With a short ingredient list, eight grams of carbs, and seventeen grams of protein each, I’ll go out on a limb to say this blueberry cake donuts recipe is one of best low carb donuts recipes you’ll find. And if you think that’s hyperbole, you should know I donut play.
There are juicy blueberries in every single bite of the moist cake donut and a sugar free glaze that makes everything just melt in your mouth.
Okay, let’s get into the ingredient and recipe notes. As always, the recipe is simple and the ingredients are nearly all customizable.
Ingredients for Low Carb Blueberry Cake Donuts
Let’s quickly run through the primary ingredients and touch on potential modifications, in case you’re wondering:
- almond flour
- protein powder
- Greek yogurt and eggs
- sugar free glaze
Blanched Almond Flour and Substitutes
I’ve quickly fallen in love with almond flour in baking since I discovered it can be swapped (most of the time) 1:1 with my other flour-love, all purpose flour. If you don’t have almond flour on hand and want to use all purpose, 3/4 C or 90 grams of all purpose flour should work great.
If you need another gluten free, low carb option, you could always try coconut flour. That said, coconut flour does not swap 1:1 like almond and all purpose since it’s so absorbent.
Protein Powder
The recipe calls for PEScience Select Whey and Casein. If you’re using a whey-only protein powder, you may need a bit more protein powder or less Greek yogurt as casein protein is a bit thicker and more absorbent.
I originally made this recipe with 4 scoops (112g) of a whey concentrate protein.
My biggest tip when using different protein powders is to match the weight, not scoops, using a food scale. Since different protein powders have different scoop sizes, that can produce drastically different results.
Try to stick as close to the recipe as possible and venture out at your own risk. Protein powder baking is tough!
Greek Yogurt and Eggs
Aside from a bit of runoff from the blueberries, the liquid ingredients for these blueberry cake donuts comes exclusively from Greek yogurt and eggs.
Fat free Greek yogurt is a great way to remove higher calorie ingredients like oil and butter as well as add a bit more protein to recipes. If you need to remove the dairy from this donut recipe, you could always add the oil or butter back in. I’d suggest about 1 to 1 1/4 C of oil or butter in place of the 1 C yogurt.
Additionally, you could try using plant based yogurt alternatives instead of the Greek yogurt. I don’t have the personal experience in this area to make recommendations, but I’d love to hear about your findings!
The Sugar Free Glaze for Blueberry Cake Donuts
The recipe calls for Swerve Confectioners which is a zero-calorie, non-glycemic powdered sugar substitute. If you don’t have any on hand (get some), you could use another powdered erythritol product, real powdered sugar, or try the following glaze:
- 1/2 scoop (16g) vanilla protein powder
- 1/2 Tbsp (4g) corn starch
- 1 Tbsp stevia or 0-cal sweetener
- 2 Tbsp (30mL) unsweetened almond milk or low-cal liquid
Blend the dry ingredients for 30-60 seconds. Simply mix with your choice of milk and stir. Pour or spoon the glaze on top of the donuts and give them 1-2 minutes to set.
Final Blueberry Cake Donuts Recipe Notes
The recipe calls for fresh blueberries, but I used both fresh and frozen in testing. You can microwave frozen blueberries for about a minute before adding to the batter to remove some of the excess liquid from freezing. You’ll have a bit of bleed into your batter, making it blue, but that won’t affect anything other than aesthetics.
All right, donut delay any longer. Get to cookin’.
If you make these low carb blueberry cake donuts or any variation, I’d love to see ’em! Snap a pic and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff. Or you can join my free Facebook group and share it with the Proton Party.
High Protein, Low Carb Blueberry Cake Donuts
Ingredients
Blueberry Cake Donuts
- 3/4 C 84g Almond Flour
- 2 scoops, 62g PEScience Protein Powder, vanilla
- 2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar Substitute, I used Swerve granular
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt, or 1/8 tsp table salt
- 1 C 227g Vanilla Fat Free Greek Yogurt
- 2 large Eggs
- 3/4 C 120g Fresh Blueberries, if frozen, microwave for 45-60 seconds first
Glaze
- 1/4-1/2 C 36-72g Swerve Confectioners, or a powdered sugar substitute
- 1-2 Tbsp Water
Instructions
- Preheat and oven to 350F and place a silicone donut mold on a baking sheet or spray a 6-donut tin with nonstick cooking spray.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add the yogurt and eggs to a large bowl and stir until evenly mixed. (For best result, whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl before adding so you don't overmix the batter.)
- Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Transfer the batter to the donut mold, filling each nearly all the way full.
- Bake for 20-24 minutes or until the donuts are cooked through.
Cooling and Adding the Glaze
- Remove the mold from the oven and allow the donuts to briefly cool before removing and transferring to a wire rack to cool.
- For the glaze, mix the confectioners sugar and water in a shallow bowl and dip the cooled donuts face down. If you'd like less glaze or a drizzle, use the lower end of the measurements and spoon it on top by hand.
Notes
- Each donut has 3 Smart Points.
- Nutrition info does not include carbs from the zero-calorie Swerve. If you track these carbs or use real sugar instead, each protein donut will have 12 grams of carbs.
- Macros do not include the glaze since you may want to tweak the amount used. If you follow a net carbs regimen, you can ignore the macros from the glaze as Swerve is a zero-calorie, non-glycemic sweetener. If you track everything, I'd log the carbs listed on the label.
Nutrition
More Recipes You Might Like
For another low carb dessert option, be sure to check out my flourless low sugar brownies recipe next.
My 3-ingredient protein powder pancakes recipe is one of the easiest (and tastiest) you’ll find, and you can use it to make homemade McGriddles with chicken breakfast sausage patties or other breakfast proteins!
Can’t WAIT to try this! Husband & I both T2 Diabetics on insulin, it will be so amazing to have this once in awhile. I’ll definitely send pic.
Thanks in advance for trying out the recipe. I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I did!
Would love to have these recipes emailed to me please.
Hey Lisa, you should’ve been able to subscribe to the blog for notifications of new recipes when you left this comment. I also send out weekly emails with what’s new or themed recipe roundups. You can sign up to get those by downloading the free cookbook at https://masonfit.com/bone-apple-tea/
Made these as muffins for the second time and used plain instead of vanilla yogurt. This recipe is amazing! Great for those of us who need to limit sugar and carbs.
Can’t wait to try these recipes!
Don’t have donut forms. Ca. I make biscuits or muffins?
Someone actually made muffins with the batter last night. They might take a bit longer to bake depending on how many muffins you make.
I’m gonna go ahead and put a 5 star because all of your recipes I’ve tried are delicious! This is my second time using protein powder to cook with. The first was two days ago for your puppy chow, yummy!
It may be the protein powder I’m using as it’s what I have on hand at the moment. I made muffins with this batter because I forgot to purchase a donut pan/mold. The inside is really fluffy and yum. However, the outside is kind of “rubbery”. How do I fix this?
The protein powder I’m using is:
OWYN
20g Protein
100% plant based Protein powder
Dark chocolate (the chocolate for this recipe was delish as muffins)
I just need to know all to make them not so rubbery feeling on the outside.
Still a 5 star because they are yummy nonetheless and I am sure it’s the powder I’m using.
Thank you!
It’s hard to say. Like you said, the protein powder is likely the culprit. You could also try reducing the bake time (or reducing the temp). Sometimes over baked muffins can develop the rubbery texture. Good luck!
Love this recipe, goiy to make muffins.
I made your pumpkin spiced donuts which turned out great. These not so much. Not sure why the flour and protein grams are so high compared to the pumpkin ones. These turned on very very dense and tough. Very odd that the pumpkin donuts call for 30 grams of both flour and protein powder but these call for basically triple of both with the same liquid amounts. One of the few fails I’ve had from your site.
I made your pumpkin spiced donuts which turned out great. These not so much. Not sure why the flour and protein grams are so high compared to the pumpkin ones. These turned on very very dense and tough. Very odd that the pumpkin donuts call for 30 grams of both flour and protein powder but these call for basically triple of both with the same liquid amounts. One of the few fails I’ve had from your site.
I hate to hear that. These are much larger than the pumpkin donuts, hence the amount of flour and protein powder. Did you make any ingredient substitutions?
Nope. Followed the recipe line by line with exact measurements. Like I mentioned the pumpkin ones were great and I believe that the protein powder and flour amounts for the blueberry recipe are just too high. I’ll chalk it up as a loss and adjust the next time I make these. Won’t stop me from following though! You have great ideas and enjoy your work!
If I could throw out one more suggestion, maybe try again and bake a few minutes less. Over baking can turn a protein donut to a rock in no time. I’m not doubting you, I just tested different recipe variations and found this version seriously melted in the mouth. Either way, I appreciate the feedback!
I added cinnamon, vanilla used the blueberry juice in my frosting, and I baked@340 for 19 minutes. The rest I followed. Mine turned out amazing. Thanks!
I liked these- the blueberry flavor was amazing. I don’t eat low carb so I’ll probably just use all purpose flour next time. I also think they are perfectly delicious with or without the glaze.
Just made these- as in they are still warm from my oven. Amazing!! I didn’t have a donut mold so I used a mini bundt cake pan mold. I also only had a bag of frozen mixed berries. I thawed them in the microwave and saved the juice. The recipe made 12 mini bundt cakes. For frosting/glaze- I used 2 T fat free cream cheese softened, a few tsp of the berry juice and 1 scoop of Bowmar birthday cake protein powder. It was awesome. You can definitely make the glaze thicker or thinner by the amount of berry juice used. Can’t wait to keep playing around with flavors on this!! Thanks Mason!!
I liked these- the blueberry flavor was amazing. I don’t eat low carb so I’ll probably just use all purpose flour next time. I also think they are perfectly delicious with or without the glaze.