This delicious Easy Keto Carrot Cake may look like it took a lot of work to make, but you’ll see that it comes together in no time with minimal fuss, ingredients, and clean-up.
True to form, this recipe came about in a mostly wing and a prayer fashion. We had guests due to arrive at 7pm for our Hoppy Bunny Dinner Party. The time was about 6:15 pm. I hadn’t started on dessert yet. My original plan was to do a fairly simple looking carrot cake recipe. When I’d taken a deeper look at that one earlier in the day, I’d concluded that that probably wasn’t what I wanted. So then I picked another one that was more along the lines of what I’d had in mind. However, that one had more ingredients and more steps. Given my current time crunch (because I still had one other dish to finish making), I needed a short cut.
Enter keto boxed cake. Unfortunately, my local grocery stores only carry yellow and chocolate versions of keto boxed cake mix. Since I don’t like chocolate cake, the yellow mix is what I keep on hand as a pantry staple. So I grabbed a box plus the half of a box that I had left over and made some modifications.
“Why would I have a half box left over?” you might ask. Answer: The regular boxes only make an 8” x 8” cake, so whenever I’m making a 9” x 13” cake, I use one and a half boxes and associated ingredients.
My modifications were pretty simple. I added some cinnamon and ground cloves to the cake mix’s dry ingredients for flavor. Then I folded in shredded carrot and chopped nuts for texture. Since my cake is bigger than the original box and has some additional moisture from the carrots, it takes a few more minutes to bake than the directions. It takes 25 – 30 minutes, depending on your oven.
I used premade keto vanilla icing to top it. In a future iteration, I plan to mix the premade keto icing with an 8 ounce block of cream cheese for a more “traditional” cream cheese frosting. That said, I would honestly enjoy this cake without any icing, in a more coffee cake-like style.
Whichever way you choose to top it, this Easy Keto Carrot Cake is an easy win–especially, when you have limited time.
Easy Keto Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups Carrot Shredded and Divided. About 1.5 large carrots. Divided: 1.25 cups in the batter, .25 cups for garnish.
- ½ cup Pecans Chopped. + more for garnish (optional)
- ¼ cup Walnuts Chopped + more for garnish (optional)
- 1.5 boxes Keto Yellow Cake Mix 15.9 ounces for the kind I use
- 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves
- 4 Eggs 4 Jumbo or 5 Large Eggs
- ¾ cup Water
- 4.5 tablespoons Unsalted Butter Melted
- 11 ounces Keto Vanilla Icing 1 container
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Shred 1.5 cups Carrot. Set aside. Chop ½ cup Pecans and ¼ cup Walnuts, if smaller pieces are desired. (I was fine with the size of “chopped” nuts from the bag and didn’t do any more chopping.)1.5 cups Carrot, ½ cup Pecans, ¼ cup Walnuts
- Pour the cake mix bag (from 1.5 boxes Keto Yellow Cake Mix) of dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon Cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves. Whisk together.1.5 boxes Keto Yellow Cake Mix, 1 tablespoon Cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves
- Add in your 4 Eggs, ¾ cup Water, and melted 4.5 tablespoons Unsalted Butter. Mix until completely combined.4 Eggs, ¾ cup Water, 4.5 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- Fold in 1.25 cups of shredded carrot and ¾ cup chopped nuts.1.5 cups Carrot, ½ cup Pecans, ¼ cup Walnuts
- Pour the batter into a greased 9” x 13” pan / baking dish.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 – 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool completely before icing it.11 ounces Keto Vanilla Icing
- To make it faster to ice, I microwaved the container of icing for 30 seconds and then stirred it. This isn’t necessary, but I was in a hurry and this made it easier to spread the icing quickly.
Equipment
- Grater to shred the carrot
- Nut chopper (optional) if you either can’t find chopped nuts or just want them to have a smaller size
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
- 9” x 13” Cake Pan I used a glass Pyrex dish for this. Yes, I know that it’s better to use a plain metal pan, but I like my pans / dishes to have lids for easy storage of leftovers or even pre-serving (if I happen to make my cake the day before). My Pyrex dishes all have lids, my metal pans do not.
- Non-stick Cooking Spray
Notes
- Total Carbs per Serving (12 servings) = 34 grams
- Minus Sugar Alcohols: 13 grams
- Minus Dietary Fiber: 10 grams
- Net Carbs per Serving: 11 grams
