In the heat of summer, most of us enjoy eating lighter desserts featuring
sweet, fresh summer fruit and would rather spend as little time as possible
cooking or baking in a hot kitchen. Some of us also may be trying to get or
stay slim to look our best in lightweight, more revealing summer
clothing.
In this review, I'm sharing my yummy, quick & easy low carb keto shortcake
cupcakes recipe, which can be whipped up fast thanks to a keto baking mix, is
bursting with sweet, ripe berries and topped with a luscious sugar-free
buttercream frosting.
A Fun Cupcake Twist on Traditional Biscuit-Based Berry Shortcake
I have made delicious keto-friendly strawberry shortcake with biscuits from a
low carb baking mix topped with fresh whipped cream and berries. However,
since there are only two of us in our household, that means whipping just a
few tablespoons of heavy cream and assembling two shortcakes after dinner
every time I want to serve them.
Recently, I got the idea to try making shortcake cupcakes, substituting
cupcakes for the biscuits and low carb buttercream frosting for the whipped
cream, which would let me assemble and refrigerate them in advance. While I'm
making dinner, I can just take out two of the refrigerated shortcake cupcakes
and set them on the counter so they will be at room temperature when we are
ready for dessert.
A Delicious, Quick & Easy, Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free* Summer
Dessert
The cake portion of these cupcakes is made with Scotty's Everyday Keto Cupcake
& Cake Mix. This healthy, sugar-free, gluten-free and nut-free boxed keto
cupcake mix is a real time-saver that minimizes time in a hot kitchen during
the summer months.
The baked cupcakes are paired with juicy, fresh berries, keto berry jam and a
super simple sugar-free buttercream that takes just a few minutes.
Scotty's Keto Cupcake Mix + Low Carb Buttercream Frosting + Sugar-Free Berry
Jam + Fresh Berries = The Best Quick & Easy Low Carb Keto Shortcake
Cupcakes
*Important food allergy note:
Although Scotty's Everyday baking mixes are made with no nut flours, their
website does not state that their mixes are made in a nut-free processing
facility. It is important to contact the company to find out that information
if you are thinking about serving these treats to anyone who has a severe nut
allergy.
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Just add melted butter, eggs, water and vanilla extract to Scotty's
Everyday Keto Cupcake & Cake Mix for the base of these quick &
easy low carb shortcake cupcakes, then split, fill, frost and decorate
them with sugar-free jam, keto buttercream frosting and fresh
berries.
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Scotty's Everyday Keto Cupcake & Cake Mix Makes an Ideal Biscuit
Alternative for This Low Carb Shortcake Cupcakes Recipe
I have used several keto baking mixes from Scotty's Everyday and like them a
lot. Scotty's Everyday Keto Cupcake & Cake Mix is sweetened very
lightly, and the baked cupcakes taste a bit like the drop biscuits I sometimes
make for shortcake. They are also less crumbly than traditional cupcakes using
sugar and wheat flour, which makes them perfect for this recipe.
In addition to the biscuit-like flavor and sturdy structure, each cupcake
prepared according to the directions on the Scotty's Everyday Keto Cupcake
& Cake Mix package have several other benefits:
-
0 net carbs (22g total carbs - 14g dietary fiber - 8g erythritol = 0 net
carbs)
- No added sugars
- Sweetened with erythritol and monk fruit extract
- 14g dietary fiber
- 90 calories
This sugar-free, gluten-free, nut-free, low carb keto baking mix is also a
cinch to prepare. Just add melted butter, eggs, water and vanilla extract. My
product review rating for Scotty's Everyday Keto Cupcake & Cake Mix is 5
stars!
My Favorite Keto Buttercream Frosting Recipes
The Best Quick & Easy Low Carb Keto Shortcake Cupcakes Recipe needs a
fast, simple frosting to live up to its name. I recommend the Keto Buttercream
Frosting Recipe from
Wholesome Yum,
which has 205 calories, 16.4g of fat and 0g net carbs per serving (3
tablespoons).
If you want to significantly cut the calories and fat and are willing to spend
a bit more time and effort, I highly recommend the luscious
Sugar-Free Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting recipe
from All Day I Dream About Food, which lends itself beautifully to piping and
tastes out of this world. A 1/4-cup serving (4 tablespoons) has only 109
calories, 10.7g of fat and and almost zero (0.1g) net carbs.
Use Your Favorite Keto Friendly Berries
Berries are the only fruits low enough in carbohydrates to fit a ketogenic
diet. The berries with the fewest net carbs are raspberries, blackberries and
strawberries. Blueberries have more than twice the net carbs and half the
dietary fiber of raspberries or blackberries, but are still low enough in
carbs for you to enjoy a few on one of these keto shortcake cupcakes.
For the keto shortcake cupcakes I photographed for this post, I used fresh
raspberries and blueberries. I also added a taste of strawberries by pairing
my favorite sugar-free strawberry jam with the buttercream frosting for the
filling.
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ChocZero Keto Strawberry Jam is delicious, spreads easily and, like
the buttercream frosting, helps hold the fresh rasbperries and
blueberries in place while reassembling the filled shortcake
cupcakes.
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The Best Low Carb Keto Strawberry Jam
I have tried several brands and flavors of sugar-free jams. Most were fairly
disappointing. Some were sweetened with artificial sweeteners, which I try to
avoid for health reasons. Some were too thin and loose or had big chunks of
berries that made them hard to spread in a thin layer.
ChocZero is one of my favorite brands of low carb and keto-friendly products.
Recently, they launched a keto strawberry jam, which I ordered immediately.
Based on my experience with other sugar-free jam products, I was only
cautiously optimistic. (I didn't want to get my hopes up only to be
disappointed again.)
I was pleasantly surprised by the new ChocZero Keto Strawberry Jam. It has a
thick, "jammy" consistency, spreads easily in as thick or thin a layer as you
wish, is sweetened with monk fruit, has no added sugars, and has a delicious
flavor from real strawberries. Each serving (1 tablespoon) provides a whopping
10g of dietary fiber and has just 15 calories and 1 net carb.
Unlike the other low carb, sugar-free jams and preserves I have tried,
ChocZero Keto Strawberry Jam is also sticky enough to help keep the
raspberries, blackberries, strawberries or blueberries in place when
sandwiching them between the halves of the split shortcake cupcakes.
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Don't these keto-friendly shortcake cupcakes filled with jam,
frosting and fresh berries look yummy, despite my messy piping of my
melting buttercream? They're one of the best keto desserts to make for
summer holiday gatherings including the 4th of July (especially if you
use red and blue berries!).
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How to Make the Best Quick & Easy Low Carb Keto Shortcake
Cupcakes
Recommended Kitchen Tools and Supplies for This Recipe
-
Silicone Muffin or Cupcake Liners
The Scotty's Everyday Keto
Cupcake & Cake Mix package instructions say to "Line one 12-cup standard
muffin tin" without specifying the type of cupcake liners to use, I highly
recommend Pantry Elements Silicone Baking Muffin Cups. They are made from BPA-, PVC- and phthalate-free, food grade
platinum silicone and sturdy enough to use on their own on top of a flat
baking sheet, if desired, or you can use them as liners for cupcake or
muffin tins. They also come in a clear, reusable screw-top container
for storage, which keeps them clean and dust-free and lets you enjoy the
rainbow of bright, happy colors even when these nonstick silicone baking
cups are not in use. I have used mine frequently for several years for both
muffins and cupcakes and can attest to their high quality and durability.
-
Stainless Steel Scoop With Trigger or Spring Action Handle
I
have a large assortment of these stainless steel scoops in different
sizes and found that my
Norpro 50mm stainless steel scoop (3 Tablespoons)
was a bit too small and my Norpro 56mm stainless steel scoop (4 Tablespoons)
was a bit too large. You can use a rounded 3 Tablespoon scoop of cupcake
batter or, if you make a lot of cupcakes or muffins, you might want to get
the
Solula 18/8 Stainless Steel Ice Cream Cupcake Muffin Scoop (3.4
Tablespoons), which is just the right size and capacity to portion out nicely rounded
scoops of batter into standard size muffin or cupcake pans.
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Cake Decorating Set or Piping Bags With Decorating Tips
These
low carb keto shortcake cupcakes will be just as delicious if you use a
small offset spatula to spread the frosting on the tops, but piping the
buttercream into decorative swirls makes for a more festive presentation. As
you can see in the photos, I had a hard time piping the frosting onto my
cupcakes, partly because I'm decades out of practice and partly because my
kitchen was so hot that the buttercream quickly softened too much. Even so,
I like the look of the buttercream swirls, messy though they turned out! If
you are new to cake decorating and would like to give it a try, I recommend
starting with a small, inexpensive, basic set, such as the
Wilton Beginning Buttercream 20-Piece Cake Decorating Kit
to see whether you enjoy using a piping bag and decorative tips.
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
-
1 package
Scotty's Everyday Keto Cupcake & Cake Mix
- 1 Tablespoon melted butter or ghee (clarified butter)
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
-
Optional but recommended: Avocado oil, clarified butter or coconut oil for
greasing the cupcake liners
For the Keto Buttercream Frosting (Wholesome Yum recipe):
-
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature (Wholesome Yum's recipe
recommends Danish Creamery European Style Unsalted Butter, which isn't
available where I live; I use Kerrygold Unsalted Butter, a high-quality
Irish butter made from the milk of grass-fed cows that are free of growth
hormones)
-
1 cup Wholesome Yum Besti Keto Monk Fruit Sweetener With Allulose 1:1 Natural
Powdered Sugar Replacement
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon heavy cream (approximately)
For the Filling:
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 350 ℉ / 180 ℃. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with
paper, foil or silicone cupcake liners or place 12 sturdy silicone baking
cups on a baking sheet. Although not specified on the cupcake mix package
directions, I recommend greasing the liners lightly with a thin film of
avocado oil, clarified butter or coconut oil.
-
Prepare the Scotty's Everyday Keto Cupcake & Cake Mix batter according
to the package directions. Use a trigger or spring action scoop to portion
the batter evenly among the 12 lined muffin tin wells or silicone baking
cups, using approximately 3.5 tablespoons of batter for each cupcake.
-
Bake for 20–22 minutes, just until they test done according to the standard
"toothpick test" (i.e., insert a clean, dry toothpick into to center of one
of the cupcakes and pull it back out; if it remains clean and dry, the baked
goods are done). Do not overbake! Cool them on a baking rack for 20 minutes,
then remove the cupcakes from the muffin pan or silicone baking cups.
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While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream according to
the Keto Buttercream Frosting Recipe on the Wholesome Yum website.
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Rinse the berries and lay them on two thicknesses of paper towel to dry. Set
aside the best looking ones to decorate the tops of the cakes.
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Slice the cooled keto shorctcake cupcakes in half horizontally and turn the
halves cut side up. Spread a layer of ChocZero Keto Strawberry Jam on one
half and a thin layer of the prepared buttercream frosting on the other
half. Arrange the berries on the bottom half of the cupcake and cover them
with the top half.
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Frost the tops of the cupcakes with the remaining buttercream frosting. You
can either spread it on with an offset spatula or put it into a piping bag
fitted with a star tip (or your favorite cake decorating tip) and piping it
on in swirls or rosettes. Top each frosted shortcake cupcake with one of the
reserved fresh berries.
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Serve on dessert plates with knives and forks, like traditional berry
shortcakes. (These towering, berry-filled cupcakes are too tall to bite into
directly!)
A Perfect 4th of July Dessert
Make these shortcakes with fresh raspberries (or sliced or diced strawberries)
and blueberries for a festive red, white and blue 4th of July dessert that
everyone at your holiday gathering can enjoy, even if they are on a
gluten-free, sugar-free, nut-free, low carb or ketogenic diet.
The Best Quick & Easy Low Carb Keto Shortcake Cupcakes Recipe by Margaret Schindel
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