Keto Devil’s Food Cake & Sprinkles
Happiness is a Devil’s Food Cupcake loaded with sprinkles and frosting! Especially when that cupcake is Keto! This delicious recipe also includes our homemade Keto sprinkles.
Happy Friday, Friends!🌈
As you may already know, we started the keto diet recently and we’ve been having a blast adapting our grain-free recipes into proper keto form! (This recipe is based on our Paleo Hostess-style Cupcakes). While there are so many delicious treats- sweet + savory that can be had on this plan, we still do have to be disciplined and not reach for starchy rolls or super sweet fruits-it’s tricky business! That’s why we like to have a treat or two on hand at the start of each week, it keeps us safe from cheats!😂
What I love about this recipe is that you can make a quick bundt with glaze and savor it throughout the week, or you can make a batch of fancy birthday cupcakes with vanilla or chocolate frosting for a special occasion-it’s whatever works best for you.
And the greatest part- besides how super moist, delicious and chocolatey this cake is- are the keto sprinkles!! While they do take a bit of time to punch out, the “dough” takes just minutes to put together and roll out–and they’re so yummy! It’s just Swerve Confectioner’s Sweetener, butter, milk, vanilla and salt–what’s not to love? And the time will go by much faster if you create a little work station at your kitchen table, that way you can grab a cup of hot tea, turn on the radio or your favorite show and punch out that confetti!
Tips For Today:
- The nutritional info is posted below.
- Read through your ingredients list and instructions ahead of time, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort, which makes for a better baking experience!
- Links to recommended products are in the recipe below.
- This recipe can be made dairy-free, just sub in full fat coconut milk where it calls for regular milk.
- Some people say that Swerve Confectioner Sweetener has a cooling sensation and I do agree there is a little bit of a cooling sensation after each bite-but I’m seriously amazed at how close to regular powdered sugar it is in taste and texture-overall, I think it’s delicious and just plain genius.
- This is a great recipe to make with the whole family, the more helping hands you have, the faster your sprinkles get made-plus it’s just fun!
Enjoy The Recipe + Happy Baking!😊
Keto Devil’s Food Cake & Sprinkles
- Total Time: about an hour
- Yield: 10-12 cupcakes, 1 medium bundt cake 1x
Ingredients
- Chocolate Cupcakes
- 2 1/4 cups almond flour (Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Droste brand for extra rich flavor + color)
- 3/4 cup Swerve Confectioner’s Sweetener (or So Nourished brand)
- 1/2 cup sugar-free chocolate chips (or more) we love Lily’s brand  You can also use Ghirardelli, keep in mind this will up your carb intake a bit.
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (Hain brand is grain-free)
- 2 oz unsweetened Baker’s Chocolate (8 squares)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk, coconut milk for dairy-free (the higher the fat content, the less the carb count)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Icing Options
- Frosting (Or use our Keto Cream Cheese Frosting from our Keto Red Velvet Cake Recipe)
- 1.5 cups Swerve Confectioner’s Sweetener
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons milk or coconut milk (more if you prefer a looser frosting, less for thicker)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- *(for chocolate frosting, add 2.5 tbsp cocoa powder + 2 tsp additional milk)
- Glaze
- 1.5 cups Swerve Confectioner’s Sweetener
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 1/4 milk (more if you like a thinner glaze)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sprinkles (If you want pre-made, we sometimes use Stoka Sprinkles)
- 1 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- food coloring (Watkins brand is artificial dye-free)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, whisk together your almond flour, Swerve Confectioner’s Sweetener, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda until evenly combined. Add your eggs, milk, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and blend together lightly with whisk or hand mixer. Batter will be thick at this point, set aside.
- In a separate, small, microwaveable bowl, add your unsweetened chocolate squares. Microwave at 30 second intervals (stirring each time) until completely melted. (Usually about 2.5-3 minutes total).
- Stir olive oil into your melted chocolate. Pour melted chocolate mixture over your batter and blend until incorporated evenly. Stir in your chocolate chips–use batter immediately. Pour batter into cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full and bake at 350 degrees for a bout 20-22 minutes. (Place foil over top lightly at 15 minute mark). Alternatively, you may use a well greased traditional bundt pan (bundt pans with intricate designs do not tend to release grain-free cakes well). For the bundt, you’ll need to bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Bund cake will not be tall, but medium size. (Make your sprinkles while your cake is baking, see below).
- Let cupcakes (or bundt cake) cool completely.
- Frosting: While cake is cooling, go ahead and mix together your choice of icing. You can mix the glaze ingredients simply by hand with a whisk. For the frosting, you will need to first cream the butter, then blend in the Swerve a bit at a time, finally adding your liquid and salt last (and coloring, if desired).
- Add more sweetener for a thicker frosting or more liquid or butter to thin it out. Spread or pipe frosting as desired. We just cut the corner tip off of a ziplock bag and piped the icing right through in a swirling motion for the look pictured here. The frosting will set in about half an hour-traditional frosting gets that sugary crust more quickly, but fear not, this version will harden a bit on the outside as well. (If you chose glaze, just pour glaze over the bundt cake or dip the tops of your cupcakes into the glaze.
- For the sprinkles: Whisk together the sweetener and salt. Add your melted butter, milk and mix together by hand until a dough forms. You do not want the dough to be too loose, you can always add a pinch more sweetener if it feels too loose.
- Form your dough into a ball as pictured above. Separate into smaller balls-for as many colors as you like, we chose pink, purple, blue, yellow and white for this recipe. Add a drop or two of color to each ball and work through, until it is evenly distributed. Roll each ball out in between two sheets of parchment paper.
- Let them dry out for about 20 minutes. Then take an icing tip, we used an Ateco writing tip, no. 2 for these. And punch out a circle–you’ll need a toothpick or something similar to to push the confetti out of the icing tip as it will grab hold of it.
- Your confetti will be a bit soft at first, so take care not to smash them, they will harden as they dry out.
- When you have finished making your sprinkles and they are dried out, use a spatula to scoop them up and place them in a ziplock bag or in a small dish. If you are making them ahead of time, place them in a safe place where they will not be disturbed, you don’t want your hard work to go to waste!
- Place sprinkles on freshly iced cupcakes so they will stick. Serve and enjoy! Store leftovers in an airtight container to lock in moisture.
- Prep Time: 30 min (an hour w/sprinkles)
- Cook Time: 20-30 min
What a fun recipe Catherine! I love the idea of creating a Bundt cake or cupcakes. Works for any occasion 🙂
Oh thank you so very much, Noelle! 😀 I love how a slice of bundt cake always feels like a special, old fashioned treat!
These cupcakes are so cute! Looks absolutely delicious!
You’re so kind, thank you so much! 😀 They’re such a treat!
Wow! I’m so impressed with this recipe and you made your own sprinkles?! That is the coolest! Pinning and can’t wait to try!!
You’re the sweetest, thanks so much Kim! They’re such fun to make, I hope you’ll love the recipe! 😀
I can’t believe this recipe is keto!! It looks too good to be true! Keto diet or not, I’d be so excited to eat one of those cupcakes!!
Aw thank you dear Katherine! I’m having to freeze batches so I’m not tempted to have more than one at a time–and also so I don’t have them for breakfast! 😉
The cake part of the recipe calls for sugar free chocolate chips and baking powder, then doesn’t use it in the instructions?
Hi Janelle, thank you so much for pointing this out, I’m terribly sorry for the glitch!! I’ve just gone in and corrected the error, thank you again.
Ok, cool. That’s the way I did it anyway. Thanks! I’ll let you know how it goes. Hubby’s birthday cupcakes 🙂
Oh Happy Birthday to your hubby! I would love to know how it goes, thank you again!
Well, we taste tested one to make sure it was suitable for non-keto people. My oldest said, this is the BEST keto thing I’ve ever tasted! I’d say the cake part is excellent, but the erythritol frosting is just a little too….fake…being the main ingredient it’s very noticeable. I can’t think of any alternatives, though. Thank you for the recipe!! It will be fabulous and the kids liked the frosting. 🙂
That is so kind of you, thank you for letting me know, I’m delighted you guys enjoyed the cupcake part!!! I’m so sorry you didn’t enjoy the Swerve frosting though, erythritol does have a different taste that is more noticeable in the frosting. I hope you guys have a wonderful party! 😀
Sounds so good. Gotta try this. Who doesn’t love chocolate.
Oh thank you so much! I hope you love it if you try it!
Can this be adapted to a more traditional cake pan (circular, 8 inch pan)?
Also, after having read the comments, have you made this frosting using something other than erythritol? I am looking for a keto, diabetic friendly recipe and I’m hoping this may be the one!
Hi thank you for your comment! I think this should work fine in two 8″ round layers, just line each pan with parchment paper and pour and spread the batter evenly. Our favorite frosting for this cake is our the Keto cream cheese frosting–you can find that in our keto red velvet cake recipe here. https://lilaruthgrainfree.com/low-carb-red-velvet-cake-cupcakes/
The cooling sensation is less and it’s so delicious it’s not an issue–the cream cheese balances it out beautifully. I do prefer Swerve Confectioner because to us it’s the closest to traditional powdered sugar and renders the yummiest frosting. However, Lankanto also makes a sugar-free powdered sweetener, it has erythritol but it’s cut with monk fruit, it might be worth a side by side comparison. I really hope this helps and hope you love the cake! 😀
One more thing– the layers will seem thin initially when using two cake pans, but will rise. They need to cool 100% before being removing from the pan. If you are using all of the batter in one 8 inch cake pan, the baking time will increase. Cover it tightly with foil for the first 30 minutes and then uncovered for the last 10 or 15 minutes.
Love the recipes! The punching-out-of-sprinkles makes me cringe though. How long would that take! Ah! How about rolling it out flat, letting it dry and then putting in it a ziploc bag to smash to bits? Think that would work? Might relieve stress as well lol! Thanks again for your great recipes. So many and so delicious.
Awww thank you so much, I’m delighted to hear that! 😀 And haha, I know, it is a tedious process to punch out those sprinkles, I like the idea of smashing them to bits!! Have you by chance tried Good Dee’s Sugar-Free Sprinkles? They’re just 0.4 net carbs per serving, Keto Factory also makes some (chocolate and rainbow) and they all sell on Amazon, might be a good alternative!