Happiness is this easy Keto Cannoli Sheet Cake! Creamy cannoli frosting on a tender keto vanilla cake. It’s a heavenly sugar-free dessert that will impress all your friends.
It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that I am obsessed with making keto sheet cakes. And this gorgeous cannoli cake is my latest and greatest keto dessert creation.
It all started way back when I made this delicious low carb peanut butter sheet cake. It was so good and such an instant hit with readers, I quickly made a keto Texas Sheet Cake. And then I created a gorgeous Salted Caramel Sheet Cake for Swerve.
See? Totally obsessed. I think that I’ve also included a keto sheet cake recipe in most of my cookbooks too. There is a lovely Zucchini Spice Sheet Cake in The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen and I highly recommend it.
And now, of course, I’ve taken the best flavors of cannoli and made a sheet cake out of that. And it’s absolutely divine, as my new neighbours will tell you. I dropped some pieces off at their door and they were met with rave reviews.
But honestly, how could Cannoli Sheet Cake not be met with anything but rave reviews?
So much to love about Sheet Cake!
I’d never even heard of sheet cake until I met my husband. His mother made a spectacular Texas Sheet Cake, although they were from DC, not Texas. I admitted to having no idea what a sheet cake was. Oh my Canadian ignorance!
The brilliance of spreading a cake batter in a large sheet pan resonated almost immediately with me. There are so many things I love about it.
For one thing, you get a perfect cake-t0-frosting ratio. You know when you have a piece of regular cake and there just seems like so much cake to get through? And you find yourself taking some of the frosting from the outside and spreading it over the large layer of cake, just to have a bit of frosting with each bite.
Well, with sheet cake, you don’t have to worry. A perfect layer of cake with a perfect layer of frosting in every bite.
I also love the fact that there are so many flavor possibilities. I feel I have barely scratched the surface when it comes to all the sheet cakes that could be made. I have more ideas than I know what to do with!
And these thin cakes are great for feeding a crowd. How many people does a sheet cake feed? Well, that all depends on how you cut it but I usually get 20 servings out of each cake. They aren’t huge hefty pieces but they are just about perfect for a reasonable portion of keto cake.
How To Make Keto Cannoli Cake
Who doesn’t love cannoli, with their crisp shells and creamy ricotta filling? But cannoli doesn’t have to be actual cannoli. There are so many tasty ways to get those same wonderful flavors in a healthy keto fashion.
Keto friendly vanilla sheet cake: I’ve used this same keto cake base in many other delicious ways. I prefer a combination of Bob’s Red Mill almond flour and coconut flour. I think it provides the best consistency and keeps the carb count nice and low. And I always use Bob’s because I know my cakes will turn out perfectly, every time.
Use a jelly roll pan: This 15×10 inch rimmed baking sheet is perfect for keto sheet cakes. It’s a little smaller than a typical half-sheet pan, so your cake ends up a little thicker. If you only have the 17×11 size, you can use that too but your cake will be thinner and bake more quickly.
You can also increase the ingredients for the cake by 25%. It will be a little thicker but more substantial if you’re feeding more people. I’d cut it into 25 servings.
Making cannoli frosting: Ricotta can be a bit tricky to work with, because it thins out a great deal when it’s mixed. It contains more liquid than either cream cheese or mascarpone. But to get that true cannoli flavor, you really want to use fresh whole milk ricotta. So here are some tips on making the best Cannoli Cake Frosting:
- Blend it up in a blender or food processor. Ricotta can be rather grainy and blending it helps give it a rich smooth consistency.
- Use a little cream cheese. This will give your ricotta frosting a bit more structure, without overpowering the flavor.
- Whip most of the heavy cream. This too also gives more structure to your frosting so it doesn’t goo all over the place.
The garnish: Cannoli is often garnished with some chocolate chips or chopped nuts, often pistachios. I used some wonderful low carb mini chocolate chips I found recently from Explorado Market. They are delicious and very useful for fun keto desserts. They’re pricy but the two bags I purchased have lasted me several months already. But if you can’t find them, feel free to use Lily’s chips instead.
I then dusted the top of my cake with some powdered Swerve Sweetener. And voila! The perfect keto cannoli cake recipe.
Want more Keto Cannoli Recipes?
Cannoli Sheet Cake
Ingredients
Sheet Cake:
- 2 cups almond flour
- ⅔ cup Swerve Sweetener
- ⅓ cup coconut flour
- ⅓ cup whey protein powder (can also use egg white protein powder)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup butter (melted and cooled)
- ⅔ cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cannoli Cream Frosting:
- ¾ cup whole milk ricotta (room temperature)
- 4 ounces cream cheese (softened)
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream (divided)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup sugar-free mini chocolate chips (or regular sugar-free chocolate chips)
- Additional powdered sweetener for sprinkling
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 325F and grease a 10x15 jelly roll pan very well. You can also do this in an 11x17 pan but it will be thinner and will bake faster.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, coconut flour, whey protein, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the eggs, melted butter, water, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Spread the batter as evenly as possible in the prepared pan and bake 18 to 22 minutes, until golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove and let cool completely.
Cannoli Frosting:
- In a food processor or high powered blender, combine the ricotta and the cream cheese. Blend briefly until well combined. Add the sweetener, ¼ cup of the heavy cream, and the vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.
- In a large bowl, beat the remaining 1 cup of cream until it holds stiff peaks. Add the ricotta mixture and fold together until well combined. Spread over the cooled cake.
- Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and refrigerate at least 1 hour to set. Sprinkle with additional powdered sweetener just before serving.
Barbara says
This is a really nice cake. It is great for summer and tastes really fresh. However it is not cannoli. I grew up on cannoli and cassata. While I really enjoyed this cake it’s does not have that cannoli taste.
Carol Bond says
I made this for a women’s brunch at my church. Turned out beautifully! It was a hit with the ladies at church! Very easy, and although I only had half the Swerve called for, I substituted half with stevia. Still excellent!
Carol Bond says
I was just thinking, too, that this recipe could be easily changed up by using lemon zest and extract, or orange, or just about anything. Now I want to experiment! 🤔
Leslie Parsons says
I made this amazing dessert and it has become my husband’s new favorite. I used chopped pistachios instead of the chocolate chips, in honor of all the big city Italian restaurants that served Cannoli to me. It was all you claimed and more. Now I must move on to your Texas Sheet Cake. I’ll be serving it to real Texans and I’ll let you know how they liked it and if they remembered it from earlier days.
Carolyn says
So glad you like it! Love the idea of the pistachios.
Mary Layman says
This is AMAZING! I made this in a spring form pan, as I didn’t have original pan called for or time to increase the recipe for the bigger pan. The cannoli topping was so delicious and incredibly balanced. I really thought I had a cannoli from a festival in my hand! I even put some of the topping with some cut up strawberries and that was delicious too! Thank you Carolyn!
Carolyn says
Fantastic!
Judy says
The ingredients call for cream cheese, BUT the Instructions mention ricotta!. I realize that either can be used, but which did you mean?
Carolyn says
Please re-read the recipe… they are both listed in the ingredients AND in the instructions.
Wendy says
This was a fantastic cake! I really liked the flavor of the ricotta cheese. If you are looking for something easy, but good, then this is it!
Eva Kiss says
Looking forward to baking the cannoli sheet cake, I even went out to purchase whey protein powder. I’ve never made a sheet cake before, but I think it’s a fabulous idea and I see that you have many recipes. Wish me luck, I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Have you ever used a slow cooker for your dump cakes? I have and it’s so easy.
Kimberly says
This sounds great! I can’t wait to try it. I track my macros and noticed it was a 1 g serving…thought you might want to know about the typo. Thanks for giving us a way to have desserts on keto!
Carolyn says
It should say 1 slice. Which is 1/20th of the recipe.
Penny says
Is there anything that can be used in these in place of almond flour? Thanks.
Michelle Vittitow says
I would love to see you tackle an actual low carb cannoli recipe. There are a few out there but your recipes are always foolproof and gorgeous. Have you thought of creating a cannoli recipe?
Carolyn says
Yes, I have one in the works.
Arla Klooster says
Is whey protein powder the same as whey protein isolate? Can they substituted for each other? I have lots of whey protein isolate, but no whey protein powder.. . .love your site, by the way!
Carolyn says
Yes, that sub should be fine.
Elaine says
Absolutely LOVED this cake. I am Italian so I knew I would love this recipe. The only thing I added was some orange peel in the frosting and in addition to the chocolate chips I sprinkled ground roasted unsalted pistachios very sparingly on the top of the cake!! It tasted like the real thing!! Thank you!!!
Carolyn says
Sounds awesome!