Gingerbread and Walnut Rum Cake

This beautiful gingerbread rum cake with toasted walnuts is is perfect for gracing your holiday table! It’s spicy, warm, boozy and so festive!

This delicious gingerbread bundt cake is low-carb and gluten-free, so everyone can enjoy!

It’s flavored with dark rum (it can be made alcohol-free) and real ginger pieces – it’s not a fake gingerbread cake!

Christmas keto gingerbread rum cake with walnuts.

Ingredient notes

Keto flours: I combined pea protein isolate and fine flax meal flour to give this gingerbread Christmas cake a fluffy and moist texture.

Pea protein isolate might not be the best for straight drinking in shakes, and its protein profile is also not as high quality as animal derived protein powders, specially whey. But! For high protein baking, pea protein is amazing. It really behaves more like low-carb flour than a protein powder.

Preserved stem ginger: Instead of the dried fruits in traditional Christmas cakes, we use stem ginger. It’s a gingerbread cake, after all! Preserved sugar-free ginger makes the texture similar to a classic fruit cake. But keto!

Rum: spiced or dark rum is the best to add a bunch of flavor to this gingerbread rum cake!

A slice of keto Christmas gingerbread rum cake.

Nuts: Walnuts are the most popular and traditional of Christmas nuts, and are a perfect match for the ginger and rum!

Warm spices: Ground cinnamon and allspice give a warm, delicious aroma to the gingerbread cake.

Sweetener: The caramel like taste of brown sugar so compliments this gingerbread cake! I recommend a brown sugar tasting keto sweetener, like this one.

If using a white baking sweetener, or if you want to try and make your own keto baking sweetener blend with this recipe – you can still make it taste exactly like brown sugar by adding a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses (black treacle).

Making preserved stem ginger

So, Christmas rum cakes generally take a lot of extra sugary fruit in them – raisins, dried cranberries, dried currants, glace cherries… We don’t want any of that glycemic inconvenience on a sugar-free rum cake.

So, I replaced all this sugary dried fruit with my easy recipe for keto stem ginger, chopped in small pieces (about the size of sultanas). This way, we get the classic Christmas fruit cake texture in a keto version- without adding any sugar to the recipe!

Keto Christmas gingerbread cake with walnuts and spiced dark rum.

I super recommend you to use my sugar-free preserved ginger recipe! But, it does take a while to make. Here’s how you can make a smaller batch in less time:

  1. Just wash and peel 150 grams (about 1 big knob) of fresh ginger
  2. Cut into really small pieces – about the size of dried cranberries
  3. Boil the in water with (ideally) allulose or xylitol until it’s softened.

You could use erythritol, but it will crystallize and be a bit crunchy, and that’s not the texture we are going for.

If using xylitol, be careful as it can be poisonous for pets!

Roast the walnuts for extra flavor

This step is optional, but highly recommended: you can make the walnuts even more flavorful and fragrant by bringing out its oils.

You can achieve this by lightly toasting the walnuts in the oven at 150 °C (305° F) for about 15 minutes, until they are a coupe of shades darker.

Walnuts toast really quickly, so keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t get burned.

After the walnuts cool down, take half of them and process in a food processor or blender, until they turn into a fine crumble. We will mix this toasted walnut crumble into the keto gingerbread cake batter. The other half of the walnuts can be broken down by hand, into smaller pieces.

Pay attention while processing, as walnuts go from crumbs to butter quickly. Break down the other half of the walnuts in small pieces by hand.

How to make keto ginger rum cake

Prepare the cake pan: Use a 9 or 10″inch pretty bundt pan. Grease it very well with butter or ghee, then dust with any keto flour.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl: the pea protein isolate, the processed walnuts, flax meal, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter on medium speed until pale and fluffy. You can use a standing or hand mixer. Slowly add the powdered keto sweetener, and continue mixing on medium speed for a couple more minutes, until it’s super fluffy.

Add the eggs, one by one, with the mixer running on slow speed. If you are using a hand mixer and aren’t an one handed egg cracking acrobat, you can crack the eggs into a separate bowl and give a quick mix and add them in a drizzle. Always use room temperature eggs, to avoid breaking the creamed butter.

Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients mixture. Mix everything together with a spatula first, so the powders don’t poof up, then restart the mixer only to combine.

A slice of keto Christmas gingerbread and walnut rum cake.

Add the liquid ingredients: blackstrap molasses or black treacle, yogurt and rum, and mix until the batter is smooth.

Fold in the sugar-free stem ginger pieces and the hand crushed walnuts.

Spread the batter in the prepared bundt cake pan, with the help of a spatula. The batter is pretty thick. Hit the pan a few times against the counter to get rid of air bubbles between the pan and the batter, so you don’t have any holes on top of the keto gingerbread rum cake.

Bake in a preheated oven at 175 °C (347 °F) for about 50 to 60 minutes. When the keto Christmas cake starts pulling slightly from the sides of the pan and bounces backed when pressed, it’s probably done! Check with a toothpick, it should come out mostly clean.

Remove the keto gingerbread cake from the oven and wait 15-20 minutes before unmolding it into a cooling rack. After it’s completely cool, sieve powdered sweetener on the top for a snowy effect. I like to use this metal shakers, I keep each mine full with powdered erythritol, cinnamon and cocoa powder. These are my keto sprinkles 😄

Christmas keto gingerbread rum cake with walnuts.

Make the cake extra boozy!

You can make this cake even boozier, just drizzle some extra rum – to taste 😉 – on top of the cake. You can also mix the rum half and half with the preserved ginger sugar-free syrup. Wait for the keto gingerbread cake to absorb the liquid before adding the sweetener snow decoration.

This keto gingerbread rum cake, as with many spiced recipes, tastes even better on the next day, after the spices had some time to mingle and party. If you decide to prepare it on the day before, wait for it to cool down and cover it it plastic wrap. Sprinkle the sweetener before serving.


Keto Christmas gingerbread cake with walnuts and spiced dark rum.

Gingerbread and Walnut Rum Cake

Yield: 12 slices
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

This high protein keto, sugar-free and gluten-free gingerbread and walnut rum cake is deliciously crumbly and moist, crunchy and sticky, spicy and sweet. Each slice is a treat!

Ingredients

  • 150 grams (~2/3 cup) butter
  • 150 grams (~1 cup) powdered keto baking sweetener
  • 6 eggs (room temperature)
  • 120 grams (~1 cup) pea protein
  • 30 grams (~4 tablespoons) flax meal
  • 120 grams (~1 1/3 cup) toasted walnuts (70 grams processed, 50 grams crushed)
  • 100 grams (~1/2 cup) chopped sugar-free stem ginger (See notes)
  • 150 grams (~1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) natural or Greek plain yogurt
  • 60 grams (~1/4 cup) dark or spiced rum
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon allspice
  • 1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses (optional)
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt (if not using molasses)

Instructions

  1. Lightly toast the walnuts in the oven at 150 °C (305° F) for 15 minutes.
  2. In a food processor or blender, process 70 grams of the walnuts into a fine crumble. Break down the rest in smaller pieces by hand.
  3. Chop the preserved ginger into small, dried fruit size pieces (about the size of sultanas or raisins)
  4. Prepare a 9 or 10" bundt cake pan, grease it very well with butter or ghee, then dust with any keto flour.
  5. Mix together in a medium bowl: the pea protein, flax meal, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder and salt.
  6. Cream the butter and powdered keto sweetener until pale, fluffy and doubled in size.
  7. Slow down the mixer and add the eggs, one by one, to the creamed butter.
  8. Add the dry ingredient mixture and the processed walnuts. Mix until fully combined
  9. Add the rum, yogurt and blackstrap molasses, and mix until the batter is smooth.
  10. Fold in the ginger and the crushed walnuts.
  11. Spread the thick batter in a heavily buttered and floured bundt cake pan. If using a regular pan (no decoration), just greasing it is sufficient.
  12. Bake in a preheated oven at 175 °C (347 °F) for about 50 to 60 minutes. When you start smelling the cake, give it a few minutes and then test: if the cake started pulling slightly from the sides of the pan and bounces backed when pressed, it's probably ready. To be sure, a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean.
  13. Remove the keto gingerbread cake from the oven and wait 15-20 minutes before turning out the cake into a cooling rack. After it's completely cool, sift powdered sweetener on the top for a snowy effect.

Notes

Click here for the preserved sugar-free stem ginger in syrup recipe. For a quick substitute, add 100 grams (about 1 small knob) of chopped (sultana/raisin sized) fresh ginger, 4 cups of water and 1/2 cup of allulose or xylitol to a pan and simmer until the water is almost evaporated and the ginger is soft. Add more water if needed.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 272Total Fat: 21gCarbohydrates: 5.5gNet Carbohydrates: 3.9gFiber: 1.6gSugar: 1gProtein: 14.5g

Nutrition information is provided as a guideline only. Different brands of ingredients may have different nutrition facts. If tracking macros, remake the calculations using the nutrition facts from the labels of the ingredients you selected. Net carbs calculated exclude carbs from insoluble fiber, allulose and sugar alcohols.

Did you love this recipe?

Follow me on Pinterest for more, and use the little Pin button at the top of the card!

Copyright Pris Frank for LikeHotKeto. Please DO NOT SCREENSHOT OR COPY/PASTE recipes to social media or websites. We’d LOVE for you to share a link to this recipe instead 🙂 Try the easy sharing buttons below!

9 Comments

  1. Hi Jil! Whey protein won’t work for this recipe, unfortunately. It would make the cake really dry! Recipes with whey need a moisturizer, normally sour cream, yogurt, or cream cheese – just adding more liquid is not enough. Also, whey protein will always need another flour together (like coconut or almond) because it doesn’t hold up, structurally, as flours do. Pea protein, however, behaves almost like flour, so I really recommend it for baking. What you could use instead of pea protein is oat fiber, that is a keto option that you can swap for pea protein. I have done it on this orange cake and the result was pretty much the same.

  2. What a thoughtful recipe! All the choices you made with the ingredients are brilliant. Love the flavors!

Leave a Reply to Pris Frank

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

LikeHotKeto Skip to Recipe