This low carb gingerbread cake roll is holiday happiness in a sweet little package. Full of sugar-free vanilla cream, it’s a keto dessert you won’t want to miss.
You can’t see me, but I am dancing around with excitement at sharing this recipe with you. It’s the first day of December and I do declare Gingerbread open for the season. And the absolute best way to celebrate is with this spectacular low carb gingerbread cake roll. Seriously, this is the bomb-diggity. And I don’t say that lightly. In fact I never say it at all. It’s a phrase that heretofore has never passed my lips. So you know it’s going to be good, if I stoop to using teenager-like terminology to describe it. Wait, is that even teenager terminology? Maybe it’s too old for that. Those kids have probably moved on to much more interesting phrases. So I am stuck here in old fogey-land, trying to make myself sound hip and cool and messing it all up. But what do I care? My mouth is too full of this cake to pronounce it properly anyway.
So yes, serious holiday deliciousness that you don’t want to miss. It’s my new favourite low carb cake, honestly. Actually, don’t listen to me when I say stuff like that because I say it all the time. I am a fickle cake lover, and am always switching allegiances to whatever new cake strikes my fancy. I have many favourite cakes and if you held a gun to my head, chances are I wouldn’t be able to name the one I love the most. Boston Cream Poke! No wait, White Chocolate Cranberry! Ohhh, hold on a sec, is that Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter? Look, something shiny! Oh no, wait, that’s just chocolate ganache pouring over Death By Chocolate Cheesecake.
You catch my drift? That said, this really is a delicious cake and worth all the trouble of whipping the egg whites and carefully rolling the cake in a tea towel while you make the filling. It’s an impressive looking thing, too. So you can make it for holiday gathering where all those non-low carb naysayers will be talking about how nothing can taste as good as wheat and sugar. Oh no, they are so glad they don’t have to eat low carb or gluten-free, because that stuff tastes like sawdust. But look at this pretty gingerbread cake roll, you must try a slice! It’s so good, it just has to be made with high carb ingredients. Right? Right?
Word to the wise on low carb cake rolls. You really don’t want to skip the grassfed gelatin, as it helps it be flexible and not crack as much. You may be able to sub in an envelope of Knox gelatin but I am not certain because I have yet to try that.
Now go. Go make this bomb-diggity cake and impress the heck out of your friends and family. And yourself. Happy Gingerbread Season!
Low Carb Gingerbread Cake Roll
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup (108 g) almond flour
- 1/4 cup (45.5 g) powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp grassfed gelatin
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) ground cloves
- 4 large eggs, room temperature, separated
- 1/4 cup (45.5 g) granulated Swerve Sweetener, divided
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) salt, divided
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) cream of tartar
Vanilla Cream Filling:
- 2 ounces (56.7 g) cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 cups (357 g) whipping cream, divided
- 1/4 cup (45.5 g) powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F and line an 11x17 inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and pan sides very well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, powdered sweetener, cocoa powder, gelatin, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
- In another medium bowl, beat the egg yolks with 2 tbsp of the granulated sweetener until lighter yellow and thickened. Beat in the vanilla extract
- Using clean beaters and a large clean bowl, beat the egg whites with the salt and cream of tartar until frothy. Beat in the remaining two tbsp sweetener until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the whites. Then gently fold in the almond flour mixture, taking care not to deflate them, until no streaks remain.
- Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan and bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the top springs back when touched.
- Remove from the oven and let let cool a few minutes, then run a knife around the edges to loosen. Cover with another large piece of parchment paper and then a kitchen towel. Place another large baking sheet overtop and flip over.
- Gently peel the parchment from what is now the top of the cake. While still warm, gently roll up inside the kitchen towel, starting from one of the shorter ends. Don't roll too tightly or it will crack. Let cool while preparing the filling.
Vanilla Cream Filling:
- In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese with 1/4 cup whipping cream until smooth.
- In a large bowl, beat the remaining whipping cream with the sweetener and vanilla extract until it holds soft peaks. Then add the cream cheese mixture and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Do not over-beat. Remove 1/2 cup and set aside for decorating.
- Gently and carefully unroll the cake. Do not try to lay it completely flat, let it curl up on the ends. Spread with the remaining filling to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Gently roll back up without the kitchen towel. Place seam side-down on a serving platter.
- Sprinkle with some more powdered sweetener, if desired. Pipe remaining vanilla cream mixture in stars or other shapes down the center of the top of the cake.
- Refrigerate 1 hour before slicing. Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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Any ideas for substituting coconut flour.
Not for this recipe, no.
Gingerbread cake is my very favorite for the holidays! This cake roll is so pretty!
This looks AMAZING! Perfect for the holidays and so pretty too!
I can’t believe this is on the healthier side! It looks so delicious!
I am obsessing over this! Cake rolls are my favorite, but I’ve never had a gingerbread one! So good!!
I can’t wait to make this recipe! YUM!
I made this recipe for a holiday dessert and my family loved it! I’d love to remake it as a strawberry Swiss cake roll for Valentine’s Day (I always cook at home because I like my cooking more than eating out). Any thoughts on changes to the cake itself? Have you tried making this cake in other flavors? Thanks!
My cake totall6 cracked and wouldn’t roll. What did I do wrong?
I made this for Christmas with my in-laws and my family, and it was a hit! Even among the Baby Boomers! Thank you!
(Also, I added this recipe to Fat Secret with attribution to you so I can feel even less guilty about eating it)
Hi, I am really thrilled you like my recipes but please do not add them to Fat Secret. I rely on ad revenue as a source of income. By posting the recipe in another location, I lose valuable traffic. I’d really appreciate if you did not do this in the future. Thank you!
Wouldn’t fat secret just have the nutrition info? A lot of the nutrition info for your recipes have been added to lose it. It just means that it’s convenient to track the nutrition, it doesn’t have the recipe.
We love this cake!!
Made it 4 times already – so satisfying on our keto diet.
I’ve used Winco gelatin each time, without mixing with water or preheating – worked perfectly as far as we can tell.
Looking forward to exploring your site and trying other recipes.
Thank you Carolyn!
thanks for the feedback!
This is absolutely divine! And all I had was the Knox gelatin and it still turned out great!
This is amazing! Was on my sweet table for Christmas day among a lot of regular sugar type sweets for the family. The only disappointing part was how everyone, including the family that is not on a low carb lifestyle, was helping themselves to a piece of this cake roll………. I had to quickly slice off an extra piece for me and hide it in the fridge for this morning’s coffee!
Will be making two for New Years!
Thank you so much for a great recipe!
Well, I am glad everyone liked it so much!
Made this for dessert on Christmas Day! It was a relatively easy recipe to make and looking forward to trying it with my family. Thank you for sharing your time, talents, and gifts with those of us learning to cook low carb!
So glad you liked it!
Wondering if there are other gelatin that can be used? The one linked here is a little pricey in Canada and I’d really like to give this recipe a try. I know from reading above that knox won’t work…
You can use Knox gelatin but you need to soak it in some water first and add it in at the stage of mixing everything together.
This was so easy to make!!! Took me just about 45 minutes, including clean up. It looks amazing and the sneak tastes I took are very promising.
* I forgot the gelatin but I had a pack of cherry sugar free jello, so I used that and left out the gingery spices (put more cocoa instead) and made it a cherry chocolate almond roll….it smells amazing.
I cannot wait to take it out of the fridge.
Interesting little twist! 🙂
I’d really like to make this for Christmas. But, I won’t be able to make it Christmas Eve day or Christmas day. Do you think it would hold up if I made it 2 days ahead of time? TIA
Yes, it should be good for 3 or 4 days. But I wouldn’t make it ahead any further than 2 so you can get the best flavours out of it.
Awesome!! Thank you! Also, I just finished making your German Chocolate Truffles and Italian Christmas Cookies. Both are excellent! I didn’t have anise and didn’t want to wait to get it, so I used almond extract. I’m going to make a point of purchasing anise before Christmas. I’ll be making them both again.
Yay, so glad you liked them! This is the anise extract I got and it’s really good. http://amzn.to/2gBk4bp