Keto Cinnamon Coffee Cake
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 04/13/2020 - Last updated on 03/29/2024
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An easy, moist, buttery keto cinnamon coffee cake topped with a sweet, crunchy walnut streusel. The best low-carb breakfast cake to pair with your morning coffee!
Read on to learn how to make this excellent keto cake!
Coffee cake rhymes with cinnamon, and sweet, buttery crumbs because streusel on top of coffee cake is the best part!
What’s A Coffee Cake?
A coffee cake is a simple buttery sponge cake typically made of two layers of buttery crumbs, one in the center of the cake and on top of the cake.
A keto coffee cake recipe is about making a keto cake that resembles a coffee cake without carbs!
How To Make Keto Coffe Cake
You can whip up this keto coffee cake with ease, using only simple low-carb ingredients.
Ingredients
Bonus, this gluten-free coffee cake can also be made dairy-free with very few adjustments. Keep reading my tips to make this recipe paleo-friendly too.
- Almond flour – fine blanched almond flour provides the best texture. You can also use ground almonds or almond meal, but these options tend to leave a gritty texture to the batter.
- Coconut flour – while you could make a keto coffee cake with almond flour only, I don’t recommend it. Let me explain why. The tiniest amount of coconut flour gives the cake sponge a moist texture. In fact, if you want to swap coconut flour with more almond flour in this healthy coffee cake recipe, you will have to use 4 times more! This means you will use 1 additional cup of almond flour to reach the same texture (compared to 1/4 cup of coconut flour). The result will be a very dense, gritty, and heavy keto cake.
- Grass-fed butter or coconut oil if you want to make a dairy-free coffee cake. Is butter keto?
- Erythritol or other sugar-free crystal sweeteners like allulose or Monk fruit stevia blend
- Baking powder – a great substitute for baking powder is baking soda. As a rule of thumbs, always use half amount of baking soda to substitute baking powder in keto cakes recipes. So, here replace the 2 teaspoons of baking powder with 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
- Salt – it acts as a flavor enhancer in keto cake recipes, so if you watch your sodium intake, you can make the recipe without salt. It will still work. That said, we need extra sodium on the keto diet, so I always like to add this extra pinch of salt to my keto cakes.
- Vanilla extract
- Unsweetened almond milk – or if you wonder how to make the coffee cake moister, swap the milk for cream! I recommend heavy cream or coconut cream if you eat dairy-free
Baking Coffee Cake
You can bake this coffee cake on fan-forced mode or regular mode but whatever the mode you are using, make sure you don’t bake over 350°F (180°C).
This is because the recipe uses almond flour, and this low-carb flour browns faster than wheat flour.
Also, for coffee cakes topped with crumbs, it’s better to bake the cake on rack 2, counting from the bottom of the oven. It’s basically the rack below the center rack.
This is the best option to prevent the cake crumbs from browning too fast.
Makeing The Keto Cake Streusel
I used to love Starbucks coffee cake toppings, and I would eat this with my fingers before even eating the cake.
This said, classic coffee cake crumbs are loaded with carbs, including wheat and sugar, so they are not keto-friendly at all.
Ingredients
To make the keto coffee cake top layer, I use the following ingredients:
- Almond flour
- Chopped walnuts – you can use any other keto-friendly nuts like almonds, macadamia, pecan, or hazelnuts.
- Erythritol
- Melted butter or coconut oil
- Instant coffee – yes, there is coffee in the old classic coffee cake recipes like the one created in the US back in the 1800s. Nowadays, you will rarely find any coffee in coffee cakes but trust me, that little addition brings out all the cinnamon flavors of this low-carb cake.
A Low-Carb Birthday Cake
The best time to serve coffee cake is for breakfast. It makes a delicious, fulfilling breakfast, and your black coffee will enhance the flavors of this keto cake.
Some delicious diabetic-friendly breakfast toppings to add on the cakes’ side or top are full-fat coconut yogurt. This is pure coconut cream, so it doesn’t have sugar or lactose.
Other sugar-free toppings ideas are unsweetened whipped cream and sugar-free glazing.
Making The Coffee Cake Batter
First, measure all your ingredients in small bowls, ensuring all the ingredients are at room temperature, especially the eggs.
Make space on your benchtop to split the cake batter ingredients from the streusel toppings ingredients so you won’t get confused.
Then, start by making the streusel dough and set it aside while you prepare the cake batter.
This gives some time to the streusel coffee cake ingredients to blend their flavors. Next, prepare the cake batter by combining the wet ingredients with the dry.
Finally, assemble the coffee cake following this layering rule:
- Evenly spread 2/3 of the cake batter.
- Sprinkle 1/2 of streusel dough all over and slightly press with your finger to stick the streusel to the batter.
- Spread the leftover cake batter. It’s ok if it mixes up with some of the bottom layer streusels.
- Sprinkle leftover walnut streusel toppings.
How to store your streusel coffee cake?
You can store this easy keto coffee cake in the fridge for up to 3 days. Otherwise, keto cakes are easy to freeze.
Use an airtight container and leave some space between each slice to make sure they don’t stick to each other. Defrost on the counter overnight.
More Keto Cake Recipes
If you love keto cakes or if you are after a keto birthday cake recipe, I recommend you also try my:
Made this diabetic cinnamon coffee cake recipe yet? Share a picture with me on Instagram. I love to see your creations,
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Keto Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Keto coffee cake batter
- 2 cups Almond Flour
- ¼ cup Coconut Flour
- ⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons Granulated Sweetener or sugar-free crystal sweetener of choice like xylitol, allulose
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 large Eggs at room temperature, not cold
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract at room temperature
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter or melted coconut oil
- ⅓ cup Unsweetened Almond Milk at room temperature, not cold
Cinnamon streusel topping
- 1 cup Almond Flour
- ⅓ cup Granulated Sweetener
- ⅓ cup Unsalted Butter or melted coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons Instant Espresso optional
- ½ cup Chopped Walnuts optional
Sugar-free glazing – optional
- 1 cup Powdered Erythritol
- 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Almond Milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch square cake pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
Prepare the cinnamon streusel
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients. The order doesn't matter until it forms a cinnamon crumble. Set aside at room temperature while you make the cake batter.
Prepare the coffee cake batter
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, erythritol, and salt.
- In another medium-size bowl, beat eggs with melted butter (lukewarm not hot, or the butter will 'cook' the eggs), unsweetened almond milk, and vanilla.
- Pour the liquid ingredients onto the dry ingredients and combine with a spoon until it forms a thick batter with no lumps. You can also use an electric beater, on low speed if desired.
Fill in the cake pan
- First, spread evenly half of the coffee cake batter into the prepared cake pan.
- Sprinkle half of the cinnamon streusel on top of the cake batter, then spread the rest of the coffee cake batter on top of the streusel. As you spread the rest of the cake batter, it will mix some of the streusels you added below, and that is ok.
- To finish, sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon streusel all over the top of the pan. Slightly press with a spatula to stick the streusel to the cake batter.
- Bake 30-40 minutes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool it down for 10 minutes in the cake pan, pull the parchment paper pieces to lift out the cake from the pan easily, and transfer onto a cooling rack for 1-2 hours or until it reaches room temperature.
- When the cake is at room temperature, drizzle the sugar-free glazing on top of the cake. To make the glazing, combine the sugar-free powdered erythritol and unsweetened almond milk into a small bowl until it reaches your desired thickness. Add a bit more powdered erythritol for thicker glazing.
- Cut into 16 squares and serve for breakfast or snack, with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream (or whipped coconut cream, if dairy-free) and a cup of coffee.
Storage
- Store in the fridge in a cake box for up to 3 days or freeze for 3 months. Defrost 4 hours before at room temperature.
Tools
Getting Started What Is Keto? Macro Calculator Sweetener Converter Intermittent Fasting Keto Fruits Keto Vegetables Keto Flours Fighting Keto Flu Healthy SweetenersWant My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
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Disclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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Hello! I have been obsessed with making this since I came across this recipe. I love your site btw! Question, can I substitute expresso powder for the instant coffee? Or is it the same thing (I admit that I am not a coffee connoisseur, but I am a dessert one!)
I am pretty sure it will taste good too! Thanks for making my recipes so often. XOXO Carine
Sounds good!
This was amazing!!!!
Hi,
Can I switch the erythritol in the recipe to coconut sugar?
Sure, same amount
Hi, I’m allergic to almonds. What could I use in this recipe instead of almond flour? (I can substitute soy milk for almond milk). Thank you!
Probably sesame flour will work as a keto flour swap in same amount
Everyone who tastes this cake cannot believe it’s keto. Purley amazing
this is delicious, but, my question is do I use measuring cups or should I weigh the flour
It’s up to you both measurement works perfectly
Wowowowoww. These were amazing. I divided the recipe by 3, and make 6 small doughtnuts out of it in a doughnut baking mold. I used a mix of pecans and walnuts in the streusel. They were so delicious!
Absolutely delicious! I skipped the glaze, used vanilla unsweetened almond milk and subbed the butter with Imperial margarine and unsweetened applesauce (used all margarine for the crumble and did a 50/50 split for the cake). I also baked it in an 8”x8” pan for ~33 minutes @ 350F. I think I’ll add a little cinnamon to the cake batter next time and see if I can use melted I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Light for the crumble to reduce the fat even more (I’m insulin resistant but not actually keto, so I still try to do lower fat when possible).
This recipe is light and has the consistency and flavor of a traditional coffee cake. Also, the sweetener alternative isn’t over powering!
Five stars!
Awesome recipe!
I am trying this over the weekend! Can you tell me if your gram measures are more accurate than US customary? For 2 cups of Almond Flour I would typically use 200 g but your metric numbers list 245 g. I just want to verify before I dive into the recipe…thanks.
Weight is almost more accurate in baking but both are accurate, use what you feel more comfortable with. Depending on how you pack a cup, and the granulometry of your almond flour – some are ultra thin like mine so you pack more in a cup, the grams are different.
This looks wonderful. Looking forward to trying it. Do I need to spread 2/3 or 1/2 the cake batter because you list both so I’m a little confused. Your stories say 1/2 cake batter, but your description says different. Thank you.
It doesn’t really matter if you spread 1/2 or 2/3, it depends if you love a thicker layer of cake below the cinnamon filling. It will bake the same way. Enjoy!
This is the best recipe using almond flour that I have ever tried. You clearly did a thorough job of development. It is delicious, does not burn and actually looks like traditional coffee cake. A keeper.
Love this recipe but it did turn out a little dry with a slight cornbread texture. I’m wondering if that’s just par for the course with almond flour? It’s still delicious! I’m just curious if there’s something I can modify next time to make it more cake like and moist
It can be your almond flour that is too gritty or you used almond meal, its much thicker and make cakes heavy and dense. Try a different brand maybe
I’m new to the whole Keto things and I have been trying out different recipes trying to get a selection for breakfast down pat.
This coffee cake is super simple to make and delicious to boot!
I added in fresh grated nutmeg and all spice into mine for a little extra zip, both of my teenagers have been willing to sample what I make for myself for breakfast both of them wanted to eat it instead of their oatmeal that they had made!
So good! I added chopped pecans to the streusel.
Made this in the dairy free version and it was delicious! So I’m making it again.
Did you use vegan butter?
No, regular butter, the recipe is not vegan and vegan butter contains vegetable oils that are not keto friendly
So good! Coffee cake has always been one of my favorite sweets and this is as close to the full sugar version I have had yet. I added a little more milk to the batter to loosen it up so that it would spread and that worked just fine. Also, the ratio of crumb to cake was perfect-thank you so much from my husband and I for the wonderful recipe!
Thank you so much for such a beautiful comment! Enjoy all the the keto cake recipes on the blog, Carine
I made this cake last night. It is just incredible. I used both butter and coconut oil. I added a little bit of unsweetened apple sauce. (I put that in everything). My husband is type 2 diabetic. He is thrilled to have “sweets” again. Thank you
Thank you so much for this recipe! It was delicious – definitely my new go-to low-carb coffee cake recipe. The whole family loved it!
This is a keeper! We loved it!