Sugar Free Birthday Cake and Frosting!

Cakes are an essential to celebrating a birthday, however when you live with Diabetes, it can become quite frustrating when you realize that no one out there ever considered making a sugar-free cake.
So, it takes a loving mother (or a loving spouse) to make it homemade!

Unfortuntately, it is easier said than done.  As mentioned in the previous post Baking 101 à la Sugar-Free,   making a fully sugar-free cake can leave you and birthday boy a bit disappointed with the taste texture and even look of the cake.

Fortunately I have finally found the closest Birthday Cake recipe that still tastes great, has a fluffier texture, and with some fancy frosting (also Sugar-Free) looks great!


Vanilla Cake


Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup safflower oil 
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 cup Splenda sweetner
• 1 cup buttermilk (alternatively 1 cup milk with some lemon juice)
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup warm water

Instructions:

• Heat oven to 350F (180C)
• In the first bowl, whisk oil, egg, vanilla, sugar, and sweetner until fully dissolved and homogenous 
• Whisk in the buttermilk
• In a second bowl, combine flour, baking soda and powder. 
• Cup at a time, add dry ingredients to the wet ingredient bowl and whisk until smooth
• Add warm water and continue whisking
• Pour batter into the mold/cake pan and tap it to remove any bubbles
• Bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until center is cooked
• Cool before frosting

Vanilla Orange Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup Cool Whip (sugar-free)
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tsp icing sugar
• Zest of an orange (optional)
• Food coloring (as desired)

Instructions:

• Fold in ingredients to the cool whip
• Keep chilled or else it starts to dissolve

**I tried this without the icing sugar, but the consistency was a bit like a foam spray (bubbles and all) and so the small amount of sugar made it into a shiny smoother cream. (Compare the Cowboy's pants to his shirt)

Here is an example of this recipe made for two boy's birthday cake.  For some reason (I want to blame my oven), the cake layers came out a bit lopsided. Fortuntately I had enough frosting to hide all imperfections.  Everyone present was happily surprised when I told them (after their initial bites) that the cake was actually made with Splenda and not sugar!

Baking 101 à la Sugar-Free

Cakes, breads and other pastries require a certain balance of flour, fat, and sugar to get the proper fluffiness, moisture, and sweetness to get the much sought after "mmmm" of recognition.  When you bake the sugar-free way, you tend to lose that necessary ingredient to get this texture and taste. Unfortunately sugar substitutes may to a certain degree cover the "sweet" aspect of glucose based sugar, but it does not complete the other two requirements of fluffiness and moisture.

One thing that I learned which has been quite a saviour for my baked goodies, leaving me with happy belly and low glycemic index is from Marlene Koch's "Desserts Sensationnels avec Splenda" (I have the French version) but in English "Unbelievable Desserts with Splenda".  She surprisingly includes sugar in her "sugar-free" recipes - scandalous! As she explains,  the teaspoon to tablespoon of sugar allows the baked goods to regain the texture and fullness of fully sugared treats. The spoons of sugar do increase the sugar load but, as she writes, what is harmful for Diabetics are the CUPS of sugar in recipes. The small spoonfuls will have a  lesser effect on blood glucose levels.

While I do agree with this to a certain degree, I still opt for fruit based sugars to sweeten up my goodies. For example, apple sauce is able to replace moisture as well as sweetness (but watch out because too much can make quite a mushy dense pastry); sugar-free jams usually have enough sweetness in themselves to easily replace the spoonful of sugar; lastly a spoon of honey works well, as honey is a low glycemic index sweetener (more on G.I. in another post) therefore it doesn't raise blood glucose levels as quickly as table sugar does.

Sugar-Free but still sweet!

Welcome,  Bienvenue, Bem-Vindo, Bienvenidos!

This is my brand new blog where I shall chronicle my journey in crafting creating and baking completely sugar-free breads, pastries, and other yummy treats!

For a long time, I have been toying with the idea of starting my own sugar-free business as well as just simply creating new and inventive sugar-free products aimed towards diabetics.  I have been accumulating and perfecting some recipes and I would like to share some with you and also get some of your feedback and recipes as well.

Thank you for stopping by and remember even if it is sugar-free, it can still be sweet and delicious!

XOXO,

N