Sugar-Free Chocolate Layer Cake (Prinzregententorte)

All ingredients must be at room temperature, both for the cake and for the cream. The butter should therefore already be a little soft. If the butter is too firm, it’s hard to get a smooth buttercream. But it shouldn’t be too soft or even liquid either, otherwise the cream won’t hold and won’t get fluffy (so don’t melt it in the oven or microwave).

First grind all the xylitol (for the layers and the cream) into powdered xylitol in a blender. It dissolves better that way and you get a smooth result.

Preheat the oven to 160 °C (320 °F) fan. Beat the soft butter with the xylitol until fluffy. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time and stir them in. Mix the almond flour, coconut flour, locust bean gum, baking powder, vanilla, cocoa and salt and sift into the batter. Stir in briefly.

Spread one layer about the size of an 18 cm (7 inch) springform pan onto parchment paper. Bake for 5-7 minutes until golden.

Make the other layers the same way. Let all layers cool completely and trim any overhanging edges with a knife.

Beat the soft butter for the buttercream for at least 5 minutes until fluffy. A good stand mixer helps here, because a hand mixer never gets the buttercream as voluminous. The butter doubles in volume and becomes very pale and fluffy.

Add the powdered xylitol and cocoa, then add the milk little by little while beating.

The buttercream must not run. If you take some out with a spoon, it should hold its shape like stiff egg whites.

Tip: If the buttercream is too soft and doesn’t gain volume, put it in the fridge for 20 minutes before beating it again. But don’t beat it for too long overall, or the fat and liquid will warm up too much and separate.

Now it’s time to assemble and decorate! Place one layer on a cake plate and put a cake ring (or the ring of the springform pan) around it. Spread buttercream over the bottom layer with a spoon. Place the second layer on top and repeat with every layer. Spread buttercream over the last layer. To give the cake stability, put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Tip: Save a little buttercream for decorating at the end.

Then carefully remove the cake ring.

Gently melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a water bath until liquid. But careful: if the chocolate mixture is too hot when you decorate, the cake will melt. Ideally, take the mixture off the water bath while a few pieces of chocolate are still unmelted and stir them in without heat. Then the temperature should be just right.

Pour the liquid chocolate over the cake. It’s best to place the cake on a rack so excess chocolate can drip off.

Decorate the bottom edge of the cake with cocoa nibs, pressing them on lightly. Then put the cake in the fridge briefly until the chocolate has set.

Once the glaze has cooled, decorate the low carb layer cake, for example with a little more buttercream piped on with a piping bag. Use a wide round nozzle or simply cut off the tip of the bag. Add a few cocoa nibs and decorate as you like.

And now: cut the cake and enjoy!

Behind the scenes: our sugar-free cake in the ENERGY radio studio… the first slice is already missing.