When I was a kid, my mom usually packed my lunch box with snacks and sweets that I could finish the day off with. From oatmeal cookies to honey buns, there was always tons of sugar packed inside. Well…now I guess I know why I gained so much weight in my childhood 😉
One of the things I still remember, though, are those little Swiss Cakes from Little Debbie. Lately, I’ve been thinking about them more and more, wanting to recreate them…but elevate them in flavor and bring them over to the keto world. Instead of making a bunch of snack cakes, I decided to make one large roll that I could slice off and eat as I wanted (and eat, I did).
Although these aren’t packed full of sugar like the little snack cakes I was craving, they do pack an awesome sweet and rich flavor. The chocolate cake encompasses a delicious cream cheese filling that’s the perfect way to get added fats into your diet. Who can go wrong with cream cheese and butter?
I think next time I’m going to do a vanilla only based cake with a strawberry chia seed jam filling on the inside. Can’t wait!
What would your favorite fillings be? Let us know in the comments below!
Yields 12 slices of Keto Chocolate Roll Cake
The Preparation
Chocolate Roll Cake:
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup psyllium husk powder
- 1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup erythritol
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large egg
- 1/4 cup unsweetened carton coconut milk
Cream Cheese Filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup erythritol
- 1/4 teaspoon liquid stevia
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The Execution
1. Measure out the dry ingredients into a bowl: 1 cup Almond Flour, 1/4 cup Psyllium Husk Powder, 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder, 1/4 cup Erythritol, and 1 tsp. Baking Powder.
2. Melt 4 tbsp. butter in the microwave, then add 1/4 cup sour cream, butter, and 3 eggs to the dry ingredients. Use a hand mixer to mix this together.
3. Add between 2 – 4 tbsp. (I used 4) coconut milk to the batter to make it so that it’s more workable and spreadable.
4. Spread the batter over a silpat. It should cover the area of an entire cookie sheet. Feel free to get your hands dirty!
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes (I went for 14 minutes) at 350F.
6. Let cool slightly and start to work on the cream cheese filling.
7. In a bowl, combine 8 oz. Cream Cheese, 8 tbsp. Butter, 1/4 cup Sour Cream, 1/4 cup Erythritol, 1/4 tsp. Liquid Stevia, and 1 tsp. Vanilla. Use a hand mixer to cream together until fully incorporated.
8. Plop the cream cheese filling on top of the cake and spread evenly with a spoon.
9. Roll the cake up gently. Use a knife to scrape off any excess filling to get a clean seam on the edge of the roll.
10. Serve up with a cup of coffee for breakfast, or with some whipped cream for dessert!
This makes a total of 12 servings of Keto Chocolate Roll Cake. Each serving comes out to be 287 calories, 25.9g fats, 3.3g net carbs, and 5.4g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 cup almond flour | 648 | 56 | 24.6 | 14.6 | 10.1 | 23.5 |
| 1/4 cup psyllium husk powder | 224 | 0 | 51.2 | 44.8 | 6.4 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder | 80 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| 1/4 cup erythritol | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 teaspoon baking powder | 2 | 0 | 1.3 | 0 | 1.3 | 0 |
| 4 tablespoon butter | 407 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 |
| 1/4 cup sour cream | 114 | 11.1 | 2.7 | 0 | 2.7 | 1.4 |
| 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | 12 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 |
| 3 large egg | 236 | 15.7 | 1.2 | 0 | 1.2 | 20.7 |
| 1/4 cup unsweetened carton coconut milk | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 ounce cream cheese | 776 | 77.1 | 9.3 | 0 | 9.3 | 14 |
| 8 tablespoon butter | 814 | 92.1 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.1 | 1 |
| 1/4 cup sour cream | 114 | 11.1 | 2.7 | 0 | 2.7 | 1.4 |
| 1/4 cup erythritol | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/4 teaspoon liquid stevia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | 12 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 |
| Totals | 3470 | 312.2 | 106.1 | 67.4 | 38.8 | 66.4 |
| Per Serving (/12) | 289 | 26 | 8.8 | 5.6 | 3.2 | 5.5 |
Keto Chocolate Roll Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Roll Cake:
- 1 cup almond flour
- ¼ cup psyllium husk powder
- ¼ cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- ¼ cup erythritol
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 tablespoon butter melted
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large egg
- ¼ cup unsweetened carton coconut milk
Cream Cheese Filling:
- 8 ounce cream cheese
- 8 tablespoon butter
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup erythritol
- ¼ teaspoon liquid stevia
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine.
- Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the sour cream, melted butter, vanilla, and eggs to the dry ingredient mix. Use a hand mixer to combine.
- Add a small amount of coconut milk to the batter to make the dough more workable and spreadable.
- Spread the batter over a Silpat lined baking sheet — it should cover the area of an entire cookie sheet.
- Bake for 12–15 minutes.
- Remove and let cool slightly while making the cream cheese filling.
- In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, erythritol, liquid stevia, and vanilla. Use a hand mixer to cream the ingredients together well.
- Plop the cream cheese filling on top of the cake and spread evenly with a spoon.
- Gently roll up the cake. Use a knife to scrape off any excess filling and leave a clean seam on the edge of the roll. Slice, serve, and enjoy!
These look amazing – can’t wait to try them tonight! What are your thoughts on Swerve VS. Erythritol? Just curious as I have a ton of Swerve to use up.
Swerve is erythritol, stevia, and a few bulking agents (rather than just pure erythritol). So if you were to use swerve, you could just use it to replace both the erythritol and stevia in my recipes (you may have to add a tiny bit more or adjust to your own tastes). You could definitely use swerve in this recipe 🙂
Thank you! That is great to know for this recipe and future ones!
You’re very welcome 🙂
With all your cakes and treats can coconut flour substitute the almond easily enough as I also want to send these in my childrens lunchboxes but you are no longer allowed to send nuts or nut products x
You’re not allowed to send nuts in your own kids’ lunchboxes? What is this world coming to? 🙁 To be honest, you can’t really sub coconut flour to almond flour. You can, but it will be in a completely different ratio, and the textures would change – as coconut flour is much more absorptive.
If you were to be sneaky, you might be able to get away with sending this to school (just tell them not to share, which won’t be hard) – who would guess it’s got nuts? 😛
We can’t send anything with nuts either, nut allergies are abuntant! Some kids are so allergic, more than just eating, airborne also.
I think that’s kinda…nuts 😛 I think it’s crazy that you can get dictated on what your kids can take to school for lunch now. If someone has a nut allergy that is so bad it can be transmitted through air, you’d think they’d separate themselves or at least know to avoid public areas like a cafeteria.
Thank you, I know it really cuts down what I can send go bulk up their lunches when we all do this way of eating but I wouldnt want to be responsible for killing a kid!
That’s for sure – well I hope you can find some other good recipes to stick in their lunch box 🙂
Looks amazing, yes sure brings back memories. What is the white powder you sprinkled over the top?
Thanks Susan! It’s just some powdered erythritol and cocoa powder sprinkled over the top – mainly for show/pictures to be honest, as erythritol by itself (especially raw) will have a “cooling” aftertaste. Most people would probably prefer to skip it 😉
I was just coming here to ask you to see if you could make a plain white cake, only to see in the post above the recipe that you are going to make a plain vanilla white cake. Please please do. I want to make a poke cake so bad but need the basic white cake first!
Haha, yeah I have quite a few plans coming up with this as a base recipe – so keep your eyes peeled 🙂
Looks great…of course now we need one with a chocolate filling, with orange zest, for extract…for Christmas…the Yule log thing…could even make a ganache frosting…hint, hint, hint. 😀
Haha, I definitely have more plans for the cake – I have a few flavors in mind first before I would get around to chocolate orange…but you just made me reminisce on Terry’s chocolate orange because I used to get one for Christmas every year.
I remember making a coconut cake/raspberry filling roll once upon a time. I bet it could be ketofied. It had coconut flakes both in the batter and as a garnish.
I’ve made similar cakes before with coconut and blackberry, but I’m not the biggest fan of using a ton of coconut flakes as they can get carby in high amounts.
Craig,
Oh please say you are planning on a nice fall, harvest pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling and maybe walnuts in the cake batter??? I have got to try this. My daughter’s friend is coming over to spend the day Friday and she loves to cook so I’m looking for a healthy project for them to bake and enjoy. I think this “swiss roll” fits the bill. Thanks for all the work you do.
Susan
Hopefully! My plans are to put together a Thanksgiving/Christmas seasonal cookbook with a good chunk of soups/crockpot recipes/desserts. I only a few recipes so far for it, so it depends on how much I’m able to cook and photograph, but if it works out – it would be in there 🙂
Is a pumpkin spice cake roll in your plans? This cream cheese/butter/sour cream filling would work… You know (American) Thanksgiving is coming up in November- I think Canada’s is earlier? I used to make pumpkin bars (from a converted Paula Deen recipe) back when I was using Carbquik, and the icing was very similar to your cake roll filling, but since I’m not using much wheat these days, I’m kinda looking for a replacement.
I do Pami, I am actually planning a cookbook for the fall season with soups, crockpot recipes, and desserts. I think it’ll be a nice addition for people, especially around the holidays when they want to keep it keto while still cooking for their family members 🙂 The pumpkin bars sound good!
I f*cking love you
Haha, thank you 🙂
Your cookbook sounds like it will be so handy to have. Hubby and I are going out of state to visit family in Oct for 8 days and I’m really scared about what I’ll be eating, breakfast will be easy enough but going house to house to visit family will be traumatic! Not sure how to handle all the ‘wrong foods’ that will be served … any tips?
My only tips are to keep strict with yourself. I’m not sure how well you know the people you are visiting, or if they’d mind you making your own food with their ingredients – so being prepared with food, ingredients, or being able to cook with someone else’s food would be key.
It looks beautiful! Do you think I could sub oat fiber or wheat protein isolate for the psyllium husk? Or maybe flax meal?
Geri,
Thanks! I’ve never used or tried oat fiber – but I can say that wheat protein isolate won’t work as well. I hear flaxseed + a little xanthan does alright, but I personally have not had the same success with flax as I have had with psyllium – so that is a use at your own risk kind of thing. You could always experiment a little bit with the protein isolate (and maybe a tiny bit of added xanthan) as it may provide a similar type of texture.
What size baking sheet? That will obviously affect how thin the cake is, so I think it’d be important to know. I have three different sizes of rimmed baking sheets. Thanks!
It’s a standard cookie sheet – about 17×12 or so.
Is there a substitute for Psyllium Husk Powder?
Hey Dianne. I heard that flax and xanthan gum works alright, but I have never had the same success with it as I have had with psyllium husk.
Thanks for the recipe!! On week one of the diet and as you may recall, sugar craving!!! This recipe is great, love it!!tried it last night, but didnt have psyllium husk and sour cream, but with everything else, I tried… the chocolate cake layer got too thick,and I couldnt roll it, but I turned it into a layer cake instead. It was great!! Thanks!
Sounds awesome Monica – glad it turned out well 🙂
Do I need to use the silpat non stick mat or is there a substitute?
You could use parchment paper instead, but might have a little bit more difficulty with sticking and maneuvering it.
Hey there! I made this yesterday. While it did taste amazing, the chocolate layer broke several times and it was impossible to roll it up like in your pictures. To be honest, it looked really ugly this way. My guess is that I overcooked the chocolate layer – I let it in 12 min at 350, even though it seemed ready after only five minutes. Maybe it would have stayed softer that way? I’m going to try this again with slightly lower heat and shorter baking time, but I’m afraid of another ugly result. Have you got any tips and tricks? Thanks a bunch!!
Feds, you may want to slightly cut back on the psyllium or not mix it as much. If you’d like, you can attempt to do it with a lower/less bake time. I think that my silpat also helped me roll it without causing too much tension in one place at a time. If you see, mine also broke slightly in the middle, but it was relatively fine to roll. I would generally recommend rolling it after it’s pretty cool, also.
Heya – thought I’d provide some feedback, might help other people as well.
So, I tried the recipe again yesterday, with:
– a bit less psyllium husk powder (38 grams)
– the full 55 grams of coconut milk (so that should correspond to all four tablespoons),
– reduced oven temperature (150°C convection, so like 302°F)
– half the baking time (yes, it literally just took 5-6 min for the chocolate layer to be ready)
I also rolled the chocolate layer up in a kitchen towel when I took it out of the oven, and put it outside to cool while I was making the filling.
When I was done doing the filling, I unrolled the chocolate layer. It was really easy and didn’t break, and after I applied the filling I was able to roll it back up just as easily. Put back in the fridge for a while. Took it out, cut off the end bits to make it look prettier (and for taste tasting).
Result: Looked JUST LIKE IN YOUR PHOTO. The only difference was that mine had one less swirl, but hey!
Tastewise, it was “good”. I mean, I was totally happy with the result, especially since I’m not very good at baking in the first hand, and I find low-carb / keto baking even harder! So it was simply a “good roll cake” 🙂 Nice chocolaty layer, smooth buttery vanilla filling. Maybe there was still a bit too much of a cheesy aftertaste, but all in all I was really pleased. Brought it to a new year’s eve celebration, and people liked it! I asked for honest opinions and they mostly had the same opinion as myself, a “good roll cake” haha! No one knew or suspected it was keto, and I kept that detail to myself hehe! So that was a pleasant surprise.
Will do again, and experiment more! 🙂 Thanks again for your help! Happy new year everyone!
Thanks for all the feedback Feds – glad it turned out better this time 🙂 Happy New Year to you too!
You are a brilliant man. This recipe is fantastic! The only change I made was to use tagatose instead of stevia/erythritol in the filling. Brilliant!
Thanks so much Dayna! Glad you liked it 🙂
Thanks so much Dayna! Glad you liked it 🙂
THIS LOOKS AWESOME!!! for the filling though, what’s your thoughts on substituting the cream cheese for coconut creme or full fat coconut milk?
Seriously Craig – this is FANTASTIC. I make this once every two weeks for my husband and I – great keto snack. It is fabulous. Thank you!
I have to say….not to be a troll, but I LOVE your website, I have all your guides, and love everything I’ve ever made of yours, but this was absolutely terrible. I made it for my husband’s 28th birthday, and we could both barely choke down one piece. I’m convinced it’s the psyllium husk powder. It had such an overpowering flavor! Even the cream cheese couldn’t hide it. This is the first thing I’ve made from you that used it, hopefully someday you find another thing that holds stuff together as well!
Hey Kelly – I’m glad you really like the website, though I’m really sorry this recipe didn’t turn out well. When I made it, I didn’t taste the psyllium much (as you said, the cream cheese usually takes over a good amount of the crust). What brand psyllium husk are you using? If you guys are sensitive to the taste, I may recommend using flaxseed meal in place of psyllium in the future (at 1.5x the amount).
i noticed that you didn’t include the carb count for Erythritol for this recipe or others even though the bag has carb count. is there a reason for this?
There is – the human body doesn’t actually have the enzymes needed to break down erythritol. It doesn’t pass the blood barrier during digestion so we mostly excrete it through urine. There’s a more in depth explanation here: //www.ruled.me/keto-diet-plan-best-and-worst-sweeteners/
There is – the human body doesn’t actually have the enzymes needed to break down erythritol. It doesn’t pass the blood barrier during digestion so we mostly excrete it through urine. There’s a more in depth explanation here: http://www.ruled.me/keto-di…
has anyone frozen this receipe? I’m the only keto one and I just know my self control will not allow me to leave it (and no, making smaller isn’t an option either :P)
Haha – I haven’t seen anyone freeze it but it may be awkward to unfreeze with the frosting inside. If you wanted to reheat it some, it would melt the icing. Though I suppose you could pre-slice, freeze, and thaw 1 slice at a time in the fridge.
I’ve sliced mine and froze them separately. Then stored them in freezer bags. I’ll take one out and let it thaw for about 5 or 10 minutes. It actually tastes like an ice cream sandwich that way!! Delish!
Oooh, great suggestion!
Just cut the recipe in half!
Is it can or carton coconut milk?
Sorry for the late reply. I always use coconut milk from the carton unless otherwise specified 🙂
This cake roll tastes amazing! I definitely need to invest in a silpat tho…..cause waxed paper stuck badly…..so turned out not so pretty, but still tastes great!
This is another one I have made multiple times. My husband really misses sweets, and this is the perfect recipe for him. When we made it this time, we added unsweetened peanut butter powder to the mix and about 1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk. Amazing! Tasted similar to the “FunnyBones” I used to eat as a kid.
Yum! Thanks for the tip Kathleen.
Is there any kind of a substitute for psyllium husk? I don’t have any on hand and I just started low carb recently and I’m dying for something sweet!
Hi Kathy, I think it’s needed for this recipe…but try our chocolate mug cake!
http://www.ruled.me/keto-ch…
It’s great with whipped cream on the top.
I used ground flaxseed it was delicious but it broke when tried to roll it 😐
This stuff is awesome! The recipe calls for quite a bit and if your like me and just making this for your self for one cheat day then try cutting the recipe in half because it makes alot! I also used a 1/4 cup of powdered stevia instead of liquid which Im assuming is what it calls for with a 1/4tsp of it. Tastes amazing. Made this for desert after following the Keto Pizza! Made for a happy cheat day 🙂
Thanks John!
I am intolerant to many foods like sour cream and psyllium husk what substitute can I use for them?
I’m not sure about the psyllium husk because I think you might have issues with the cake breaking when you try to roll it. You should be able to thin the cream cheese out with heavy cream instead. You might enjoy making our chocolate mug cake recipe and then adding the cream cheese frosting to it. You can even slice the cake in layers and frost in-between. That cake uses no psyllium husk. (That recipe is over here: https://www.ruled.me/keto-chocolate-cake-mug/)
This turned out great! All I had was parchment paper which I lightly greased with coconut oil. Definitely will try a vanilla berry version. Thinking all I need to do is replace the 1/4 c of cocoa with protein powder which is used a lot in LCHF baking recipes. Thanks for the recipe!
out of curiosity, my do many of these baked dessert recipes combine sweeteners instead of using all Stevia or all erythritol?
Erythritol can be minty and stevia can be bitter, but they work well together!
So I thought I did everything exactly but when I tried to roll mine up, it broke apart, also the cream filling tasted very sour creamy. I put the 1/4 amount in. Any tips on how to fix it? Otherwise I’m happy with how it looked! I just need to get it done right 🙂 I seem to always have problems when baking anything lol. Any tips would be appreciated
You can replace the sour cream with butter if you’d like. I have some trouble rolling these as well, I think they are a little fragile. I find it helpful to roll them up while they are cooling. There’s instructions for this on the matcha roll cake recipe:
https://www.ruled.me/keto-m…
(You might like the whipped cream filling from that recipe as well!)
Using the silpat or parchment to roll it (like sushi) helps too
Loved this recipe, I substituted the psyllium husk powder with blended chia seeds as I didn’t have the psyllium husk powder. Worked absoloutely fine, and tastes amazing. Thank you for this recipe, great sweet treat whilst on Keto 🙂 https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Wow your photo is gorgeous – I’m so happy you liked it. The chia seed idea is ingenious. I’m really happy it turned out so well!
What can you use instead of coconut milk? I can’t do anything coconut.
Almond milk would work fine in this case.
Is this boxed or canned coconut milk? The consistency is very different depending.
This is boxed coconut milk (the type that’s very thin and has few calories/fat/carbs).
Can heavy whipping cream be used instead of sour cream?
I think it could work. I’d use 3 tbsp. of heavy cream in place of 4 tbsp. sour cream so that the filling and batter don’t thin out too much.
Do u mean in place of 1/4 cup sour cream??
I’m not sure what you mean. 1/4 cup is 4 tbsp. – there are 4 tablespoons in a quarter cup.
I just made this for my love for our Valentine’s Day treat. First of all delicious! This was my first roll cake ever, so I’m pretty chuffed with it. That being said, I have two questions…
1. The batter was very tricky to spread out, some spots being really thin, and others quite thick, even after 10 minutes of smoothing…do you have any tips for making that go easier? I was using parchment, but I don’t think a slippat would have made a difference in spreadability.
2. Do you think adding more cocoa powder would be detrimental? It was mildly chocolatey, but I was hoping for a real OOMPH of chocolate. What are your thoughts on adding more cocoa powder?
Thanks for all you do for the keto community! You are always my #1 referral site for people I meet who want to try keto!
I’m glad to hear that it was tasty above everything else.
1. The silpat has a lot of grip on the backside of it, so you can really spread the dough out a lot easier than you would parchment. When I make pizza bases on parchment, I have similar problems as well where the parchment is sliding around and folding a little bit as I spread the dough.
2. You could add more cocoa if you want a more pronounced cocoa flavor – just make sure to add that into the macros.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Thanks, Craig. Sounds like it might be *finally* time to buy a silpat!
Ok the taste is amazing and it was my first time ever making a roll…. It didn’t turn out. It turns out your idea and my idea of letting it cool slightly are different lol.
It should probably specify that it needs maybe 5 mins to cool down or however long you let it cool for, (like i said i have no idea about rolls and it obviously takes al of experience) I don’t usually post to critique recipes, I have no idea how to create something so amazing from scratch and perfect it like you have so I just wanna make that clear that your efforts are truly amazing and appreciated.
Yes, sorry for not specifying. You want to roll it while it’s still a bit warm (not warm enough to melt the icing).
What size cookie sheet do you use to bake the cake?
A standard cookie sheet – 9×13
1. What size is your baking sheet?? I have a 9″x12″ (1/4 sheet) and 12″x17″ (1/2 sheet).
2. Can i replace 1/4 cup sour cream with heavy cream? If so, how much?
Thank you!
I used a 9×12. I answered sour cream question in another comment – yes, with 3 tbsp. of cream.
Hey! Can you use a monk fruit blend
Hey Yaad,
For the erythritol, yes. Just keep in mind that it will be a bit sweeter with a monk fruit blend instead of pure erythritol.
If you want to adjust the sweetness or replace the liquid stevia, I recommend checking out our sweetener substitution guide:
https://www.ruled.me/compre…
Whenever I bake anything with chocolate, I like to use coffee in place of water or other liquids to enhance the chocolate flavor. Could I replace the coconut milk in this recipe with coffee? I don’t drink coconut milk so I will end up having almost a whole carton left over anyway.