Keto Lemon Pound Cake
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 07/15/2019 - Last updated on 10/26/2023
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Learn how to make this Keto Lemon Pound Cake! An easy coconut flour cake with a delicious buttery texture and tangy lemon flavor.
This delicious keto lemon bread contains only 3.9 grams of net carbs per slice, and it is a delicious treat to pair with a cup of my bulletproof coffee for breakfast.
Is Lemon Pound Cake Keto?
Classic Lemon Pound Cakes aren’t keto-friendly because they’re made with sugar and all-purpose flour. Two ingredients that are full of carbs.
But this Keto Lemon Pound Cake is very much keto-friendly.
It uses only keto-friendly ingredients such as almond flour and coconut flour, this keto pound cake has only 3.9 grams of net carbs per slice!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
There is no need to be on a keto diet to appreciate the moist and buttery texture of a keto lemon cake.
This cake is also:
- Gluten-Free
- Keto-Friendly
- Low-Carb
- Paleo
- Dairy-Free
How To Make This Keto Lemon Pound Cake
This lemon keto cake recipe has only a few ingredients and steps to follow.
It does not require fancy pieces of equipment or ingredients, and you will quickly make this recipe in 15 minutes of prep.
Ingredients
First, let’s have a look at what you need.
- Eggs – a delicious buttery and moist pound cake that has eggs. Please stick to the recipe and do not try to substitute eggs in this recipe.
- Almond Flour – you can also use almond meal if desired but ultra-fine almond flour is the best option. To learn more about keto flour, read my keto flour guide!
- Coconut Flour – as always in keto baking-uses fresh flour with no lumps for perfect results.
- Coconut Oil – or melted butter if preferred.
- Lemon Juice – fresh is the best if you can. Lemons are great keto-friendly fruits! If you don’t have a juicer, read my guide on how to juice a lemon without a juicer.
- Lemon Zest – this is optional. I recommend you use untreated organic lemon if you intend to use the zest. This avoids adding nasties to your cake. A few drops of the lemon extract also work!
- Sugar-Free Crystal Sweetener – as always I love to use a crystal blend of Monk Fruit sweetener and erythritol, but powdered erythritol or Xylitol also are great options. Check out my review of keto-friendly sweeteners to convert from one to another.
Making The Cake
Next, let’s talk about the most important part of this recipe: ingredient temperature.
While this is a very straightforward keto lemon pound cake recipe there is one trick!
You must use eggs at room temperature. In fact, baking with coconut oil involves using ingredients at room temperature.
The reason is pretty simple, coconut oil gets solid under 76°F (24°C).
It means that if your eggs are straight out of the fridge they will create lots of coconut oil lumps.
The best is to store your eggs out of the fridge the day before or at least 4 hours before making this recipe.
Otherwise, use melted butter instead of coconut oil. This will not happen with butter.
For more tips on never failing a keto recipe, have a look at my keto baking guide, I share in this ebook all my tips and secrets to never failing a recipe!
Storage Instructions
This keto lemon bread can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
You can also freeze this almond flour pound cake. First, slice the whole cake into 16 slices. Then, freeze the keto lemon loaf into a zip-lock bag or in an airtight container.
Make sure the slices do not overlap, it makes it easier to defrost one by one.
Finally, defrost your slices the day before at room temperature.
The next day, toast the slices in the toaster if you like. Of course, if you freeze your sugar-free lemon cake with the frosting on top don’t bring it to the toaster.
Enjoy plain or spread some sugar-free jam on top.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is probably the healthiest coconut flour lemon cake recipe you will find around. Let me tell you why. First, it is sugar-free, low-carb, and dairy-free, yes eggs are not dairy.
Dairy products come from bovine animals only include milk, cream, butter, and cheese. So, this keto lemon bread is dairy-free meaning it is easy to digest.
Next, it is a high-protein cake perfect to serve at breakfast or for a fulfilling afternoon tea. Proteins keep you full for longer and you won’t feel hungry after one slice.
Finally, it is a gluten-free lemon cake high in fiber from coconut flour. Fibers are part of healthy gut health and stabilize blood sugar levels.
This keto lemon pound cake has only 3.9 grams of net carbs per slice.
More Keto Baking Recipes
We all love a good piece of cake and I have plenty of other delicious keto cake recipes for you to try.
Did You Like This Recipe?
Leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page for tips, our Instagram page for inspiration, our Pinterest for saving recipes, and Flipboard to get all the new ones!
Keto Lemon Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 5 large Eggs at room temperature
- ¾ cup Granulated Sweetener or xylitol
- ½ cup Coconut Oil or melted butter
- 2 cups Almond Flour
- ¼ cup Coconut Flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
- ¼ cup Lemon Juice
- ½ tablespoon Lemon Zest optional
Lemon glazing
- 1 cup Powdered Erythritol
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper. Slightly oil the paper to make sure the pound cake doesn't stick to the pan. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar-free crystal sweetener, melted coconut oil (or butter), and lemon juice. Ensure that your coconut oil is not burning hot, or it will 'cook' the eggs and create lumps. All your ingredients must be roughly at the same temperature, think room temperature, especially the eggs and lemon juice. Cold ingredients just out of the fridge will solidify the coconut oil creating oil lumps. Otherwise, use melted butter to prevent this to happens. Set aside.
- In a different large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, and baking powder. Stir to combine the flours evenly.
- Pour the liquid ingredients onto the dry ingredients.
- Stir all the ingredients together with a baking spoon until it forms a thick cake batter with no lumps. Combine for at least 2 minutes to make sure the coconut flour fiber absorbs the moisture.
- Transfer the cake batter onto the loaf pan. Make sure you are using the same loaf pan size, or it will impact your baking time.
- Place the loaf pan in the center of your oven and bake at 180°C (350°F), fan-forced mode, if you can, for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, decrease the temperature to 160°C (320°F) and cover the loaf pan with a loose piece of foil. This will prevent the top from burning, and the middle will bake slowly. Keep baking for 45-60 minutes in total, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pound cake comes out with little to no crumbs on it.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the loaf pan, then lift out the pound cake from the pan using the parchment paper.
- Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. It is a thick cake, and it usually takes 3 hours to fully cool. Be patient and add the lemon glazing on the cake when it reaches room temperature, not before!
Lemon glazing
- To make the lemon glazing, whisk together the sugar-free powdered erythritol with lemon juice until no lumps remain. If needed, add more lemon juice to get a thinner glazing or more powdered sweetener to get thicker glazing.
- Drizzle over the cooled pound cake.
- You can place the cake for a few minutes in the freezer to set the glazing if too runny.
- Store your cake in the pantry on a cake box for up to 3 or 4 days. Slice before serving to keep the cake moist.
- Enjoy as breakfast, teatime, plain, or with sugar-free chia seed jam.
How to freeze your pound cake?
- Slice the cake into 16 slices before freezing. Freeze the cake in an airtight box, making sure the slice doesn't overlap, or place a piece of parchment paper between each slice to make it easier to defrost individually. Defrost the slice the day before at room temperature, on a plate, don't overlap the slices.
- The next day, you can toast the slices in a toaster before serving.
Tools
Getting Started What Is Keto? Macro Calculator Sweetener Converter Meal Plans Recipe Ebooks Intermittent Fasting Keto Fruits Keto Vegetables Keto Flours Fighting Keto Flu Healthy SweetenersWant My Kitchen Equipment?
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook and many ebooks, 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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This is not really low carb such as a Keto requires. For 16 slices with about 300g of sweetener between the loaf and the icing, you’re already at roughly 19g of carb per slice 🙁
I am sorry but all the ingredients in this recipe are low carb keto approved. I think your confused on the sweetener used in the recipe, it is not sugar! The sweetener used here contains zero carbs it is sugar free Monk fruit sweetener ( I use Lakanto) and the total net carbs per slice is 4.9g for 24 sices in the cake. Therefore this is totally acceptable on a keto low carb diet as a treat. Enjoy the recipes. XOXO Carine
I’ve made several versions and this is very good recipe for keto. I added grated lemon peel as well as a touch more fresh squeezed lemon juice. They lemon is definitely present but not tart. I followed the baking directions to the T including covering with foil and baked for a total of 55 min next time I will try maybe 5-10 min less. I confess that I did’t use the parchment paper and in my case that was a mistake. I didn’t have only on hand, I used homemade ghee in place of the coconut oil as well. I’n most cased, ghee is my go to oil for baking, I love the flavor and texture. Next time I’ll try the coconut oil or coconut butter and then plain butter just o see if I see a differenc. I left off the glaze because it was sweet enough for my crew.
Thank you so much for the beautiful feedback! Ghee would have taste amazing in this recipe. Thanks for sharing your tips. XOXO Carine.
Tried this recipe today and just tried a piece! Delicious! I am currently following Keto and when I inputted the information into my app – my total carb is coming out at 12g per slice – not 5g? I used all suggested ingredients so cant work out why!
Many Thanks!
I am very happy you enjoyed the cake! You may have enter something differently or your app doesn’t takeaway fiber that are not counted on keto diet. This bread serve 16 slices, 5.1 g carbs, 1.2 fiber so 3.9 g net carb per slice. Enjoy the keto recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine
Yhe cake is lovely, i added some lemon extract to make it more lemony. It does have a bot of an eggy smell but it didnt put me off. Was wondering if one can add poppy seeda to it? Thanks a lot for the recipe!
Of course you can add poppyseed, the recipe will come out great too. Enjoy ! XOXO Carine
Hi, could I substitute honey for the sugar? Do you know what the ratio would be? Thanks!
Honey is a sugar substitute for sure, but it is not a low card keto substitute.
True, that is why I don’t recommend honey in my recipes. It is too high in sugar and not keto friendly. XOXO Carine.
Hi, this recipe doesn’t use honey so I guess you mean replacing the sugar free crystal sweetener by honey. I didn’t try this option as I don’t use sugar in my recipes, I guess the best replacement will be coconut sugar, same ratio, honey may liquify the batter and make the pound cake way moister. Enjoy, XOXO Carine
Hi thank you so much for this super delicious lemon pound cake recipe. This has instantly become one of my favourites! FYI I increased the lemon ( because lemon!) and replaced some of the xylitol with monk fruit. I also made a honey lemon glaze instead. Sooooo good!!
I agree, there is never enough lemon in pound cakes 🙂 Great idea to increase this slightly. Thank you for this beautiful feedback! I am so glad you love it . Enjoy the blog recipes, XOXO Carine
I just made this and it was SO good! thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback! I am so happy you enjoy the pound cake too. Talk to you soon for another recipe feedback 🙂 XOXO Carine.
I just made this for the first time. I may have cooked it a titch too long as the outsides were very brown. I used butter as I didn’t feel like waiting for the eggs to get to room temperature lol. Anyway it is super yummy! No glaze needed but I will probably make it just to try. I’m not eating keto but I am eating low carb so this is perfect! Thanks for sharing! I plan on trying some of your other recipes as well 🙂
Thanks so much for the lovely feedback! I can’t wait to read your next comment on my recipe. They are all low carb keto friendly. Enjoy! XOXO Carine.
Hi Carine, the measurements of the baking pan, is that inside measurement or outside measurement? My pan doesn’t have the size markings on it, when I measured my pan with a measuring tape the outside measurements were 9 x 5
My loaf didn’t raise very much and it kind of sunk in the middle, it was cooked through though, what would cause that to happen?
My eggs were out of the fridge for over 5 hrs, I used coconut oil that I melted and was pretty much room temp, I used coconut sugar for sweetener, everything else was as called for.
Pan measurement are always provided by manufacturer for outside so yes mine is same as your 9 x 5. I am not using coconut sugar in the recipe I am using sugar free erythritol. Coconut sugar may change the texture and out come as it caramelize (contains lots of sugar) which is not the case with erythritol. Overall it is not a loaf that raise much anyway as there no gluten in the recipe. I hope it gets better with practice. Enjoy the recipe around here. XOXO Carine.
I used coconut sugar as I didn’t have access to the others you mentioned, and I am familiar with gluten free baking since I’ve been gluten free for 7 years, due to celiac disease. I will make it again though, cause it is good!
Coconut sugar is very tasty! It can change the texture slightly but I really wish it et even better net time. i am so glad to have you here. XOXO Carine.
Hi. Why does my cake break its crust in the ocen? I put it with air medium temperature 140 C. Thanks for your recipes.
I am not sure I understand very well your question but the temperature you used is way too low. The recipe said 180C. There is no way the cake bake properly at 140C. It will stay uncooked even after hours. I hope it helps and reply to your issue. Enoy the recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine.
hi i its my 1st time to bake and i would like to ask a tip why my lemon cake is burn not on top but on the bottom? i follow your instruction to lower down the temperature after 15 min thank u
I never burnt a cake at the bottom so this is new to me. This can happen if your pan is way too low in your oven. You should always bake cake in the center rack of your oven for better result. Or your pan is not thick enough and burn cake, in this cake it means it will happen with any other recipe baked in same pan too. Enjoy the recipe ! XOXO Carine.
Cake is delish…two suggestions: Don’t overmix or cook too long. It will make it dry. Otherwise flavor is great.
agree, pound cake should be bake just right or they lose their lovely moist texture fast. Thanks for the lovely feedbacK. Enjoy the blog recipes, XOXO Carine.
The lemon pound cake was amazing. Tangy and sweet very nice. Thanks a lot.
Thank you so much ! XOXO Carine.
Made this cake twice! It was delicious.
Is it possible to replace lemon by chocolate ? If yes, how can I make it ? Many thanks 🙂
That is a great question ! I didn’t try myself so I am unsure. I would recommend you try my keto chocolate cake instead! Very easy to make and tasty too. XOXO Carine.
I have made this recipe at least 10 times using butter instead of coconut oil. I also did a variation and used orange extract for a couple of loaves and made cream cheese frosting for a few. Always a hit. Every time. I decided yesterday to try it with coconut oil. I have to say I think it is moister using coconut oil. I believe coconut oil will be my go-to now. I also add a teaspoon xanthan gum as a binder to give it more of a pound cake texture. This is by far the BEST keto recipe I have come across. If I could give it 10 start I would! Great job!
WOW! you should have a badge for the best follower 🙂 I agree, I prefer coconut oil too that is why it is my first suggestion in making this loaf. Thanks so much again for trying my recipe and this beautiful feedback with plenty of new ideas to try ! XOXO Carine.
HOLD ME BACK this is DELICIOUS!!!
WOW, so easy! So tasty! Perfect treat for my keto journey!
Thank you ! o glad you love it ! XOXO Carine.
Hi! I was wondering if I could use regular white sugar for this recipe if I wanted to? I am not KETO and I don’t mind the sugar intake!
Of course, if you are not on keto go for it 🙂 You can use the same amount as the recommended sugar free crystal sweetener. Enjoy the loaf cake, Carine.
Hey! Can anyone explain why my batter was not smooth at all? I followed the recipe exactly with all room temp ingredients and using the coconut oil which I melted but let cool down so it was not warm going in… waiting to see how it comes out!
Hello ! I am happy to help out but what do you men by not smooth? Is there any lumps? how did it goes after baking it ? It can be because you are using almond meal which is thicker than almond flour or you introduced the liquid ingredients too fast into the dry ingredients, and like for any cake batter it cake make small lumps. There is always a way to fix lumps, whisk fast or process 30 seconds in a blender. Let me know. XOXO Carine.
Hey! Not sure why but the batter was grainy and not smooth. Cake has turned out okay though! Our powdered erythritol in the UK must be different as the glaze didn’t work but it’s a good first attempt with some thick cream and berries!
Thank you!
My mum live in France and make the cake with success but she said the almond flour is grainier than what I am using here. It might be why your texture is different but luckily flavor is here! Powdered erythritol can be used like regular icing sugar, combine with tiny juice/water. However I agree that it can thinner quicker so all you have to do is add more powdered erythritol until it reach your favorite thickness. But cream is such great idea too ! Enjoy the recipe around here, XOXO Carine
Absolutely great! Finally I found something tasty! I’m having it right now with a coffeee! Amazing! Feeling soooo happy! I took pictures but can’t upload them sorry!
Thanks so much! you can always share your lovely pictures with me on instagram here, I look at all my messages and always re share your creation in my story to show others followers. Can’t wait to read your next comment on my recipes, XOXO Carine.
I don’t know what happened?!? I followed the recipe to the letter but my lemon cake doesn’t look anything like yours!! It’s not yellow on the inside but kinda brown. It tastes a big eggy ( I used 5 medium free range eggs), organic coconut oil/flour. C’Est mangeable mais pas très présentable..idée ??
This is very weird! you may have used almond meal instead of almond flour that is why the color is brown. Almond flour is white and almond meal is darker as it keep the almond skin. It should not taste eggy if you used the right sweetener and lemon juice but well, there is also 5 eggs so it can have a slight egg flavor if you are sensitive to it. 🙂 I hope it gets better next time. XOXO Carine.
Do you think I could replace a couple of the eggs with flax eggs or chia seed eggs? I am one who is sensitive to the “eggy” taste of things
I wouldn’t decrease eggs, it won’t hold at all together I believe. I didn’t try so I can’t recommend more sorry. XOXO Carine