This Grain-Free Pumpkin Spice Cake is the way cake should be: all the sweetness and flavor you want, none of the questionable ingredients! Your Fall and Winter parties or Thanksgiving table need a special treat like this nut-free, dairy-free pumpkin cake.

Although this amazing Fall cake is not low-carb or keto, I do use a keto sweetener to keep the carbs down. 
Learn more about keto sweeteners in my Free Guide to Alternative Sweeteners.

One afternoon, I googled “sugar-free grain-free pumpkin spice cake”…

And the results were shocking.

Every recipe that came up was not something I would feed an alley cat, much less my family and friends.

Ingredients like white flour, margarine, and perhaps most shocking of all, artificial sweeteners, like Splenda, pervaded.

I did not find even one recipe that I could adapt! So, when you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.

My sugar-free, grain-free pumpkin spice cake does not contain even one questionable ingredient. This is the type of cake you can feel good about eating and serving to friends and family.

Heck, I even serve this for breakfast! There is literally NOTHING about it that causes me to pause before serving myself or my peeps a slice (or 2) any time of day.

I use my DIY Sugar Alternative Blend with some extra stevia for sweetening this flavorful cake. I believe sugar alcohols, like erythritol, are a much healthier choice than Splenda, NutriSweet, or Truvia. (Here are 5 reasons why I use sugar alcohols.)

Don’t Be Shocked… Beans Are the #1 Ingredient!

Additionally, the base of this cake is not flour, but soaked and cooked navy beans! For best digestion, I always soak my beans for at least 24 hours, then pressure cook them in my Instant Pot. Soaking beans prior to cooking reduces phytic acid — the stuff in beans that causes bloating and tooting. 😉

I can confidently say that this fiber-filled grain-free pumpkin spice cake will satisfy even the skeptics. It is everything a cake should be (sweet, satisfying, indulgent) and everything a cake shouldn’t be (high-glycemic, full of processed ingredients, guilt-inducing).

You absolutely should make this cake to grace your Thanksgiving or Fall and Winter party tables! Or for a Fall birthday for someone who loves pumpkin!

Is This Sugar-Free Grain-Free Pumpkin Spice Cake Keto or Low-Carb?

Let me put it this way…

It’s way lower in carbs than a white flour cake made with white/brown sugar!

Alas, navy beans are one of the lower-carb beans, but they are still beans. So, no this cake is not keto/low-carb.

However, I use a keto/low-carb sweetener (my own blend Dietz Sweet or Lakanto White) anyway. Our bodies just don’t need the extra sugar.

Perhaps best of all? I don’t use artificial sweeteners like Splenda or Sweet-n-Low, which are absolutely detrimental to our health (source).

Is this cake truly “sugar-free”? And, is there a non-keto sweetener option?

Pet peeve… When a recipe says “sugar-free” and then contains honey or maple syrup or coconut sugar or even dates, that is NOT “sugar-free”, in my opinion. Those foods, while much better than refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup, are still sugar.

They will cause blood sugar to rise. They may be full of minerals and be made by local bees foraging on local wild clover or they may come from organic coconut trees sprinkled with fairy dust, but they are still sugar.

Still, if you prefer not to use keto sweeteners, you can substitute an equal amount of coconut sugar or maple sugar. Coconut sugar is lower on the glycemic index, so it is my preferred whole sweetener.

You can learn more about why keto sweeteners are safe in my Free Guide to Alternative Sweeteners.

Save 10% on my favorite coconut sugar with my discount code NOURISHING!

As long as you’re using a keto-friendly sweetener, this grain-free pumpkin spice cake does not have any added sugars. Still, there are naturally occurring sugars in beans and pumpkin, but these are complex, good-for-you carbs!

There is a huge difference in the impact beans and pumpkin have on the blood sugar when compared to honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar. And especially white sugar.

How to Make This Grain-Free Pumpkin Spice Cake (that’s also dairy-free & nut-free)

Start by soaking 3/4 cup of navy beans in water for at least 8 hours or overnight. Then cook the beans using your preferred method — either on the stove or in your Instant Pot.

Next, grease a 9-inch cake pan. I love this coconut oil spray for easy greasing!

Then, trace around the bottom of the pan onto a piece of parchment paper. Cut out the circle of parchment and lay it in the greased cake pan.

The rest is as easy as blending the beans, eggs, pumpkin, coconut flour, sweetener, spices, and leavening in your blender. Blend until a nice, smooth batter forms.

Finally, pour into your prepared cake pan and bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

When you take the cake out of the oven, allow it to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then, go around the edge of the cake with a butter knife to loosen it and carefully turn it out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. The greased pan + parchment circle means your cake won’t stick!

5 from 1 vote

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Grain-Free Pumpkin Spice Cake (dairy-free & nut-free, too!)

This Grain-Free Pumpkin Spice Cake is the way cake should be: all the sweetness and flavor you want, none of the questionable ingredients! Your Fall and Winter parties or Thanksgiving table need a special treat like this nut-free, dairy-free pumpkin cake.

CourseDessert

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 1 9-inch round cake

Author Lindsey Dietz

Ingredients

• 1-1/2cupscooked & rinsed navy beansI soak first for best digestion.
• 6pastured eggs
• 3/4cuppumpkinnot pumpkin pie mix
• 2tablespoonscoconut oil
• 1teaspoonvanilla
• 1/2teaspoonpowdered stevia
• 2teaspoonscinnamon
• 1teaspoonnutmeg
• 1teaspoonallspice
• 1/2teaspoonground ginger
• 1/2teaspoonground cloves
• 1/2cupcoconut flour
• 1/4cupDIY Sugar Alternative Blend--Dietz Sweet
• 1/2teaspoonsalt
• 1teaspoonbaking soda
• 1teaspoonbaking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325° Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a 9" round cake pan with coconut oil.
2. On parchment paper, trace around the bottom of the 9" round cake pan with a pencil to make a cut-out. Cut out your circle. Then place the circle in the bottom of the pan. The coconut oil will make it stick. Set aside.
3. To a high-powered blender add the beans, eggs, pumpkin, coconut oil, vanilla, stevia, and all spices. Blend on low-medium speed until completely smooth -- no bean chunks, please!
4. Then add the coconut flour, sweetener, and salt. Blend until smooth again.
5. Finally, add in the baking soda and baking powder. Blend once more until everything is well mixed.
6. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Place in the oven and bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
8. After 20 minutes, go around the edges of the cake with a butter knife to loosen it from the sides of the pan.
9. Then turn out onto a cake plate to finish cooling.

Recipe Notes

If you plan to frost this cake, do so only after it has completely cooled. I recommend my Sugar-Free Light 'n Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting!

Net Carbs & Nutrition Information

Figuring out the nutrition info on this cake was a doozie, lemme tell ya.

For one thing, I found so many conflicting sources for the net carbs in cooked navy beans that my head was spinning. Not to mention, I soak, cook, then rinse the starchy bean liquid off my beans — which I know significantly reduces net carbs, but I have no way of proving just how much! (Scientists, someone should study that!)

So, here’s what I can say after consulting a couple of trusted oracles…

If you are following an extremely low-carb diet (such as ketogenic) or if you’re a Trim Healthy Mama who wants this dessert in an S setting, you need to stick with making this a 1-layer cake.

This recipe is for a single-layer cake, however the photos in this post are a double-layer cake. Disclaimer: I doubled the recipe because double-layer cakes photograph better and have more of a ‘wow’ factor.

Here’s the carb info for THIS recipe, a single layer cake without cream cheese frosting:

• 1-1/2 cups soaked/cooked/rinsed navy beans — 53 net carbs
• 3/4 cup pumpkin — 12 net carbs
• 1/2 cup coconut flour — 8 net carbs
• 6 eggs — 2 net carbs

Total for this recipe — 75 net carbs.

12 slices of cake — 6.25 net carbs per slice.

14 slices of cake — 5.3 net carbs per slice.

Doubling the recipe for a 2-layer cake means you would double the net carbs in each slice.

The net carb count for my Sugar-Free Cream Cheese Frosting is negligible since the ingredients are cream cheese, palm shortening, and my DIY Sugar Alternative Blend. So you can stay low-carb or within THM:S range by having 1 slice of single-layer cake with frosting!

Whew! I hope that was helpful!

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More Healthy Fall Recipes You’ll Love…

• Homemade Fermented Sparkling Apple Cider
• Paleo Instant Pot Apple-Pecan Crumble
• Best Cassava Flour Pumpkin Bread
• Keto Instant Pot Chai Hot Chocolate
• Low-Carb Instant Pot Cheesy Veggie-Stuffed Meatloaf
• Soaked Gluten-Free Apple Cider Donuts
• Easy & Nourishing Soaked Apple Breakfast Cake
• Keto Cranberry Curd Tart
• Paleo Instant Pot Pumpkin Pie
• Soaked Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Cake

Do you love all the pumpkin spice things? What’s your favorite pumpkin spice treat?

Originally published on November 13, 2016. Updated on September 24, 2017 and September 26, 2019.