Pork Rind Cinnamon Spice Cake

Pork Rind Cinnamon Spice Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting is my new favorite keto cake without flour or sugar, and is mostly pork rinds & eggs, you wouldn’t know it! I have a super-picky palate, and even I was fooled that it wasn’t regular cake, since you can’t taste eggs or pork.

25 mins prep time/35 mins cook time

INGREDIENTS

Pork Rind Batter:
7 egg whites
2 cups pork rinds pulsed finely (about 80 grams)
3-4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon each: ground nutmeg, ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup powdered erythritol or your favorite sugar substitute, powdered
1 cup sour cream *
1/2 cup boiling water
4 egg yolks

Leavening Ingredients:
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup powdered erythritol or your favorite sugar substitute, powdered

DIRECTIONS

Place pork rinds into a a food processor or blender and pulse until the pork rinds are a fine crumb.

Separate 7 whites from yolks into a medium-large bowl that is tall and narrow but with enough space for your hand mixer or electric whisk. Let the whites come to room temperature. Reserve 4 of the yolks into a small bowl and set those aside.

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare your cake pan(s): You can use an 8″ x 8″cake pan, or a 9″ x 13″ cake pan, depending on whether you want a taller cake or a shorter cake. I opted for the 9×13″ pan so I could make little layer cakes. Line your pan with a sheet of parchment paper for best results, folding excess paper over so as not to interfere with the batter.

In a large bowl, add pork rind flour, spice, and powdered sweetener and combine well with a fork or whisk. Do not add the leavening ingredients yet.

Add sour cream and the boiling water and whisk completely or use a hand mixer. Now you can add egg yolks and beat until smooth.

Next, whip the egg whites using an electric whisk or beater. Start out with slow speed about 1-2 minutes and then gradually increase to high speed. The result you want is large and stiff peaks (when you turn your whisk or beater upside-down and the egg whites do not droop easily, but stay put) Continue whipping until the egg whites are at that stage, but not for longer than that, or your whites will start to deflate and separate.

To the pork rind batter, add the baking powder and baking soda (I leave these for last because they are fast-acting and you want to not let them sit too long in any batters or dough for best results).

Now fold the egg whites into the pork rind batter, a little at a time until all combined.

Spread the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Completely cool the cake on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, combine the softened butter and sweetener and cream with a wooden spoon or mixer. Then add the vanilla and softened cream cheese, and combine well. You can spread this on the cake once it’s cool if serving all the cake at once, or you can reserve it for serving time.

Makes about 10 servings.

Notes: 

If you want to use heavy cream to substitute for sour cream in this recipe, pour 1 cup heavy whipping cream into a small saucepan and add 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice (I used 1 tablespoon of each). Bring to a slow boil and remove from heat immediately after bubbles form around the edges and the cream is hot throughout. Set aside until called for.

The cake leftovers refrigerate well for up to 5 days. Leftover cream cheese frosting keeps well in an airtight container or plastic bag for a few days, to spread on at serving time. I placed my leftover frosting into a plastic zip bag and let set about 15 minutes before serving, then cut the corner off and used the bag to pipe the frosting onto slices of the cake.

I have not tried freezing and thawing this dessert yet, but will update the recipe when I do.

If you’re not super-strict keto/carnivore, adding a few raisins and some grated carrot, pumpkin puree, or zucchini might be nice in this. I could even imagine using instant coffee, dark chocolate, or maybe pureed strawberries, if cinnamon & spices aren’t your thing. Note: adding wet ingredients would mean you’d probably have to increase the amount of pulsed pork rinds to the batter.

1. Bobbi | February 7th, 2024

   I was very surprised at how good this turned out. It gets even better after sitting a couple days. I put my ground pork rinds with the liquids in my food processor with the serrated metal blade which helped to grind down the pork rinds even finer. I made a half batch since I was afraid I would not like them, but I do like them very much! I even made a vanilla batch, which turned out quite well. However I did use a butter vanilla cake and cookie flavoring as I could smell the pork rinds and didn’t want pork rind flavor to come through. Again, they were even better the next day. Thanks for figuring this recipe out! I’m going to experiment with more flavors. I’m transitioning to fully carnivore right now, so it’s slim pickings flavor wise.

   Reply
   • bobbi jo woods | February 12th, 2024

     Hi Bobbi

     I’m glad you liked it! Sounds like vanilla butter was not ideal, I think I would not try that, the pork rinds seem to do better when using a stronger flavor profile, hence the cinnamon. I think maybe chocolate or caramel might be good? Or chocolate mint! Cool that you’re experimenting. Let me know what others you try and how they come out.