Keto Lemon Pound Cake

Keto Lemon Pound Cake with a delicious lemon glaze is a thick slice of soft, moist heaven. This low-carb pound cake recipe has the absolute perfect texture and makes for an amazing sugar-free breakfast, snack or dessert. This recipe includes a dairy-free option as well as a paleo option.

It wasn’t until making this recipe that I learned why pound cake is called pound cake. 

Pound cake is appropriately named because it contains a pound of butter, flour, eggs, and sugar respectively.

That’s how you know it’s good 😉

While pound cake does check all the boxes of a typical cake, it has a unique texture that gives it a denser structure and an explosion of buttery flavor.

Classic pound cake is amazing enough on its own, but when you do something wild like serve it with fresh berries, whipped cream, or ice cream, the experience turns from great to otherworldly.

Because I’m a long-time fanatic of classic pound cake, I figured I would make a grain-free version that is also sugar-free and keto-friendly.

Plus, adding lemon zest just makes the experience incredibly refreshing.

Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for this keto lemon pound cake recipe!

Low-Carb Lemon Pound Cake Ingredients:

Almond Flour and Coconut Flour: The combination of almond flour and coconut flour results in tender, fluffy, yet dense and moist texture. Use the exact amounts listed, as neither flour is interchangeable for another at a 1:1 replacement. 

Sugar-Free Granulated Sweetener: In order to make this pound cake sugar-free, we use a sugar-free granulated sweetener. My three favorite sugar-free sweeteners are Lakanto (monk fruit sweetener), Allulose, or Truvia (Stevia leaf extract). 

Eggs: Because coconut flour is very dense and we’re working with grain-free flours, we need more eggs in this grain-free pound cake recipe than we would in an otherwise regular flour recipe.

The eggs ensure the cake becomes incredibly fluffy and holds together nicely. 

Butter or Coconut Oil: The fat portion of the pound cake! Melted butter or coconut oil bring incredible rich flavor to the pound cake.

Use coconut oil if you eat a dairy-free diet, or replace the butter with ghee to keep it tasting buttery but make it lactose-free.

Lemon Zest and Lemon Juice: The stars of the show! Lemon pound cake is irresistible due to its zesty, tangy, amazingly sweet flavors.

Lemon zest is what provides the majority of the lemon flavor, so be sure you don’t skimp on it! You need the zest of two large lemons, which equates to about 1 tablespoon of zest, plus a few tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.

Baking Powder: The leavening agent in this sugar free pound cake recipe. Be sure you use unexpired baking powder and that you follow the amounts in the recipe in order to get the right texture.

Sea Salt: Sea salt levels up that delicious lemon flavor, brings out the richness of the pound cake, and ensures everything tastes nice and sweet! Don’t skip it!

Optional Glaze:

For the Glaze: Sugar-free powdered sugar (also known as confectioner’s sweetener) and lemon juice. This simple combination makes for a deliciously sweet yet zesty glaze, making the pound cake taste extra refreshing.

While the glaze is optional, I do recommend it because it makes that amazing crinkly topping similar to a glazed donut that just puts the icing on the cake 😉

How to Make Low-Carb Lemon Pound Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper.

Whisk the melted butter, eggs, and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl until well-combined and creamy (wet ingredients).

In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, coconut flour, sugar-free granulated sweetener, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt (the dry ingredients) until well-combined.

Pour the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients. Stir until a thick batter forms. Stir in the lemon zest.

Transfer the pound cake batter to the prepared loaf pan and smooth it into an even layer. Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Remove the pound cake from the oven. Turn the oven temperature down to 330 degrees F, and cover the pound cake with foil.

Bake for another 50 to 65 minutes at 330 degrees, or until the cake tests clean.

Allow the pound cake to cool completely to room temperature before covering it with glaze and slicing.

To make the glaze, simply stir together the sugar-free confectioners sweetener and the lemon juice together in a small bowl until thick and creamy. Spread glaze on top of the bread. Allow the glaze to set up before slicing into the cake and serving.

As you can see, pound cake requires more time in the oven than a standard quick bread. Here’s why!

Recipe Customizations:

1. Use a different sweetener: If you aren’t following a sugar-free, low-carb or ketogenic diet, you can use any other granulated sweetener in a 1:1 replacement. Regular cane sugar, maple sugar, or coconut sugar all work.
2. Remove the lemon: Omit the lemon zest and lemon juice for a regular sugar-free pound cake recipe. If you do so, add 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.

Tips for The Best Results:

1. Don’t swap flours: Stick with the recipe as written. Both almond flour and coconut flour cannot be easily replaced with any other flour. This recipe is tailored specifically to the combination of the two flours, so for the best results, avoid making flour substitutions.
2. Bake slow and low: You may have noticed this recipe calls for a lower oven temperature and a long baking time. This allows the bread to rise and cook slowly, allowing the center to become completely cooked through, achieving that lusciously soft and dense texture. If the oven temperature is too high, the top cooks faster than the middle.

Nutrition Facts:

When slicing the pound cake into 8 thick slices, each slice of keto lemon pound cake contains 4 grams of carbohydrate and 2 grams of fiber, equaling 2 net carbs per slice. Each slice is just under 200 calories. Not too shabby for a grain-free sugar-free treat!

More Keto Dessert Recipes:

• Keto Cinnamon Swirl Bread
• Dairy-Free Keto Coffee Cake 
• Low-Carb Carrot Cake Bread 
• Keto Brownie Cake 
• Keto Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
• Flourless Keto Peanut Butter Cookies 
• Keto Blueberry Crumble 

Enjoy this slice of zesty, moist, soft keto pound cake!

Keto Lemon Pound Cake Recipe

4.48 from 36 votes

Zesty, moist, dense Keto Lemon Pound Cake made grain-free and sugar-free is a vibrant, guilt-free treat! The big burst of lemon flavor with a buttery backing makes this delicious pound cake simply irresistible.

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Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 Servings

Equipment

• Loaf Pan

Ingredients

• ½ cup melted coconut oil or 1 stick of butter melted
• 5 eggs
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups almond flour packed and leveled
• ¼ cup coconut flour packed and leveled
• ⅔ cup sugar-free granulated sweetener*
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest

Optional Glaze:

• 1 cup sugar-free powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice or water

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper.
• Whisk the melted butter, eggs, and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl until well-combined and creamy (wet ingredients).
• In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, coconut flour, sugar-free granulated sweetener, baking powder, and sea salt (the dry ingredients) until well-combined.
• Pour the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until a thick batter forms. Stir in the lemon zest until combined.
• Transfer the pound cake batter to the prepared loaf pan and smooth it into an even layer.
• Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove the pound cake from the oven, turn the oven temperature down to 330 degrees F, and cover the pound cake with foil. Bake for another 50 to 65 minutes at 330 degrees, or until the cake tests clean.
• Allow the pound cake to cool completely (at the very least, allow it to cool for 30 minutes) before covering it with glaze and slicing.
• To make the glaze, simply stir together the sugar-free confectioners sweetener and the lemon juice together in a small bowl until thick and creamy. Spread all of this mixture on top of the bread. Allow the glaze to set up before slicing into the cake and serving.

Notes

*You can replace the sugar-free sweetener with cane sugar or maple sugar if you don't need the pound cake to be sugar-free.

Similarly, you can replace the sugar-free powdered sugar with regular powdered sugar or with powdered maple sugar.

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Nutrition

Serving: 1Slice (of 8) · Calories: 199kcal · Carbohydrates: 4g · Protein: 6g · Fat: 18g · Fiber: 2g · Sugar: 1g

Author: Julia

Course: Breads

Cuisine: American

Keyword: almond flour pound cake, coconut flour pound cake, easy pound cake recipe, healthy pound cake recipe, keto dessert recipes, keto lemon pound cake, paleo pound cake, sugar-free pound cake

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