An incredibly moist almond flour cake with a velvety mascarpone frosting and topped with fresh berries. Gluten free, sugar free, low carb and so nutritious you could eat it for breakfast.
When it comes to grain free baking, I have two firm favourites: almond flour and coconut flour. But if I had to choose…. almond flour would always win.
So – what’s so great about almond flour and how do I use it in baking?
First of all, you can use it as a 1 : 1 replacement to wheat flour. Which can be very useful when you are converting old recipes to make them low carb and gluten free.
Secondly, it tastes GREAT. Traditionally, almond flour is often used in cookie recipes. But its mildly nutty flavour and fluffy texture is gorgeous in cakes and works well even for bread. Check out my popular almond flour bread – it is getting rave reviews!
With coconut flour, on the other hand, there will always be a slight coconut taste (which I don’t mind – but boy, some people can’t stand it).
This almond flour cake recipe is super simple. It is extra moist because of the yoghurt – which also makes it taste kinda fresh.
What are the different types of almond flour?
I used ground almonds in this sponge cake. Basically, ground almonds here in the UK are equivalent to regular almond flour in the US. It’s made from blanched almonds without skins.
Almond meal is a usually coarser and contains the skins – which are actually very nutritious and a great source of fibre. You could also use it in this recipe.
I have tried the cake with super fine almond flour, which is powdery and almost white in colour. I have tried it in this recipe but cannot recommend it. It absorbs more liquid than regular almond flour / ground almonds and I found the cake ended up being too dense.
How to make a super moist and fluffy almond flour cake – step by step:
- ) Beat your eggs until they’re fluffy and have increased in size.
- ) Add your wet ingredients and blend until well-combined.
- ) Add the dry ingredients and mix.
- ) Fill the dough into a well-greased springform and bake at 180 Celsius / 356 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Once cooled, spoon over your mascarpone mix and decorate with berries. That’s it!
Recipe tips and variations
Prefer dairy free? Use coconut oil instead of the butter, coconut yogurt instead of the yoghurt and whipped coconut cream in place of the mascarpone.
Want to add a bit of zing? Grate the zest of a lemon into the batter.
Need to speed things up? Add a handful of berries directly into the batter (stir them in last). Then you can leave out the mascarpone frosting.
Like it Paleo? Replace the powdered sweetener with coconut sugar.
Insist on super fine almond flour? I recommend to reduce the amount to 3 cups for a moist result.
And last but not least… Prefer coconut flour?? Halve the amount stated for almond flour. For a stronger crumb structure, you could also add 1 tsp of xanthan gum.
More delicious almond flour recipes:
Tried this recipe? Give it a star rating below!
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Low Carb Almond Flour Cake
You won't believe how moist and fluffy this almond flour cake is! It's a firm favourite in our house, and so versatile. Here, we decorated it with mascarpone frosting and berries. But you can also top it with a chocolate ganache or even put the berries directly into the cake.
Ingredients
For the sponge
- 1 1/4 cups / 300 g natural yoghurt full fat
- 3 1/2 cups / 350 g almond flour NOT super-fine. Ground almonds work well, too
- 6 medium eggs or 5 large eggs
- 4 tbsp butter melted
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup / 40 g powdered erythritol
For the topping
- 1 cup / 250 g mascarpone
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp powdered sweetener or more, to taste
- handful of raspberries
- 150 g blackberries
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius / 356 Fahrenheit.
Grease the sides of a 23 cm/9 inch diameter springform baking tin with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Blend your eggs until fluffy. Then add the yoghurt, 2 tsp vanilla and butter. Mix until well-combined.
Then add the dry ingredients - baking powder, almond flour / ground almonds and sweetener. Blend until smooth and fill the batter into the springform pan.
- Bake for ca 30 minutes or until the top is browned and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Blend the mascarpone cheese with 1 tbsp of sweetener and 1 tsp vanilla.
- Once the cake has cooled, spread the mixture on top and garnish with berries.
Recipe Notes
You can make this cake dairy free by using coconut oil instead of the butter, coconut yogurt instead of the yoghurt and whipped coconut cream in place of the mascarpone.
To add a bit of zing, the zest of a lemon into the batter.
As a variation, you could add a handful of berries directly into the batter (stir them in last).
To make this cake Paleo, replace the powdered sweetener with coconut sugar.
Without the mascarpone or berries, 1 slice of cake comes in at 267 calories, 22.5g fat, 3.0 g sugar and 1.5g net carbs.
The post “Best Ever Almond Flour Cake” was first published in July 2016. It was re-published in May 2019 with a recipe change and more details such as recipe variations to reflect how we make this cake today.
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Lynn Sharpe says
Instead of using butter how much coconut oil can u use??and what kind of natural yogurt??can u make this in a regular 9″ baking dish??cause I don’t have a spring form pan..thank u for sharing this recipe with us
Katrin says
Hi Lynn, I would use the same amount of coconut oil as stated for butter. I used firm full fat natural yoghurt (3.6%fat). And yes, you can make it in a regular 9 inch (round) baking dish.Just make sure you line it well with parchment paper/baking paper so you can lift it out easily. And don’t touch it until it’s completely cooled as almond flour baked goods tend to be quite fragile when hot.
Natalie says
Hiya — I baked for 30 minutes at 140 fan-assisted, and the outer perimeter of the cake was perfect, but the centre was raw. If I leave it in long enough to cook the centre, will the outside dry out? Forgive me if this is a silly question but I don’t have much baking experience. 🙂 I did the knife test about an inch and a half in from the outside, which is probably why I got a raw-centred cake!
BTW – I tried your chocolate Christmas cake last weekend and it came out perfectly on my first try, and was a big hit with everyone! Thank you.
Katrin says
Good to hear that the Christmas cake went down well! It sounds like your chocolate cake just needs a little longer in the oven. Having temperatures can vary, And it also depends on if you had it on the lowest shelf or in the highest. I would just leave it in another 10 minutes.
Anna Cardamone says
My friend cant have the Tapioca starch thats in the coconut yogurt, and she cant have dairy yogurt, just wondering if theres anything else that could replace them and it cant have sugar either
Katrin says
Hi Anne, I guess you could try using a can of coconut milk, with the liquid and the cream parts blended so the consistency would be similar to yoghurt.
Anna Cardamone says
I’m making a cake for someone who cant tolerate normal wheat flour, dairy or sugar because she gets really sick. So if I use almond flour, coconut yogurt , coconut oil, and coconut cream, would these ingredients be safe or are there hidden added sugars that I need to be careful of?
Katrin says
Almond flour and coconut cream and yoghurt contain a little amount of sugars from the carbs. Dairy contains lactose. But it’s only a very small amount of sugar, not comparable to the amounts wheat has. The berries on the cake will have the largest amount of sugar. Maybe you can ask your friend if she can tolerate berries, just to be sure.
Pam says
The cake came out very thick and was on the dry side and I followed the recipe Exact. Thought it was going to be a much thinner cake. I don’t know what went wrong
Katrin says
If you measured all of the ingredients then the only thing I can think of is that you might have used extra fine almond flour. This is more absorbent than ground almonds, as I have mentioned in the post, and would result in a drier cake.
Brianna says
How many slices does the cake make when considering the serving size of one slice in the nutrition facts? How big is one serving size slice?
Katrin says
Hi Brianna, I calculated on the basis of 12 slices. Hope this helps 🙂
Cathy says
This is a real nice tea/coffee cake…I used almond essence and raisins…very good without any topping but with jam, its even better.
Katrin says
Thank you for your comment and for sharing your tweaks!
Zsa says
Hi there
I’m dying to try this recipe. Please tell me, will it freeze?
Katrin says
Yes, it freezes well 🙂
Yamilet says
I made this cake for my little boy’s birthday and everybody loved it. I topped mine with coconut cream and fresh blueberries because those are my son favourites. I also added some fresh lemon juice instead of the vanilla and a few teaspoons of grated lemon zest to the mixture. I replaced the yogurt with plain almond yogurt because we do not tolerate milk well. Thank you for this delicious recipe, definitely will try it again for my husband’s birthday!
Katrin says
Thank you for your comment! Such a good idea to give this cake a lemon twist!
Wanda says
Katrin, I’m in Australia and yes it’s autumn, next month winter starts here.
The Almond Flour cake is so delicious, after a few days it’s much nicer, so decadent and moist.
Nearly all gone will be making it again this coming Saturday.
Wanda says
Well Katrin, it’s wow! such a delicious cake, the only thing that was different I used powdered Xylitol [because I want to use it up, I prefer erythritol] and I added frozen cranberries in the batter. It took well over an hour to bake, now I’m thinking it may have been the frozen cranberries that slowed the baking time. The top was well browned, so in the end I covered it with baking paper. I made the mascarpone topping and added thawed cranberries, so tasty very yummy, rave reviews from everyone.
I took your advise to make it because i was going to make the cornbread but I didn’t have the double cream and asked you if I can use plain natural yoghurt you said you’ve made the Almond Flour Cake with yoghurt….so that’s what I did and I’m so happy I did.
Next I’ll the your cornbread recipe.
Katrin says
So glad it went down well. And I love it that you used cranberries in May! I’ve been eating pumpkin porridge for breakfast the last few days, so delicious, and also a fall/winter food. We seem to be on the same wavelength 😉
Syla says
Hello, this recipe looks so delicious.. can I substitute the yogurt for sour cream?
Thanks for your yummy recipes
Katrin says
Hi there, yes, using sour cream should work. The cake might be denser as you’re adding a lot more fat though.
Swati says
Hey I tried it was beautifully moist, however I guess I have a sweeter tooth than you and just the cake without the mascarpone and berries tasted non sweet. Perhaps can increase the sweetener? What do you think ?
Katrin says
Of course you can increase the sweetener, just use as much as you think you need! 🙂
Lindsay GRIPTON says
Best. Cake. Ever.
Katrin says
So glad you like it!!!!!
Jo storry says
I made a half recipe of this a week ago and put it into a muffin tin which made 10. I added a grated lemon rind to the recipe and added some mushed raspberries into the mix instead of doing the cheese/berry topping. Very nice they are. Unexpected use of them was when I had a hot cereal craving the other morning – I crumbled up one of the cupcakes, poured a mix of boiling water and cream over it and mushed it up. I also added a bit of toasted coconut into it. And it became a lovely, creamy hot cereal breakfast. Am going to always keep some in the freezer now for this purpose…. and will try the same with the orange and almond cake.
Katrin says
OMG I love the idea of a cake cereal! That’s pure brilliance. Also, grated lemon rind sounds like a great addition. That would be tasty in the mascarpone as well. Thanks for your input!!
Esther says
Can I make the cake overnight and then decorate it the next morning? Does it need to be kept in the fridge the whole time?
Katrin says
You could definitely do that, and the cake would look fresher and better that way, too. If you just leave it out for one night because your fridge is packed, in my book that’s fine, as long as you keep it in a cake tin or cover it up somehow. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Debbie says
Hi Katrin,
Just wondering if I could use finely ground almond flour in place of ground almonds ? If not, how did you grind yours ? I have a food processor would that work out ? This cake looks so moist, can’t wait to try it !
Katrin says
Hi Debbie, if it is super fine AND fat reduced almond flour such as the Sukrin brand, I would not use it. I have tried Sukrin almond flour in this recipe and it did not work. I used the regular ground almonds you can buy in UK supermarket baking sections. My US blogger friends tell me that’s what THEY would call almond flour over there, it’s such a confusing term. I tried another brand called Carbzone here in the UK, which calls itself almond flour, but is not fat reduced and essentially ground almonds (albeit maybe a little finer than the supermarket ground almonds). So, to cut a long story short, if your almond flour is NOT fat reduced, you can probably use it with great success 🙂
Rina says
Have you ever tried makimg this as cupcakes? If yes, how long did you cook them for?
Katrin says
I have, actually! Check out these Grab and Go Muffins 🙂
Lois Hedstrom says
Do you grind your own almonds ,or can you buy ground almonds?What is mascarpone cheese never heard of it, is it like cream cheese?
Katrin says
In the UK you can buy ground almonds in the baking section of supermarkets. Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese. It thick, creamy and has a relatively high fat content. It is used in Tiramisu, for example.
Millie J says
Thank you for a great cake. I served it last weekend and it was a great success
Katrin says
Glad you all enjoyed it Millie!
Amanda says
That looks so good. I’ll give it a go this weekend, using strawberries. Using mascarpone instead of icing is such a good idea.
Katrin says
What a good idea to use strawberries. The British ones have just come in season. They taste so sweet
Birgit says
Love this recipe. A very simple and summery cake. Thank you for posting!
Katrin says
You are welcome Birgit! Let me know once you’ve tried it!
Jolanda says
I just made this cake and it is so delicious! I used sugar free syrup instead of the xylitol and it worked really well.
Katrin says
That’s so good to hear, thank you for letting me know. Which sugar free syrup did you use?
selina prager says
Mine is in the oven… not sure if I will make it look pretty enough for a picture but am planning on making it a breakfast regular. I’ll let you know how it turns out… TBC
Katrin says
Sounds good! Fingers crossed
Alex says
Hi!! Really, really want to make this now! Any ideas on butter substitution, as I’m not a very keen butter fan?:)
Katrin says
Hello Alex, you can substitute with coconut oil!
Siddika says
can i use cream or half and half instead of eggs? i’m on a low carb diet and i find even the smallest amount of eggs repulsive… i’m so off eggs 🙁
your recipe does look delicious though
Katrin says
The eggs act as a binder. I am not sure cream is able to do that job 🙁 If you want to omit eggs you could try using flaxseed, for example. It is used in vegan recipes as an egg replacement. Google “flax egg” and take it from there.
Jo says
What size tin did you use, please? It looks amazing. I’m planning to bake it this afternoon!
Katrin says
Thank you Jo! I used a 23 cm/9 inch diameter tin. Let me know how your cake turned out!
Emme says
Hiya
Can I please ask what specific ingredients you used? Im using my fitness pal to log all the ingredients and nutritional information and its varying drastically form calories(+140ish) to fats(+12g) and proteins(+5) per slice.
Thanks for your help with this!
Katrin says
Hello Emme, I use a free website called caloriecount to calculate nutritional info. This is what their software came up with. I wish I had the answer for you, but I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the result. The only thing I can say is that (unless you have an actual nutritionist to hand and/or need to be 100% sure because of a medical condition) in the end it’s probably best to rely on your common sense and listen to your body. You know the ingredients are all good for you and the recipe contains only some sugar from the berries.
I used ground almonds, eggs, natural yoghurt (a brand called Onken), unsalted butter, mascarpone and the berries. Hope this helps 🙂
Elli says
This looks amazing, just a few questions
1) could I use dairy free yoghurt in this?
2) is almond flour the same as ground almonds?
3) could I use honey or maple syrup to sweeten it instead of sweetener
thank you for the inspiration with this cake
Katrin says
Hello! I am sure it would work with a dairy free yoghurt such as coconut yoghurt. Just check it has no added sugar! I actually used ground almonds myself, so sorry about the confusion. And it would of course taste nice with honey or maple syrup. You might have to reduce the amount of yoghurt a tiny bit because the sweetener is granulated and honey/maple is a liquid. Let me know how it goes!
Karen @ Se says
This so beautiful. I can’t believe it’s healthy!
Katrin says
Thank you Karen! All the swish and no sugar rush…. Have a great day!
Paula@Paula's Plate says
Wow, this looks absolutely incredible. I can’t wait to give it a try. Great post, too. Wonderful message 🙂
Katrin says
Thank you Paula, that put big smile on my face! I hope you’ll like it as much as we did. Have a great day 🙂
Kim | Low Carb Maven says
Happy Birthday and what a pretty cake. It looks Delish! I am American and I self deprecate, too. I was never comfortable with compliments or praise. I do try harder to give a big smile and a genuine thanks. Have a great week.
Katrin says
🙂 In the spirit of the article, thank you so much!