Perfect Gluten Free Low Carb Apple Dump Cake Recipe
This Keto Low Carb Apple Dump Cake is an easy, one-bowl dessert that’s grain free, gluten free, and sugar free — now updated to be even softer and moister thanks to my latest test using sunflower seed meal and Greek yogurt. It’s the perfect fall dessert recipe made with fresh apples (or zucchini for keto) and delivers the comforting flavor of apple pie filling with only 5 g net carbs per serving (or just 1 g net carb using zucchini).
Are Apples Keto Friendly?
No foods are technically “keto.” Ketosis is a metabolic state your body enters when carbs are very low.
One small apple (149 g) has about 20 g total carbs, which could use up an entire day’s carb limit for strict keto followers.
Some people following a keto diet will only allow themselves 20 grams of carb intake for the entire day so eating one small apple would not be helpful for them and may kick them out of ketosis.
However, using a small amount of apple in a recipe that makes many servings can absolutely fit into both a low-carb and midlife-macro-balanced lifestyle.
Carbs in Regular Apple Dump Cake vs. This Low Carb Version
Traditional dump cake recipes made with boxed yellow cake mix, sugar, and canned apple pie filling can easily top 55 to 65 grams of total carbs per slice, with more than 35 grams of added sugar.
In this updated Sugar-Free Mom version, a serving made with fresh apples has 9 grams total carbs and 6 grams net carbs, and the fully keto version made with zucchini and apple pie extract drops to just 6 total and 4 g net carb per serving — all with zero added sugar. You still get that cozy, apple-pie-style comfort, just without the carb crash that usually follows.
A Simple Fall Favorite
We moved from the city to the countryside a few years ago, and it felt fitting to post this apple recipe after finding a gorgeous apple tree in our new backyard.
Like our family’s slower pace, this recipe reminds me that the best things in life are simple — just a few basic ingredients mixed in a baking dish and baked to cozy perfection.
How to Make Low Carb Apple Cake
I love easy dump cake recipes because you literally just throw all the simple ingredients together in a baking dish and bake it! Boom! Done!
This is one of our favorites at this time of year and the easiest dessert for a family.
This apple dump cake makes me happy and peaceful just looking at it. It reminds me that life can be simple, just like simple recipes, and it’s ok. Because as long as you have your family and some essentials you can do anything.
We use fresh apples but below you will find an adaption to lower the carbs to help you fit this into your ketogenic diet.
Ingredients
To view exact amounts, see nutrition info and print recipe, please scroll to the bottom of this post to view the printable recipe card.
Sunflower seed meal — nut-free, grain-free, and keeps the cake moist
Monk Fruit Allulose granular sweetener
Ground Cinnamon
Baking powder
Large eggs
Melted Butter
Plain lactose-free Greek yogurt – I use the FAGE 5.3 oz cup for added protein and moisture
Cinnamon liquid stevia (or vanilla stevia)
Fresh apples, peeled and chopped (or zucchini for keto)
Directions (Updated Method)
Cool 10–15 minutes covered before slicing.
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking dish.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together coconut flour, sunflower seed meal, sweetener, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk eggs, melted butter, and Greek yogurt until smooth. Add stevia drops if desired.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined.
Fold in the apple mixture (or zucchini).
Spread evenly into the prepared dish.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.
Remove foil (leave center slightly exposed) and continue baking for 15-20 minutes at 350 °F, until edges are golden and the center is just set.
Enjoy hot out of the oven or room temperature with some sugar free whipped cream or add a scoop of ice cream!
How to Make this a Keto Dump Cake
To lower carbs even more:
Add ½ tsp apple pie extract to mimic baked apple flavor.This swap reduces total carbs from 10 g to 6 g and net carbs to 1 g per serving — all the comfort of apple pie without the sugar.
Replace the apples with peeled, sliced zucchini.
While it might not be the prettiest of cakes, it is a super easy dessert! Topped with a little sugar-free whipped cream, or keto vanilla ice cream, you’ve got comfort on a plate.
No need for fancy anything at this country home we are in, just as this cake needs nothing fancy to make it spectacular.
With minimal effort on your part, this apple dump cake is a reminder that the simple things in life always make for the best recipe.
Low-Carb Apple Desserts
Keto Apple Muffins with cream cheese
Baking Tips
- If the center jiggles too much at 35 minutes, raise temp to 350 °F and bake 10–15 min longer, tenting edges with foil if needed.
- The cake will continue to set as it cools.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Reheat slices briefly in the microwave or oven to restore that just-baked texture.
Brenda’s Notes:
I use an apple corer-peeler tool to make prep quick and even.
If you don’t have Monk Fruit Allulose, check my Sweetener Conversion Chart to adjust another sugar-free sweetener.
The Greek yogurt keeps the cake moist and adds protein — no need for heavy cream in this version.
For a fall twist, sprinkle the top with a little sugar-free cinnamon “crumble” before baking..
UPDATED October 2025: This recipe originally used 1 cup coconut flour and 1/2 cup butter. I decided to perfect it since many commenters were saying it was dry. I added Greek yogurt to increase the protein and reduced the butter, below you have options to make it keto using zucchini instead.
Gluten Free Low Carb Apple Dump Cake
Keto Low Carb Apple Dump Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup sunflower seed meal or almond flour
- 1/2 cup Monk fruit Allulose brown sweetener
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tsp apple pie spice
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch salt
- 6 eggs beaten
- 5.3 ounce plain Greek yogurt
- 6 tbsp butter melted, cooled
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon liquid stevia or see notes above
- 4 cups apples Gala or Fuji, peeled, cored, sliced or zucchini see notes in post above
- 1/2 tsp apple pie extract optional if using zucchini
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking dish.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together coconut flour, sunflower seed meal, sweetener, cinnamon, apple pie spice, baking powder, and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk eggs, melted butter, and Greek yogurt until smooth. Add stevia drops if desired. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined.
- Fold in the apple mixture (or zucchini).
- Spread evenly into the prepared dish.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil (leave center slightly exposed) and continue baking for 15-20 minutes at 350 °F, until edges are golden and the center is just set.
- Cool 10–15 minutes covered before slicing.
- Enjoy with some sugar free whipped cream!
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach, and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & refined-carb free for 20 years and is the author of four cookbooks: Sugar-Free Mom, Naturally Keto, The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, and her newest release, Good, Better, Best (2025). Her work focuses on helping women detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar, and lose weight while enjoying delicious, nutrient-dense whole foods. Brenda is also the creator of the Midlife Macro™ Method and the weekly Midlife Macro Meal Plans™, designed specifically for women in perimenopause and menopause who want simple, high-protein, low-carb meals to support hormones, metabolism, and long-term health.She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and the Sugar Free Mom Tribe membership.
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Before diabetes, I had a similar recipe, Apple Sundae Cake. I’ve been wanting a conversion for a while. I’m going to try this today
I modified this to be 1/2 C each almond and coconut flour, added 1/2 C applesauce and about 1/4 olive oil. Was perfect. Couldn’t keep my husband out of it.
Is serving size really 1g ?
There was a glitch with my recipe plug in. There are 12 servings in this cake.
Thanks, I was wondering the same thing!
This is the second time I’ve made this and I like it~ a lot.
To those who are saying it’s dry, it’s not like a batter based cake mix…it’s more like a drop dough/ fruit cobbler. The first time I let it cool, cut it into 24 bars and stored it in the fridge. It was moist and still delicious a week later!
This time I added about 3/4 cup of fresh applesauce and it loosened up the batter quite a bit. I let it bake for about 40 min and it’s cooling now. It feels much softer than the first. We shall see when I have some for breakfast with a nice cup of coffee~ yum!
I agree with those above. This cake is EXTREMELY dry. ( I even had some extra apples in there.) It really needs more moisture. I kept double checking ingredients to make sure I hadn’t accidentally omitted a liquid somewhere. I saved it with a caramel sauce, otherwise this just didn’t work.
If you swap almond flour for the coconut, would you still use 1 cup? What would your adjustment be? Thanks much!
I would use 1.25 cups of almond.
I tried to make this for Rosh Hashanah dessert. It was so dry I choked. Is there anyway to make this moister, because I had to dump this RIGHT in the trash ?
Maybe it baked a bit longer in your oven than it needed. You could also swap the coconut flour for almond. Coconut can tend to be drier than other wheat free products.
Any substitute for cinnamon liquid stevia? I dont have any and would love to make this!
I made this last night and it was extremely dry. Everything I make with coconut flour is dry. I use Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour. I am allergic to almonds & almond flour though, so it’s hard to find substitutes.
Mine is in the oven. I am excited to taste it!
It was so easy so follow the step by step recipe.
Thank you!
Liked the taste of the cake but mine turned out dry as well. I’m wondering what brand of coconut flour you used since yours wasn’t dry? Could almond flour be substituted? Would other ingredients need to be adjusted as well? Thanks for your advice.
I just made this, but I made it in muffin pans for portion control. I also used brown sugar sub and added dried unsweetened cranberries. Got 19 muffins for 8 carbs a piece. So good.
Very good cake. I food processed my apples a little too much but I think the extra juices made for a moister cake. I don’t always have luck baking with coconut flour. . I also added some vanilla and Carmel extract and it taste like Carmel apples. Taste good even though I messed it up a bit, can’t wait to taste when I do it right! !
The cake was awfully dry when mixing it and after it baked it was REALLY dry. Not the best sugar free I have had! I think the coconut flour is too heavy and needs more moisture, maybe some applesauce added. It smelled good but unfortunately did not taste that great
What kind of coconut flour did you use, what brand? Ours wasn’t dry at all.
I also just got finished with making this. A total disappointment!!!. Was very dry and did not hold together at all when trying to cut a piece. Waste of ingredients!!!!
I agree, mine was dry and not very tasty. Too many apples in recipes which turned out to be undercooked. Thank you though.
I’m not sure how so many people said it came out dry but I read the comments before I made. I was concerned about mine being dry so here are my changes and it turned out fantastic and moist. I did use half almond and half coconut flour. I did not use liquid stevia. I did use 2 TBL spoons of real maple syrup and 2 TBL spoons of apple bourbon and the butter(called for) cooking the apples just until slightly softened. I did use a cup and a half of apples not cooked, just for texture. I did sprinkle about a 1/3 C. chopped plain almonds across the top before baking for some crunch. I know the maple syrup and the bourbon are a no-no for a sugar free recipe but it came out really good! lol
Brenda do you have a new discount code at Iherb please thank you
oops tried it again and it worked thanks
Yes use YAJ0435 for a discount.
We just moved to a country setting also. We absolutely love it!! Good luck in your new home..in your recipes could I substitute egg whites for the whole egg? We are dealing with cholesterol problems.. Thank you,Lisa
I haven’t tried that but I would say yes, should be fine.
Blessings to you and your family as you begin to make special memories in your new home!
thank you!
You use the different flavored Stevias in your recipes, but I find them to expensive to use/buy. What would be an alternative to them? Would the dried spice of say cinnamon work in place of the liquid stevia called for in this Apple Cake recipe?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Unfortunately, cinnamon alone is not equal to the sweetness that stevia has. You could just buy the vanilla creme stevia or clear and use it in most of the recipes I have. My discount code at iherb.com is YAJ035 if that helps, i find it cheaper to buy online rather than stores.
Congratulations on your family’s BIG move! Can’t wait to try this recipe especially with holidays coming and fall being in the air. Do you happen to have a discount code for iherb.com ?? Also which of the Sweetleaf sweeteners would you suggest are good starters to buy first?
Thank you! My discount code is YAJ035. I would choose vanilla creme, clear and the hazelnut is fabulous in coffee!
Looks so yummy ! Will probably cut down sweetener and cut apple amount in half to improve carb count for myself. I soo miss apple pie. This might be do-able !! And easy !! <3
This is such a tasty and comforting dessert that will probably taste even better in your new country kitchen!
Enjoy your new digs! How wonderful to be moving someplace you have wanted to be. As for this cake — this is on my “must try” list, as I come up with an arsenal of desserts to keep us away from the sugar-and-grain parade of holiday foods. Thank you!
Cass
11-02-2015
I like your idea. Especially good low carb information. A little smile for the definitive. The old British cooks’ definition of “stodgy” means filling, heavy, lots of carbohydrates. Hope you enjoy all things new.
CONGRATULATIONS on your move to the country. Hope you all enjoy living there.
Thank you so much!
Is there another flour you could recommend? Almond? Lentil? One family member cannot tolerate coconut flour.. Thank you. Love your recipes.
My youngest has a tree nut allergy, but I would try almond as well if I could.
Made this to go with my New Years dinner. Delicious and easy ! Made fresh whipped cream, which totally made this dessert !
So glad you liked it thank you for coming back to tell me!
Thank you! I made this today for what would have been my mother’s 75th birthday. As I didn’t have swerve, I substituted erythritol 1 to 1, and I also added a cup and a half of chopped walnuts to the batter. Also, because I have a strange round-shaped oven I had to bake it in two 9 inch cake pans. It came out exceedingly delicious. I love it so so so much. This recipe is definitely a keeper. My mom would have totally loved it too.