This easy chocolate Low Carb Earthquake Cake is loaded with so many delicious flavors and textures! A tasty chocolate cake, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips all get swirled with decadent cream cheese and then baked up into a decadent treat. 

What is an Earthquake Cake?

Earthquake cake is a moist and decadent chocolate cake made by adding some tasty ingredients of coconut flakes, crunchy pecans, a sugar-free chocolate cake, and lastly, a sweet cream cheese mixture that gets swirled in.

Oh, and I almost forgot…more chocolate in the form of chocolate chips!

Each of these ingredients can easily be found in low-carb versions, and they all add a delicious component to the making of this cake.

The cake alone is maybe not the best-looking dessert, but the taste is amazing and if you top it with some extra toppings like homemade whipped cream or my Sugar-Free Fudge Sauce, this cake can make your day a lot sweeter.

It may not be love at first sight, but when you take that first bite, believe me, you’ll definitely become a lover of all things Earthquake Cake.

This cake kind of reminds me of a dump cake even though technically it isn’t,

I think it is just about as easy though, since you only have to mix up the cake batter and basically layer it all into a 9×13 and bake it.

If you need easier than that, closer to a real dump cake, I’ll leave some tips at the end of this post that will help you achieve that easily!

How To Make A Low-Carb Earthquake Cake

This is just a closer look at the ingredients that you’ll need to make this Low Carb Earthquake Cake.

As with any of my recipes, I’ll have all the specific measurements and complete cooking instructions will be included in the printable recipe box at the bottom of the post.

• Unsweetened Coconut Flakes: when you are making an earthquake cake these flakes are a must-have ingredient and go on the bottom layer of the cake! This and the next ingredient form the first layer of the Earthquake cake but if you don’t like coconut I guess you could leave this ingredient out and sub in some more nuts.
• Chopped pecans: they get nice and toasty on the bottom of the pan. You can substitute with other nuts like almonds or walnuts, or omit the nuts altogether.
• Low Carb Chocolate Cake Recipe: In typical cakes like this you’d use a box mix, but since we are keeping it low carb I like to mix up my own homemade cake batter. If you don’t want to go through all the trouble of mixing up your batter, then you could use a Swerve Chocolate Cake Mix or your favorite low-carb mix instead of the one I mix up in the recipe card. Just follow the instructions on the back of the box, then use it as the second layer over the nuts and coconut.
• Chocolate chips: for even more chocolate flavor, yeah why not add more, I love to add in some of my favorite sugar-free chocolate chips like the salted caramel chips from Lily’s, but you can use their milk chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, or any chocolate chips that you have on hand.
• Full Fat Cream Cheese and a low-carb powdered sugar alternative: will all get mixed up into a sweet treat that you’ll scoop out and drop all over the top of the chocolate cake mixture before baking. I like to swirl mine in to get that beautiful pattern, but you can just leave it in the dollops and let them be as is. It will still taste amazing.
• Optional Toppings: Of course, I can’t leave things alone, so I jump right into the decedent mode and top mine with some fresh whipped cream that I sweeten and then drizzle with chocolate sauce. You can skip this part if you need things simple but delicious, but come on, just look at the cake with those toppings…who would want to skip that, right?

Now that you have an idea of all the ingredients you’ll need to get this Earthquake Cake all shaken up (yes I went there, sorry) all you’ll need is a good 9×13 baking dish and a little patience to let it bake up to perfection.

Oh but the best part is, you don’t have to let this cake cool, because it is delicious hot right out of the oven too!

Here’s a look at the cake before I glammed it all up with the toppings. As you can see it is still pretty delicious looking just on it’s own, right?

Just look at that amazing swirl pattern from the cream cheese, loads of goodness all mixed in with every single bite!

Tips and Variations for This Low-Carb Earthquake Cake Recipe

This cake will come together fairly quickly and easily, but I’ll leave you with some tips so you’ll get the best cake each time you try the recipe.

Oh, and I’ll throw in some variations you could try as well to change things up a bit from time to time!

• When adding the cream cheese layer, make sure you drop some all over the top layer so everyone will have some on their cake slices when you are serving it.
• Want to save time and ingredients and use a low-carb cake mix from the store instead? Well…go for it. You do what works best for you. Just follow the recipe on the box and then use it in the place of my cake recipe.
• Try not to overbake the cake so it doesn’t dry out. You want it just done, so pull it out a few minutes early to keep the center a little more gooey. You don’t want a totally dry cake.
• Don’t like cream cheese? Use peanut butter instead of cream cheese to make the swirling mixture. Add sugar-free peanut butter chips into the coconut and pecan layer. 
• If you need ease and don’t care to have that swirl, you can skip the swirl and just leave the cream cheese in dollops all over the top of the batter.
• Once the cake is done, top it with more pecans and toasted coconut.

Yield: 20 squares

Low Carb Earthquake Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Additional Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes

This Earthquake Cake is a moist and decadent low carb chocolate cake made filled with layers of toasted coconut, crunchy pecans, and a sweet and tangy cream cheese mixture.

Print

Ingredients

Bottom Layer

• Cooking Spray
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Cake Mix

• 2 cups of Almond Flour
• 3/4 cups of Erythritol Sweetener (see notes)
• 1/3 cup of plain whey protein
• 1/3 cup of unsweetened coco powder
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of melted butter
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup of Lily's Chocolate Chips
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla

Cream Cheese Layer

• 8 ounces of very soft cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/4 cup of powdered Erythritol Sweetener
• 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Sprinkle the shredded coconut and pecans evenly across the bottom of the baking pan. Set it aside.
3. In a large bowl add the almond flour, coconut flour, whey protein, and unsweetened cocoa powder and whisk them together until combined and set the dry ingredients aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl add the eggs, vanilla, melted butter, water, sour cream, and heavy cream, and mix well.
5. Slowly add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients while mixing on low speed. Make sure to mix the cake thoroughly until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
6. Slowly pour the chocolate cake batter evenly over the coconut and pecans in the baking pan. Carefully spread it out with a spatula being careful not to mix in the coconut and pecans.
7. In a small bowl cream together the cream cheese, sweetener, and the heavy whipping cream until it is smooth and fluffy.
8. Using a spoon, begin dropping spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture all over the top of the chocolate cake batter. Try to get some on all parts of the cake batter.
9. Gently swirl the cream cheese mixture into the batter with a straw or knife.
10. Place in a 350-degree oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. To test doneness, you can poke the cake with a toothpick. If there is just a little be of gooeyness on the toothpick pull it out. You don't want raw but you don't want to dry out your cake either.
11. Let it cool before cutting the 9x13 cake into 20 squares. Serve as is or add some chocolate fudge sauce and whipped cream for an extra wow factor.

Notes

Adding the additional toppings like the chocolate sauce and whipping cream will add additional carbs. The carb count in the recipe is for the cake only. For differen sweetener options please see the blog post above the recipe card.

Nutrition Information

Yield

20

Serving Size

1 square
Amount Per ServingCalories 231Total Fat 19.6gTrans Fat 0gCholesterol 71.9mgSodium 171.3mgCarbohydrates 7.5gNet Carbohydrates 4.50gFiber 3gSugar 3gSugar Alcohols 7.5gProtein 6g

I am not a nutritionist. If you have strict dietary needs I always recommend using an online nutrition calculator to calculate your totals using your exact brands you're using in this recipe as values may vary per brand.

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Keri Bucci

I am a southern girl through and through that loves to laugh, cook, read and spend time with family. My passions outside of home schooling my son are ministering to those in need and creating art in the kitchen! Every day is an adventure in our little house and I wouldn’t trade it or the chance to share here with you for anything!