Beginner’s guide
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New to keto baking? Here’s what we wish we’d known when we started: which ingredients we use, what “net carbs” means, and a few tricks so you don’t go through what we did (spoiler: cakes falling apart when unmoulded).
🛒 Our keto pantry
With these ingredients you can make all our recipes:
- Almond flour. The base of almost everything. Go for fine or extra-fine (blanched, very finely ground almonds): regular ground almonds give a sandier texture. Heads up: it’s a tree nut.
- Erythritol. Our sweetener. It has almost no calories and adds no net carbs. It’s a bit less sweet than sugar (see the conversion below). In large amounts it can upset some people’s stomachs.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder. Not to be confused with drinking chocolate powder, which is full of sugar.
- Unsweetened desiccated coconut. Adds moisture and a lovely flavour.
- Finely ground psyllium husk. A fibre that plays the role of gluten, giving the dough stretch. A must for bread.
- Baking powder. What makes the cakes rise (not fresh baker’s yeast).
- From the fridge: eggs, plain unsweetened Greek yogurt and butter.
- Fats: mild olive oil or coconut oil.
- Optional: protein powder (improves the cake’s structure), vanilla extract and sugar-free chocolate chips.
Where do we buy it? Cocoa, coconut, yogurt, eggs or lemon juice at the regular supermarket. Almond flour, erythritol and psyllium are usually in the health-food aisle of large supermarkets, in health-food shops or online. Compare prices: they can vary a lot between shops.
🍬 How much erythritol should I use?
Erythritol is roughly 70% as sweet as sugar. As a rough guide:
| If a regular recipe uses… | Use about… |
|---|---|
| 50 g sugar | 65 g erythritol |
| 100 g sugar | 130 g erythritol |
| 1 tablespoon sugar | 1 heaped tablespoon erythritol |
Some brands sell erythritol blended with stevia that’s as sweet as sugar (usually labelled “1:1”): with those, use the same amount. Our recipes are already adjusted, so there’s nothing to calculate. If you like it sweeter, add a little more next time.
🍞 What are “net carbs”?
Each recipe shows the net carbohydrates per serving. These are the carbs that actually count on keto:
Net carbs = total carbs − fibre − erythritol
Fibre isn’t digested like sugar and the body doesn’t use erythritol, which is why they’re subtracted. Many people on keto try to stay under about 20–50 g of net carbs a day, so knowing how many each serving has helps with planning.
Our values are approximate: they depend on the brands you use and how big you cut your servings. If you track them closely, check your ingredient labels. In each recipe you can open “Where do the net carbs come from?” to see the breakdown.
👩🍳 Tips we learned the hard way
- Weigh, don’t guess. With keto flours a few grams more or less change the texture a lot. A kitchen scale is your best friend.
- Be patient when unmoulding. Without gluten, batters are more fragile while hot. Let the cake cool before taking it out of the tin (yes, it’s hard).
- The toothpick test never fails. Stick it in the centre: if it comes out clean, it’s done.
- Every oven is different. Times are a guide: check a few minutes before the end.
- Grease well or use baking paper. Almond flour tends to stick.
🧒 Baking with kids
This blog exists because a 10-year-old mini chef wanted to keep baking. If you cook with children, these jobs are perfect for them: weighing ingredients, mixing the dry ones, whisking, filling the tins and decorating. Best left to an adult: the oven, knives and boiling water. Fair warning: everything gets messy. Everything. But it’s worth it. 💕
We share what works in our kitchen, but we’re not nutritionists. If you follow a keto diet for health reasons, talk to your doctor.