The BEST Healthy Coffee Cake—Keto, and and Sugar-Free with Vegan Option

This Healthy Keto Coffee Cake is truly one of the best coffee cakes you will ever have. It's a healthified take on a classic and is easily converted into a Vegan Coffee Cake too. Believe me, this is a very special recipe you'll want to make over and over again.

Today I am sharing with you one of our new favorite recipes, a low-carb coffee cake.

And by favorite I mean, kids practically jumping up and down whenever I tell them I am going to make it.

When I was little, one of my favorite things to eat was coffee cake.

My family would occasionally buy those Entenmann's coffee cakes — you know, those perfect-looking cakes in those clean, white boxes.  The crumbly stuff on top was sooo delicious – some people (ahem) would be tempted to pick the crumble off the top and leave the plain cake for others.

Well, this grain-free coffee cake has yummy special stuff all the way through, so the whole thing is a treat.

This recipe is originally from Kelly Smith of The Nourishing Home, but made low-carb with a vegan option.

I Recommend

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Everyday Grain-Free Baking: Over 100 Recipes

If you'd like to do more gluten-free and grain-free baking, this cookbook is for you. Kelly is a friend of mine, and her recipes are so delicious!

Check Price on Amazon

Kelly's cookbook, The Everyday Grain-Free Baking cookbook, is just loaded with amazing recipes, like this one.

Quite a few of the recipes call for eggs, but typically if you're using almond flour (or some other nut or seed flour) and not coconut flour, you can use an egg substitute (like this Homemade Egg Substitute) and get pretty good results.

Using Egg Substitutes for This Recipe

For this cake, using my Homemade Egg Replacer, we got almost perfect results. Using a flax egg or chia egg, the cake was pretty “gooey” in the middle especially, but it still tasted great.

I haven't tried this with a gelatin egg, but I suspect the results would be about the same as with the flax or chia eggs.

Regardless of what form of a binder you use, make. this. cake.

You'll love it.

In fact, make two. Or four like I always do.

Ingredients

You'll need the following for this recipe. For the amounts, scroll to the recipe card.

• Blanched Almond Flour
• Low-carb sweetener (or other sweetener of choice)
• Butter, Palm Shortening, Coconut Oil, or Coconut Butter
• Ground Cinnamon
• Coconut Flour
• Salt (I recommend Real Salt or Himalayan Salt)
• Stevia Extract
• Coconut Milk
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Egg or Egg Alternative

Instructions

Here are simple instructions for this recipe. For full directions, scroll down to the recipe card.

• Preheat oven to 315°F. 
• Combine butter (or coconut oil), sweetner, and cinnamon until well blended then add walnuts (or other nut or seed) and toss well to combine. Set aside.
• For cinnamon swirl, combine butter (or coconut oil), honey, and cinnamon.
• Using a food processor, combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Then add the remaining ingredients except the eggs and egg whites. Cover and pulse a few times to combine. Then process until the batter is smooth and creamy.
• Add the eggs and egg whites (or alternative). Cover and pulse a few times to combine.
• Transfer half of the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth it out.
• Drizzle with cinnamon swirl across the top of the batter. Spoon the remaining cake batter on top. Next, add the toppings.
• Bake the cake for 45-55 minutes until light golden brown along edges.

How to Make This Cake With Gluten-free Grain Flour

Almond Flour has a lot of fat content, so you can double the fat in the recipe and then also reduce the leavening by about 1/4 or 1/2.

I haven't tried this recipe this way, but if you want to try it with oat flour only, I would try 1.4x the amount of flour, then double the fat and use about 3/4 the amount of leavening.

If anyone tries it this way, I'd love to hear how it turns out. I'll try to do some trial runs too and report back!

Recipes Notes and Special Diet Options

• Butter Alternatives: You can use organic coconut oil instead of the butter in the topping and swirl, and you can substitute either organic palm shortening or organic coconut butter – here's how to make your own, for the butter in the cake.
• Egg Alternatives: If you use a vegan egg alternative, the cake won't be as light and will be a little gooey in places, but it still tastes great. We make it this way all the time and it never sticks around often.
• Sweetener Options: The cake is low carb as written. You can substitute 1/2 cup honey for the sweetener in the cake, 4 teaspoons of honey in the topping, and 2 tablespoons in the swirl. Coconut sugar could be subbed easily 1:1 for the low-carb sweeteners.
• Nut alternatives: You can substitute in other nuts or seeds instead of walnuts. We have used almonds with success. You could also try coconut chips to go nut free.
• Homemade Coconut Milk: See Homemade Coconut Milk for a homemade coconut milk option.
• Egg Substitutes: Use a flax egg, chia egg, or gelatin egg. This egg replacer works great as well (see my homemade version here).
• AIP: substitute organic tiger nut flour or organic cassava flour for the almond flour. Use gelatin egg or an AIP version of this Egg Substitute, or another egg substitute for the eggs.
• Optional Egg Whites: I made the vegan version of this cake for years using only 4 egg alternatives and it turns out great that way. However, using the additional egg whites makes it lighter. Either version is great.

Other Healthy Breakfast Recipes

• Blueberry Chia Pudding: super tasty and full of great blueberry flavor
• Strawberry Avocado Smoothie: refreshing, dairy-free and low-carb
• Teff Pancake (or waffles): rich tasting, gluten-free and vegan

Cinnamon Crumb Healthy Coffee Cake – grain free with low-carb & vegan options

This low-carb & grain-free paleo coffee cake recipe reminds me of the not-so-healthy ones I grew up enjoying! This recipe is VERY allergy-friendly!

4.58 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 9

Calories: 479kcal

Ingredients

Topping

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 6 teaspoons low carb sweetener (see Recipe Notes for alternatives)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup walnut pieces (finely chopped)

Cinnamon Swirl

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons low carb sweetener (see Recipe Notes for alternatives)
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Cake

• 3 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup low carb sweetener (see Recipe Notes for alternatives)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
• 5/8 cup coconut milk
• 4 large eggs (use an egg substitute for a vegan option–See Recipe Notes / Special Diet Options for details.)
• 2 egg whites (optional but recommended.)
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 315°F. Lightly oil a 9″ x 9″ baking dish; set aside.

For the Topping

• In a small bowl, whisk together the butter (or coconut oil), honey, and cinnamon until well blended. Add the finely chopped walnuts (or other nut or seed) and toss well to combine. Set aside.

For the Cinnamon Swirl

• In a small bowl, whisk together the butter (or coconut oil), honey, and cinnamon until well blended. Set aside.

For the Cake

• In a food processor, combine the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the eggs and egg whites (or egg alternative) to the top of the dry ingredients in the order given. Cover and pulse a few times to combine. Then process until the batter is smooth and creamy (about 20-25 seconds).
• Add the eggs and egg whites (or alternative). Cover and pulse a few times to combine. Then process just enough to blend the eggs into the batter (about 10-15 seconds). Use a thin spatula as needed to scrape down the sides.
• Carefully spoon half of the batter into the prepared baking dish. Use an offset spatula to smooth out the top.
• Drizzle with the cinnamon swirl across the top of the batter. Then carefully spoon the remaining cake batter on top. Use an offset spatula to smooth the top of the batter. Next, starting at the edges of the cake, crumble the topping evenly across the cake. Use your fingers to gently press the topping into the batter a bit.
• Bake the cake for 45-55 minutes until light golden brown along edges and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool on the stovetop about 5 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite coffee or tea.

Notes

 

• • Butter Alternatives: You can use organic coconut oil instead of the butter in the topping and swirl, and you can substitute either organic palm shortening or organic coconut butter – here's how to make your own, for the butter in the cake. If using coconut oil, you will need to soften or melt in a pan in order to use it.

• • Egg Alternatives: If you use a vegan egg alternative, the cake won't be as light and will be a little gooey in places, but it still tastes great. We make it this way all the time and it never sticks around often.
  • Optional Egg Whites: I made the vegan version of this cake for years using 4 egg alternatives (no whites) and it turns out great that way. However, using the additional egg whites makes it lighter. Either version is great.

• • Sweetener Options: The cake is low carb as written. You can substitute 1/2 cup honey for the sweetener in the cake, 4 teaspoons of honey in the topping, and 2 tablespoons in the swirl. Coconut sugar could be subbed easily 1:1 for the low-carb sweeteners. (While the recipe as written calls for honey, I have personally always used a low-carb sweetener and it's worked out fantastically. I use 1/2 – 3/4 of the amount since honey is sweetener than sugar.)

• • Nut alternatives: You can substitute in other nuts or seeds instead of walnuts. We have used almonds with success. You could also try coconut chips to go nut free.

• • Homemade Coconut Milk: See Homemade Coconut Milk for a homemade coconut milk option.

• • Egg Substitutes: Use a flax egg, chia egg, or gelatin egg. This egg replacer works great as well (see my homemade version here).

• • AIP: substitute organic tiger nut flour or organic cassava flour for the almond flour. Use gelatin egg or an AIP version of this Egg Substitute, or another egg substitute for the eggs.

Nutrition

Calories: 479kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 43g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 93mg | Sodium: 289mg | Potassium: 129mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 347IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 133mg | Iron: 3mg | Net Carbs: 8g

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.

Time to start baking!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this coffee cake. I'm sure you will LOVE it!