Keto Lemon Cake Chaffles
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Introduction
Lemon cake is one of my favorite desserts of all time. Sweet, a bit tangy, moist — in my opinion it is close to perfect.
The problem with lemon cake is the cake part. If you live alone, or if you are the only person in the house eating keto, baking a whole cake is not a practical response to wanting a slice of one. You end up either eating cake for five days or watching it dry out on the counter.
That is the actual argument for this recipe. It is one chaffle, it takes about five minutes, and it dirties one bowl and a waffle maker.
If you like lemon desserts, our Thick and Soft Keto Lemon Cookies are the other place to go — thick, a bit chewy, and tangy.
What Is a Chaffle?
Good question. If you don’t know what a chaffle is, everything I just said probably made no sense. My bad.
“Chaffle” is “cheese” and “waffle” pushed together, because the original was exactly that: cheese and egg cooked in a waffle maker, used as a bun replacement. That version is our Easy Traditional Keto Chaffle Recipe, and the longer story is in our guide to what a chaffle is.
The name stuck even as the recipes wandered off, so whether a chaffle contains cheese now genuinely varies — our Keto Cinnamon Roll Chaffles use mozzarella and cream cheese, while the Best Oreo Keto Chaffles have none. Read the ingredient list rather than assuming. This one is coconut flour, egg, cream, sweetener, lemon extract and zest, with no cheese in it at all. Some people would call that a keto waffle rather than a chaffle, which is fair enough.
You Need a Mini Waffle Maker
Chaffles are made in a mini waffle maker, which makes sense given they started life as buns. No one needs a 12-inch bun for a sandwich… well, maybe. Actually, might not be that bad of an idea.
A mini waffle maker gives you something roughly bun-sized, or about the size of a slice of bread. We use the Dash Mini Waffle Maker — it is easy to clean, it stores in a drawer, and it makes the right size for both a savory chaffle and a dessert one.
For dessert chaffles, that size is useful in a different way: one chaffle is a snack, and if you want more of an actual dessert you stack two or three with glaze between them.
If you are cooking for a family or batch-prepping, the Burgess Brothers ChurWaffle Maker makes four at once.
The Batter Is Thinner Than You Expect
Coconut flour is the only flour here, and there is just a tablespoon of it, so this batter pours rather than scoops. Don’t add more flour trying to thicken it up; thin is what this batter is supposed to be.
Everything goes into one bowl and gets blended smooth.
Don’t skip the quarter teaspoon of zest just because it is the fiddliest ingredient. Extract on its own tends to read as sweet and one-note; the zest is where the sharper, more recognizable lemon flavor comes from. It is a small amount doing a disproportionate share of the work.
Ingredients
All Ingredients
- 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tbsp lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener
- 1 tbsp coconut flour
- 1x large egg
- ½ tsp lemon extract
- ¼ tsp lemon zest
Glaze
Nutrition Facts
1 serving per recipe| Per Serving 140 | Per Recipe 140 | |||
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 50 each | 50 | 50 | ||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 60 each | 30 | 30 | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 60 each | 60 | 60 | ||
| ⅒ serving of lemon zest (¼ tsp) @ 3 each | 0.25 | 0.25 | ||
| ⅓ serving of lemon juice (1 tsp) @ 3 each | 1 | 1 | ||
| 10g | 13% | 10g | 13% | |
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 5 g each | 5 g | 5 g | ||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 2 g each | 1 g | 1 g | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 4 g each | 4 g | 4 g | ||
| 6g | 30% | 6g | 30% | |
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 3.5 g each | 3.5 g | 3.5 g | ||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 2 g each | 1 g | 1 g | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 1.5 g each | 1.5 g | 1.5 g | ||
| Trans Fat | 0g | 0% | 0g | 0% |
| 230mg | 77% | 230mg | 77% | |
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 20 mg each | 20 mg | 20 mg | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 210 mg each | 210 mg | 210 mg | ||
| 90mg | 4% | 90mg | 4% | |
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 5 mg each | 5 mg | 5 mg | ||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 28 mg each | 14 mg | 14 mg | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 70 mg each | 70 mg | 70 mg | ||
| 28g | 10% | 28g | 10% | |
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 0.4 g each | 0.4 g | 0.4 g | ||
| ¼ serving of lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener (1 tbsp) @ 30 g each | 7.5 g | 7.5 g | ||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 8 g each | 4 g | 4 g | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 0.99 g each | 0.99 g | 0.99 g | ||
| ⅒ serving of lemon zest (¼ tsp) @ 1 g each | 0.08 g | 0.08 g | ||
| ½ serving of lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener (2 tbsp) @ 30 g each | 15 g | 15 g | ||
| ⅓ serving of lemon juice (1 tsp) @ 1 g each | 0.33 g | 0.33 g | ||
| 3g | 11% | 3g | 11% | |
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 6 g each | 3 g | 3 g | ||
| ⅒ serving of lemon zest (¼ tsp) @ 0.6 g each | 0.05 g | 0.05 g | ||
| 1g | 1g | |||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 1 g each | 0.5 g | 0.5 g | ||
| ⅒ serving of lemon zest (¼ tsp) @ 0.3 g each | 0.02 g | 0.02 g | ||
| ⅓ serving of lemon juice (1 tsp) @ 0.4 g each | 0.13 g | 0.13 g | ||
| 23g | 23g | |||
| ¼ serving of lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener (1 tbsp) @ 30 g each | 7.5 g | 7.5 g | ||
| ½ serving of lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener (2 tbsp) @ 30 g each | 15 g | 15 g | ||
| Allulose | 0g | 0% | 0g | 0% |
| 3g | 3g | |||
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 0.4 g each | 0.4 g | 0.4 g | ||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 2 g each | 1 g | 1 g | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 0.99 g each | 0.99 g | 0.99 g | ||
| ⅒ serving of lemon zest (¼ tsp) @ 0.4 g each | 0.03 g | 0.03 g | ||
| ⅓ serving of lemon juice (1 tsp) @ 1 g each | 0.33 g | 0.33 g | ||
| 7g | 15% | 7g | 15% | |
| 1 serving of heavy whipping cream (1 tbsp) @ 0.4 g each | 0.4 g | 0.4 g | ||
| ½ serving of coconut flour (1 tbsp) @ 2 g each | 1 g | 1 g | ||
| 1 serving of large egg (1 x) @ 6 g each | 6 g | 6 g | ||
| ⅒ serving of lemon zest (¼ tsp) @ 0.1 g each | 0.01 g | 0.01 g | ||
| ⅓ serving of lemon juice (1 tsp) @ 0.1 g each | 0.03 g | 0.03 g | ||
About these numbers: We are home cooks, not certified nutritionists. Nutrition is shared as a courtesy and calculated with free online nutrition calculators — we compare a few to get as close as we can — so please treat it as a helpful estimate rather than a guarantee. The brands you buy, any swaps you make, and how generously you portion the recipe will all move these numbers.
Directions
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Preheat the mini waffle maker.
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Add all of the ingredients for the chaffle into a mixing bowl, and blend on high until smooth and creamy.
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Place the batter into the mini waffle maker, and cook for 3-5 minutes until your desired level of doneness has been reached.
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Whisk together the ingredients for the glaze in a mixing bowl, adding lemon juice until your desired consistency has been reached.
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Pour the glaze over the chaffle and serve.
Notes
- Use powdered sweetener for the glaze, not granulated. There is only a teaspoon of lemon juice for it to dissolve into, so granulated is likely to leave the glaze gritty.
- Add the lemon juice to the glaze a little at a time. You cannot take it back out, and a glaze that is too loose runs off instead of sitting on top.
- Let the chaffle cool for a minute or two before glazing. On a hot chaffle the glaze thins out and soaks in rather than sitting on top.
The Glaze
The glaze is powdered sweetener and lemon juice, and between them they carry most of the tartness on the plate.
Add the lemon juice a little at a time. Once it is in you cannot take it back out, and a glaze that is too loose runs off the chaffle instead of sitting on it, so start thicker than you think you want.
Let the chaffle cool for a minute or two before glazing, or the glaze melts into it rather than sitting on top.
Use a Powdered Sweetener
Powdered is the form this glaze is written for. There is only a teaspoon of lemon juice for it to dissolve into, so granulated sweetener is likely to leave the glaze gritty.
We used Lakanto’s powdered monk fruit sweetener, a blend built to measure 1:1 with powdered sugar — so converting a regular recipe means swapping the amount rather than recalculating it. Another sweetener sold as a 1:1 powdered-sugar replacement is the closest swap, but we have not tested one in this glaze, so the consistency may come out differently.
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Enjoy!
Updated — September 12, 2026: Rewrote the article and removed a walkthrough that disagreed with the recipe card's method. Related recipes now use the standard cards.
