Low Carb Gluten Free German Black Forest Cake - My PCOS Kitchen (2024)

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This incredible gluten free German Black Forest Cake is made with three layers of moist keto chocolate cake, filled with a homemade low carb raspberry jelly and frosted with sugar free cream cheese frosting. This is the best low carb chocolate cake you'll ever make for any occasion!

German Black Forest Cake

The German Black Forest Cake is my ultimate favourite cake to make during the holidays and my birthday. This is the cake I made a couple of weeks ago for my birthday and trust me, this ketofied version tastes even better than the original.

Typically, an Authentic Black Forest Cake consists of 3-4 layers of chocolate sponge cake, filled with cherries and whipped cream. It's also usually decorated with chocolate shavings, more whipped cream and cherries. Depending on where you buy the cake or who makes it, it'll usually be made with fresh sour cherries, black cherries or maraschino cherries.

Traditionally, the German Black Forest Cake is made with kirshwasser, a cherry type of brandy, but can totally be avoided if you don't consume alcohol. In Germany, the cake needs to have kirshwasser in it for it to be legally namedSchwarzwälder Kirschtorte.In North America, we usually call this cake a Black Forest cake and in the United Kingdom, it's usually called a Black Forestgâteau.

My Keto Black Forest Cake Recipe

Since a traditional Black Forest cake is usually made with flour, sugar and cherries, I wanted to make sure that my recipe was completely gluten free and that it had no sugar in it without sacrificing the original taste. I absolutely wanted a moist black forest cake so made sure to not use any coconut flour in my recipe.

I decided to make a homemade sugar free raspberry jelly instead of cherries to cut back on the carbs and only used fresh cherries for the toppings. I also opted to use keto cream cheese frosting instead of whipped cream because of the weather here. If you'd like to try a whipped cream dessert though, I suggest you try my low carb tiramisu! If's filled with a mascarpone whipping cream and is just so delicious!

It's been 37C/99F every day here so whipped cream topping would have melted in minutes. For the ultimate chocolate version, you could also use my chocolate buttercream frosting instead and make it completely chocolate flavored!

For the chocolate shavings and chocolate decorations, I used lily's sugar free chocolate, but you could use chocolate from Keto Bark or Coco Polo. Both of these are keto friendly.

The keto chocolate sponge is moist, soft and crumbly. It goes superbly well with the raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting.

This keto black forest cake is a three layer cake and makes 10 generous slices. Because of this, the carb count is on the high side at 10.82g net carbs per slice. However, it's ridiculously filling and can honestly be eaten as a meal on its own. If you watch your macros for the rest of the day, you can easily fit this cake in even at 20g per day (that's what I did).

How to Make a German Black Forest Cake

Before making this gluten free black forest cake recipe, know that it's a little bit time consuming, but it'll totally be worth it in the end. The biggest time consuming factors are the baking time and chilling time so make sure you have a good free day to bake!

Make the Keto Chocolate Sponge

Line 3 9"/23cm springform pans with parchment paper. You want to add parchment paper on the bottom and the sides.

Separate the egg whites and egg yolks. Using a stand mixer, or a hand mixer, add the 8 egg whites and cream of tartar. Mix until soft peaks form. Set aside.

In a large bowl, add the 8 egg yolks, Sukrin Gold (which is like low carb brown sugar), vanilla, apple cider vinegar and coconut oil. Mix with a hand mixer for a minute. Add the almond flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder and baking soda to the bowl and mix well for another minute. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Fold the egg whites in

Add ¼ of the meringue into the chocolate cake batter and mix with the hand mixer to loosen the batter a bit.

Fold in the remaining meringue in 3 batches. Mix with a silicone spatula. Do not use a hand mixer for this. You want your cake batter to be light and airy so if you use a hand mixture, all of that air will disappear.

Once all of the eggs have been added, pour the cake batter into the three prepared pans.

I measured how much my batter weighed and separated into three exact portions so that each layer would be the same height and require the same cooking time.

Bake the cake

Add the chocolate cakes into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is ready. If not, bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the cake is fully cooked.

Let the Cake Cool

Once the three keto chocolate sponges are fully cooked, let them cool completely before cooling them in the fridge for minimum 2 hours.

You absolutely must cool the cakes in the fridge or else the cream cheese frosting and chocolate will melt off the cake (especially in summer).

Make the Raspberry Jelly

In a small pot, add the raspberries (fresh or frozen), kirschwasser (cherry brandy), water, stevia, xanthan gum and gelatin. Simmer on medium heat for about 5 minutes while stirring. The raspberries should be completely mashed and the jelly should have thickened up a bit.

Turn the heat off, transfer the jelly to a metal or plastic bowl and put in the fridge. Let it cool for a good hour.

Make the Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large bowl, place the cream cheese and cream well. Add the erythritol, stevia powder and vanilla and mix again.

Pour in the heavy cream little by little (or it'll splash everywhere) and mix into the cream cheese for a good 3-4 minutes. It will thicken as you mix it. Place in the fridge until ready to frost the cake.

Make the Chocolate Decoration

Put a heat-proof glass bowl over a pot, add about two inches/5cm of water and put to boil. Add the chocolate and coconut oil into the glass bowl. While stirring continuously, let the chocolate melt.

Once the chocolate has melted, place the bowl to the side.

Add some parchment paper on top of a small tray. Pour the melted chocolate all over the parchment paper. Spread even with a spatula. Place the tray into the freezer to freeze, minimum 30 minutes.

Assemble the Cake

Remove the chocolate cake from the cake pans. Place the first cake layer on on a cake stand. This is where you'll decorate it so make sure it's a plate you don't mind serving it in because you won't be able to move it afterwards.

Cover the first chocolate layer with cream cheese frosting. Spread it evenly. Put some cream cheese frosting in a piping bag attached with a round decorating tip. Pipe a thick boarder (a dam) along the outside edge of your cake. This is so that the raspberry jelly doesn't leak out of the cake.

Add ½ of the raspberry jelly inside the boarder. Place the second chocolate sponge over. Cream with the cream cheese frosting, pipe a boarder and fill with the last half of raspberry jelly.

Cover with the third chocolate sponge.Proceed to frost the top and sides of the cake using your offset spatula.

With the remaining cream cheese frosting, place in a piping bag attached with a large star decorating tip.

Pipe 10 flowers on the top of the cake all around the border. Place 10 fresh cherries on top of each flowers.

Take a lily's chocolate bar and shave ¼ of it in the middle of the top of the cake between all of the cherries.

Remove the chocolate tray from the freezer and with the back of a knife, break the chocolate apart making large shards.

For this part, I actually had to decorate the cake inside my fridge because my house was too warm and the chocolate was melting so you may have to do the same.

Take each chocolate shard and quickly stick them on the side of the cake. Your homemade German black forest cake is now finished! Just make sure to leave it in the fridge if it's a hot summer day or the frosting will melt off!

Do I have to use Espresso?

No, you don't but I really recommend it! It makes the keto chocolate cake tastes SO much better!

Do I have to use Kirschwasser?

Not at all! If you can't have alcohol, simply leave it out! Since I used raspberries as the filling instead of cherries, I find that the alcohol helped the raspberries kind of taste like the original cherry filling in an authentic black forest cake recipe.

Is the gelatin necessary for the raspberry jelly?

It really helps the raspberry filling stay in place and not droll all over the frosting so I recommend using it if you can! If you don't want to use gelatin, you could try to use some agar agar powder.

Which chocolate chips are sugar free?

I used lily's chocolate chips to make this cake and the chocolate decorations around it, but you could use the chocolate from Keto Bark or Coco Polo as they're both keto-friendly.

Do I have to use the cream of tartar?

You don't have to, but it really helps the egg whites make a beautiful solid meringue. I highly recommend using it!

Can this keto black forest cake be frozen?

Yes! Just make sure to freeze individually wrapped slices or else you'll have to defrost the entire low carb black forest cake just to cut one slice off. I wrapped my slices in saran wrap and froze them. When ready to eat, you can either leave them to thaw in the fridge or on the counter, or you can microwave for about a minute. I recommend thawing naturally as microwaving it tends to make the cream cheese frosting melt off the cake.

You can freeze this gluten free black forest cake for up to one month.

What Sweeteners can I use in this Sugar Free Black Forest Cake?

I recommend using the low carb equivalent of brown sugar to make this sugar free black forest cake. In the recipe I ended up using Sukrin gold, but you could also use Lakanto Golden. Lakanto tends to be sweeter than Sukrin, so I would only use ¾ cup of LAKANTO instead of 1 cup of Sukrin.

Other Keto Birthday Cake Ideas

Every year I always make myself a low carb or keto birthday cake and have so many on the blog that would be perfect for you! If you want to try making different cakes, try making some of these keto birthday cake recipes! Everyone will love them, I promise!

• Keto Birthday Cake : This is a low carb chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a sugar free buttercream frosting.
• Keto Zucchini Cake : A four layer zucchini cake frosted with my sugar free cream cheese frosting..
• Sugar Free Carrot Cake: An easy carrot cake recipe topped with cream cheese frosting! Done in less than 40 minutes!
• Keto New York Cheesecake: A crustless thick and dense cheesecake that's completely crack free!
• Low Carb Chocolate Zucchini Cake : This is a chocolate zucchini cake topped with a sugar free chocolate ganache.
• Pumpkin Bundt Cake Recipe: A delicious dairy free pumpkin cake topped with a dairy free frosting.

Final Tips & Recap

Please follow the following tips and possible substitutions before making the cake!

• Make sure to use refined coconut oil and not extra-virgin or else it'll leave a coconut taste in your chocolate sponge cake.
• Make sure the chocolate sponge cake and raspberry jelly is completely cool before assembling the cake or everything will melt and slide off the cake.
• Make sure you use sugar free chocolate to decorate it! Lily's, Keto bark, or Coco Polo are all great choices.
• The kirschwasser (cherry brandy) is optional.
• The chocolate chips inside the chocolate cake are completely optional.
• Feel free to use any other type of berries if you don't want to use raspberries. Any fruit will work for this recipe.
• The espresso can be left out, but the chocolate cake tastes much better with it.
• Instead of coconut oil, you can use butter, ghee, or shortening.
• Instead of stevia powder, you could use monk fruit extract powder.
• Instead of apple cider vinegar, you can use white vinegar or lemon juice.

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