Keto Twinkies that taste like the real thing: soft, cream filled, and just 1.9g net carbs each. I bake the almond flour batter in a twinkie pan at 325°F for 15 to 17 minutes, melt sugar free marshmallows with butter and whipped cream for the filling, and I let a piping bag inject it into three spots along the underside.
I started making these because I missed Twinkies. Not casually. In a 'standing in the grocery store aisle staring at the box for too long' way. This keto version has 1.9g net carbs per twinkie, and my kids cannot tell the difference.
The cake uses almond flour and coconut flour together. I tested a few ratios before landing on this one. Too much coconut flour and it turns dense and crumbly. Too much almond flour and it gets greasy. This combination gives you that light, springy crumb that actual Twinkies have. The coconut flour absorbs moisture so the cake isn't oily, while the almond flour keeps it tender.
Sour cream is the ingredient nobody believes in until they taste it. Reader Beth, who has made these eight times now, put it perfectly: 'there's a slight tang that makes it taste like actual cake instead of just sweet almond flour.' She's right. It changes the texture in a way that butter alone cannot pull off. I almost left it out the first time because it felt strange adding sour cream to cake batter. Glad I didn't, because it's the difference between 'almond flour thing' and 'actual cake.'
The filling is sugar-free marshmallows microwaved for exactly ten seconds, mixed with butter and whipped cream. I tested different timings and ten seconds is the window. At 15, they seize up. At 5, they're still too firm to pipe. That ten-second mark gets you filling that tastes like the cream inside a real Twinkie.
I keep the yield at two on purpose. If you've ever baked a full tray of Rice Krispie treats and demolished half by midnight, you understand the problem. Two twinkies, two people, done. I've had readers ask me to write a scaled-up version, and I get it, but the small batch is part of what makes this work. For more nostalgic snack cakes, my Hostess cupcakes use a similar almond flour base with chocolate on top.
You don't need a twinkie pan, but it helps get that classic oblong shape. I've used mine for eclairs and hot dog buns too. A mini muffin tin works if you don't want another single-purpose pan in the cabinet. Check at 8 minutes instead of 15 since the cavities are shallower. Mini loaf pans need more time, around 18-20 minutes.
If you're new to low carb baking, start with this one. Small batch means low stakes. The whole thing comes together in under 30 minutes, and if something goes sideways, you're out a quarter cup of almond flour. For another beginner-friendly recipe, try the chocolate mug cake or strawberry shortcake.
Low Carb Twinkies Recipe
My kids went crazy when I told them I was making twinkies. That spongy vanilla cake with the marshmallow cream filling? Pure nostalgia. The difference is this version won’t spike your blood sugar. We polished off both in about 30 seconds.
I love that this makes just two. Perfect for when the craving hits without leaving extras calling your name from the fridge all week.
What Are Twinkies?
Twinkies are those finger-shaped sponge cakes with cream filling injected inside. James Dewar invented them in the 1930s and named them after Twinkle Toe Shoes. The guy reportedly ate two every single day. I get it.
Keto vs Regular Twinkies
Regular twinkies pack 19g of sugar each and contain 39 ingredients (I looked it up). These have zero sugar and 1.9g net carbs per twinkie. I use ten ingredients total, and I can pronounce all of them. They’re also gluten-free since I’m using almond and coconut flour instead of wheat.
What You Need
I use almond flour and coconut flour for the cake base, with monkfruit sweetener instead of sugar. Any sweetener works here, but I prefer monkfruit because it doesn’t have the cooling aftertaste that erythritol sometimes has.
Start by whisking the dry ingredients together. Butter and sour cream give it that classic cake richness, and the egg holds everything together. The batter is thicker than a traditional cake batter, which is normal. Don’t add liquid to thin it out.
Why I Only Make Two
I’m a big fan of small-batch desserts. Less waste, less temptation, and if something goes wrong, you’re not out a ton of ingredients.
Trust me, these will not survive the night in your fridge. Two twinkies, two people, problem solved.
The Marshmallow Cream Filling
I use Max Mallow for the filling. Pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds and they get soft and gooey, perfect for piping. The butter adds richness that plain marshmallow doesn’t have, and the whipped cream lightens everything so the filling pipes and sets like the cream inside a real Twinkie. Zero carbs and they have collagen protein, which is a nice bonus.
No sugar-free marshmallows? Whipped cream works too. Not quite the same texture, but still good. If you like the marshmallow angle, I use the same melting technique in my S’mores recipe.
Do You Need a Twinkie Pan?
You’ll need a twinkie pan to get that classic oblong shape. I’ve also used it for eclairs and hot dog buns. A muffin tin works if you don’t have one, but you’ll end up with twinkie-flavored cupcakes instead.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray cooking oil into a twinkie pan. Set aside.
2
Whisk dry ingredients
Add almond flour, coconut flour, sweetener, baking powder and salt to a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
3
Add wet ingredients
Mix in butter, egg, sour cream and vanilla. Stir until smooth.
4
Bake
Evenly pour batter into two twinkie mold cavities. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 to 17 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and let cool while you make the filling.
5
Make filling
In a small bowl, microwave sugar free marshmallows for 10 seconds. Stir in butter and whipped cream until smooth. Let set for a few minutes to thicken.
6
Inject the filling
Using a piping bag fitted with a tip, pipe in filling mixture into three areas of the underside of the twinkie about 1 inch apart.
Nutrition
Per serving: 1/2 of recipe
Calories
227
Fat
20.3g
Protein
6.7g
Total carbs
3.8g
Net carbs
1.9g
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed. Brands vary, so check labels if you track closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know when the cakes are done in a substitute pan?
In a mini loaf pan, I check at 16 minutes with a toothpick and pull them when it comes out clean. Whichever pan you use, the shape won't be the classic twinkie look, but the taste is identical.
How should I store or freeze leftover twinkies?
In the fridge, I keep them in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The cake firms up a little when cold, which I actually prefer. Let them sit on the counter for 5 minutes before eating if you like them softer. For longer storage, I double this recipe when I know people are coming over, and they freeze well for up to a month. I wrap each one individually in plastic wrap, then put them in a freezer bag and thaw in the fridge overnight. The cake holds up, but the filling gets a little softer after thawing, so I sometimes pipe fresh filling into thawed ones.
Can I make these dairy-free?
I've made these with coconut oil instead of butter and it works. The texture is slightly different (a touch drier), so I add an extra half teaspoon of coconut oil to compensate. Skip the sour cream and use a tablespoon of coconut cream instead. The filling is trickier dairy-free, but whipped coconut cream from a chilled can pipes well enough.
How do I pipe the filling without a piping bag?
I use a zip-lock bag with a corner snipped off. Cut a small hole, about the size of a pencil tip, fill the bag with the marshmallow mixture, and pipe into the bottom of the twinkie in three spots about an inch apart. My first time I cut the hole too big and it all squirted out at once. Start small, you can always cut more.
What sweetener works best besides monkfruit?
I've tested erythritol and allulose in this recipe. Erythritol works but can have a slight cooling aftertaste that I notice more in small-batch recipes like this. Allulose is my second choice after monkfruit because it browns like real sugar and keeps the cake moist. Stevia works too, but I cut the amount in half since it's much sweeter.
I honestly did not think a keto version of these would work and I was wrong. Annie, you have not missed yet. I made them Sunday and I’m making them again this week.
Softest batch yet, and all I did was let the batter rest five minutes before it hit the pan! Making these constantly now. That little wait makes the crumb SO much better. Thanks!
These hold up better in the fridge than I expected, which is why I started doubling the recipe. I do two-pan batches, cool them fully, then make all the filling at once. One thing I figured out: letting the marshmallow mixture sit about a minute after microwaving thickens it up so it doesn’t run everywhere when you fill them. Four stars, the twinkie pan is a bit of a commitment for a two-serving recipe, but once you have it the weekly math makes sense.
Almond flour usually gives a coarser crumb, so the texture caught me off guard. Coconut flour is probably doing the work here, pulling moisture and tightening everything up. My one issue is the filling, it runs noticeably sweeter than the cake base and the two halves feel a bit mismatched. Cutting back on the marshmallow or adding more vanilla to the batter might fix that. Four stars; the sponge itself is solid.
Hi Aisha, thanks for the feedback. The marshmallow is the sweetest thing in there, no argument. What I’d try is an extra tablespoon of whipped cream in the filling, which takes the edge off and still pipes fine. I haven’t tested pushing the vanilla in the batter higher, so I can’t tell you where that lands. Glad the sponge worked for you.
No twinkie pan here and honestly not sure it’s worth buying one for two servings. Would a mini muffin tin work? The shape won’t be right but I’m really just wondering if 325 still holds or if the shallower depth means pulling them earlier.
325 holds. Check at 8 minutes, Chelsea. The shallower cavities run faster. Pull when the edges are set and the top springs back. The center will look underdone. That’s right. Firms up.
Went in fully expecting something dense and eggy. Almond flour has burned me before (there was a pound cake situation a few months ago that came out like a wet sponge you could slice), so I almost made something else entirely. The batter looks almost like crepe batter when it’s mixed, and I watched the oven the whole 15 minutes convinced it wasn’t going to set. It did. There’s actual spring to these, that same give the real thing has. Whatever the coconut flour is doing here, it matters. For 1.9g each, this beats every packaged keto snack I’ve grabbed at Whole Foods, and most of those are twice the carbs and half as satisfying.
Wet sponge pound cake is a whole specific type of disappointment. Coconut flour is what saves this one (it pulls moisture the almond flour can’t, so the batter looks thin but sets up). Tested almond-flour-only early on. Exactly what you’d expect.
Hi Yuki, I haven’t browned it for these. The tablespoon goes in softened so it creams into the batter, and brown butter comes back melted, which gives you a denser crumb. If you want to try it, brown it and let it set back up to soft before you mix, then tell me how it turns out.
I wrote off the marshmallow filling before I even started. Every keto cream filling I’ve tried ends up tasting like sweetened fat faking something it isn’t. But the microwaved sugar-free marshmallow base has that tacky pull the original has, not just airy cream. Combined with the sour cream in the cake, it gets closer to the real thing than any keto version I’ve made. Not just close for keto. Just close.
“Not just close for keto. Just close.” That’s the one I was going for with this. The sour cream is what people swap out and then wonder why it doesn’t taste right.
Made these last weekend for my youngest, who has been asking for Twinkies at the grocery store for months. She ate hers without a word, which in her case means it worked. My husband grabbed one after and asked if I had ordered them from somewhere because the sponge had that density the boxed ones have. I told him almond flour and homemade, and he immediately went looking for the rest of the batch. The filling is what does it. Those sugar-free marshmallows microwaved for 10 seconds give it that creamy center that holds without being too sweet, not airy or chalky the way some keto fillings go. 1.9g net carbs each and I’ve already made a second batch this week.
Second batch in the same week, that tracks. The husband thinking they were ordered is the reaction I was going for when I was testing this. That sponge density is the whole thing.
Wasn’t sure a two-ingredient flour mix could pull off a twinkie shape, but the batter came together fast and held up in the pan better than I expected. That marshmallow filling is what got me. 1.9 net carbs and it actually tastes like the real thing.
My son grabbed one before I could explain what it was. He came back asking why I only made two. I gave him mine. Four stars because I’m the one who didn’t get a Twinkie.
I don’t bake. I’ve never baked. I bought a twinkie pan two years ago on impulse and it sat in my cabinet doing absolutely nothing, and then I saw this recipe and thought fine, let’s just see what happens. The marshmallow filling is borderline upsetting because it actually tastes like the real thing and now I can’t claim ignorance. Already looking up what else I can make in that pan.
I don’t have a twinkie pan (had no idea those were a thing) and wondering if a mini muffin tin would work. Would the bake time change much at 325, or is the shape just aesthetic? Trying to avoid ordering a whole new pan if I don’t have to.
Mini muffin tin works. Shallower than the twinkie mold so check at 8 minutes, they’ll go faster. Shape is mostly aesthetic, the filling is just a little trickier to pipe into a round cup.
Making these tonight and realized I don’t have a twinkie pan (no idea where mine went). Could I use a mini loaf pan instead or would that mess with the baking time too much? The cavities look about the same size but not sure if the depth matters.
Making the hostess version too?? Both in one batch is the move… wait, I said I’d never use that phrase. Both at once is smart. The twinkie-to-hostess ratio in my house is never equal.
