heat oven to 160°C fan (175°C static).
- melt butter and set aside to cool down.
- beat ricotta with sweeteners.
- whisk in whole eggs, one at a time, then add melted butter and whisk a little more.
- incorporate sifted flour and baking powder, plus salt.
- pour cake batter into a 24cm x 24cm baking tin lined with non-stick baking paper, or silicone cake mould.
- bake for about 30 mins until golden brown.
- allow to cool completely before serving as is or with a dusting of icing 'sugar'.
Notes
Nutrition
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I just made this for the first time. It is delicious, moist and rich tasting. I topped with pine nuts as you did with the other ricotta cake. It is so easy to make too so I will be making it often.
Sounds great, Vicki! Thank you for the feedback.
This was as nice tasting as any sponge cake. I’m working my way through many of your recipes – I think they are going to be my saviour to help me to stay on this diet and get my blood sugars down. Thank you x
You’re most welcome, Andrea. I hope you’ll continue to enjoy my recipes.
Hi dear!
Can I use fiber flour instead of lupin flour?
thank you!!
Hi Larisa. I can’t think of a reason why fiberflour wouldn’t work. However, I’ve not tried it in this recipe, so I’m not sure how much you’d need. I suggest you incorporate less fiberflour to begin with, adding more and more until you get the right batter consistency. Can’t wait to hear what it tastes like after you’ve baked it!
Hi Antya, thanks for the recipe. I made a double batch of this and baked at 175 in the oven till golden brown (around 30min)… but when i cut my cake down the middle, the interior just looked like an egg custard or something, it didn’t have a crumbly cake like structure with a crumb. It just looked really dense and gummy. It almost didn’t have any air bubbles inside. It didn’t look like the inside of yours.. What did i do wrong?
Hello Genevieve, it’s almost impossible for me to say what went wrong. I can tell you however, that I’ve never had an eggy middle with this recipe, nor anyone else who’s baked it. Here are a few suggestions for your next attempt:
1) RICOTTA: discard any liquid and just use the solid part – if your ricotta is the consistency of cream cheese, it’s no good, either buy a different brand or try straining it until you have solids you can use.
2) OVEN TEMPERATURE: 175° is Centigrades, not Fahrenheit – it’s a more common mistake than you might think. Also, make sure the oven is pre-heated, otherwise the centre won’t cook.
3) BAKING TIMES: Always do a stick test, especially for new bakes – every oven is different, so you might need to add more baking time.
4) BAKING DISH: if it’s smaller than indicated in the recipe, you’ll need to bake for longer.
5) WEIGHT: don’t try and use cups to measure ingredients, always use metric scales – with cups (volume measures) mistakes are easy and inaccuracy can ruin recipes.
I hope this helps. Try a single batch next time and let me know how you get on.
Hi… I am excited to make a low carb and low sugar cake for my tiramisu… If i use almond flour or coconut how much would i need?
Hi, I’ve never tried these substitutions, but I think I would use same weight almond flour, adding a little if the batter seems too wet. If using coconut flour, I would start with 1/4 the amount of lupin flour, leave to rest 10 minutes, then add more as seems necessary – always leaving time between each addition to let the coconut flour absorb.
100g of sweetener seems like SO MUCH! What’s the minimum amount of the sweetener you’ve found that works and still tastes like cake? I haven’t tried this recipe yet but i want to. One concern I have is that this sweetener is expensive, but also, isn’t 100g of it equivalent in ‘sweetness’ to 300g sugar? I wouldn’t put that much sugar in a cake… Can the sweetener be reduced to taste or is there a minimum do you think? I plan to use it for your tiramisu by the way. Thank you.
Hi. 100g of erythritol is equivalent to approx 70g of sugar and the Stevia I use isn’t ultra sweet either. No reason why you can’t use less if you want to. Every sweetener (other than the pure erythritol I use) has different sweetening power, and everyone’s taste buds are different. Just go with your personal preference.
We can’t get lupin flour in South Africa ,any other substitute flour(soy flour?)
Hi there, soy is a high carb grain and mostly from GM crops, so it is not suitable as part of a keto diet. You could try almond flour or coconut flour. If you choose coconut, remember that it is very absorbent, so you’ll probably need 25-50% of the lupin flour quantity given in the recipe.
There is a company in Luxembourg that will post to you: https://www.santi-shop.eu/en/p1685-Lupin-flour-organic-Markal.html if you quote sponsorship code CmV5vIU8, you’ll get a discount.
If made in a 12 serving muffin tin, how long should i bake this?
Start with 10 mins, do the stick test, and if not done, repeat in 5 mins increments.
Hello. I made this sponge just before Christmas and was very pleased with the result, I thought that the flavour of the egg and the butter came through very pleasantly making it better than a traditional sponge. None of the family noticed the sweeteners but I was aware and might try and reduce slightly next time. I don’t know it would keep as it got eaten very quickly. Thank you for the recipe.
You’re most welcome, Branwen, and thank you for your comments.
Could you tell me what the total carbs would be for this cake? I am doing low carb and I am dying for something sweet to eat. This cake looks delicious to me and I want to make it but I have to watch the total instead of the net.
Hi Gina, for total carbs, not considering erythritol, you need to add 9.1g for the whole cake, so 1/9 slice would be 1g carb extra. I’m interested to know why you want to track total carbs instead of net, as fibre isn’t assimilated in the same way. If that remains your position, you’ll find that many sweet options are out of your daily limits:(
Loving your recipes! Can wait to make it all! 🙂
I have a question: Why you use stevia and erythritol, aren’t they both sweetener?
Hi Caroli! Thanks for your lovely comment! Yes they’re both sweeteners. But. Erythritol leaves a cooling effect and should not to be consumed in high quantities because of its possible GI effect on some sensitive individuals. Stevia can impart a bitter, liquorice-like flavour, depending on the amount you use and what you use it for. Combining the two together seems to do away with these ‘side effects’ and gives a more neutral, sugar-like taste to most recipes. Many ‘stevia’ products actually combine them. Of course there is nothing to stop you using your preferred sweetener or sweetener combination, but I’ve done a lot of research and found that these two are the most natural and least problematic.
Hello 🙂 I’m making this for the tiramisu tomorrow. Is smooth ricotta okay? It’s all I have on hand. Thank you 🙂
Hi Shannon, I’m really sorry, your msg was scooped up by my anti-spamming tools and it’s only just come to my attention. I realise it’s way too late, but I would have said that smooth ricotta might work. How did the sponge cake turn out?
This cake turned out really delicious! Thanks for the recipe. I had never heard of Lupin flour before and now I’m very much looking forward to baking more with it.
I added vanilla to this recipe and I piped most of the batch (the remaining I baked in a 4 oz ramekin). The piped batch spread out a lot and turned out very thin and delicate, but were quite tasty. It will probably be a pain to try to construct them into Tiramisu tomorrow.
But, my piping failure got me thinking. Have you tried pouring these into Madeleine molds? The piped ones really reminded me of Madeleines. Except for the ricotta (and Lupin) the Madeleine recipe is similar.
Hi Jess, thank you for your comments. I’ve never piped the batter into smaller moulds…my piping skills are total rubbish, so I tend to steer clear ?. I’ll have to put Madeleines on my development list. Nice tip!
Do you think we can replace erythritol with sucralose?
thank you very much
Hi. Thank you for your comment. Yes you can, although you will need to adjust the quantity depending on its sweetness. However, I never use sucralose (e.g. Splenda) as it’s unnatural plus high GI, which means it spikes blood glucose. If you’re keto adapted, you should really stay away from sucralose, but if you’re not, no problem.
Hi. Lovely simple recipe. Just a question: does sucralose(pure, liquid, not with maltodextrin added) spike YOUR blood sugar? just curious, as sucralose seems to be, from all artificial sweeteners, as stated by a lot of low carbers, the one which does not have an effect on blood sugar and 0 GI. Is it that you choose to avoid artificial sweeteners or does it really have a negative effect on you. thank you for all you do for ketoers out there. Just had your brocolli cheese bites with pork steaks and my picky husband devoured them ha ha…keto victory:)
Hi Zoe. Thank you for your feedback on the broccoli bites. Glad I got your husband’s approval! As for sucralose, I do not use any artificial sweeteners, irrespective of their glycemic properties or calorie content. In the Uk, the artificial sweetener sucralose is marketed as Splenda (not sure about other Countries) and there are some very negative studies about it, particularly in relation to destroying gut flora and increasing acidity. HERE is an article you may like to read.
Thank you Antya, for a quick reply. I know there is a lot of controversy around any artificial sweetener. we rarely eat sweetened things but when we do I sometimes use liquid sucralose. Thing is…we don’t have any health issues and been thinking these are consumed by many people for like…yeeears…so I’m not very worried for using it maybe 1/month . Just fyi…Splenda is mixed with maltodextrin so definitely has high GI AND spikes insulin. And even here, in UK, I can buy the pure, liquid splenda. Thanks and keep the yummy recipes going.:)
Hi Antya, I’ve never left a comment on any blog before but really wanna post one for you to thank you. I followed exactly your recipe to make a tiramisu last night for my husband as a Valentine’s night dessert and he absolutely was amazed and LOVING it. I was amazed too. It’s sooo good. We had been to Venice on honeymoon and fell in love with real Italian style tiramisu. And since we had been on keto, we never thought we could have a real keto tiramisu. Thank you so so much for the amazing recipe.
Michelle, thank you very much for taking time to leave a comment. I’m really chuffed that you enjoyed the Tiramisu’. Hopefully, you’ll have a few more portions to share with hubby! It took me ages to perfect it, but getting feedback makes it all worthwhile. Thanks again for the kind words. Means a lot to me.
Wow!! this is a super fantastic recipe! This was a huge success in my family, so much they’re begging me to do it again 🙂
I used almond flour and it was still awesome. Thanks so much for sharing.
I’ll take a look into other of your recipes.
Thank you for your feedback, Maria!
HI 😀 Just wondering if i can also use almond flour instead of the one you used? My goal is to use these for the tiramisu you have on your page. Thanks in advance!
Hello! Yes you can use almond flour instead of lupin flour. Just make sure it is FINE almond flour, not the coarse ground almonds variety, otherwise you’ll have a sponge with a grainy consistency (unless you don’t mind that). I’d love to know how your tiramisú turns out! 🙂
Hi, we pulsed almond meal into really fine flour. Used this recipe for the Tiramisu cake. Turned out beautiful and delicious!! Thanks for the recipe.
Happy it worked and thank YOU for the feedback! 🙂
Could you perhaps also put the measurements in cups and tablespoons etc?
Hi there! I don’t use volume measures because they’re inaccurate. Take for example a cup of butter: unless you melt the butter, your cup will undoubtedly have more or less unfilled gaps compared to my cup, so it becomes an approximate measure. Cups are also specific to some Countries, whilst metric measurements are a standard well known worldwide. There are plenty of conversion tables on the web which I’m sure will help you.