Thursday, June 3, 2010

Diabeti-cake

My father in law monitors his sugar very closely after being borderline diabetic for several years now, so when I was presented with the challenge of making a TRULY diabetic-friendly cake that even HE would enjoy, I had to think a bit outside of the box.  I scrapped all notions of a typical chocolate or yellow cake, since the sugar content is practically astronomical.  I kept leaning towards a carrot cake... and since I make it from scratch, I could easily alter the ingredients.

This is the recipe I came up with:

2 C unbleached flour
2 C Ideal xylitol (a sugar replacement)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 T cinnamon
3 cups freshly grated carrots
4 eggs
1 C oil (I would have tried coconut oil, but in favor of not changing too much at once, I stuck with the Smart Balance blended oil)
1 tsp vanilla
1 C freshly chopped walnuts
1/2 C raisins (I used regular raisins since I couldn't find my golden raisins)

I baked in 2- 8" round pans at 350, and they were done at the 30 minute mark.  It didn't rise as much as I would have liked, and was a little drier than I prefer, so I might play with the ratios a little in the future.

And now comes the trick of having something to frost the cake... yes, I want my cake and I want to eat it, too!  Icing uses powdered sugar, so I powdered the remaining bit of xylitol (just over 5 oz) in my blender.  I added a spoonful of cornstarch to help it out (as per my research on making my own powdered sugar).  In my opinion, carrot cake should always be frosted with a cream cheese frosting, so I whipped up an 8-oz. block of cream cheese with some vanilla and added the powdered xylitol to the mix.  WOW it was a lot sweeter than I anticipated, so I added another 4 oz. of cream cheese and some egg white powder to (hopefully) stabilize it a little.

I put a thin layer of my frosting in between the layers and put it in the fridge so that it would handle a little better, then iced the sides and rolled in freshly chopped pecans (that was kinda fun!!)






When it was evenly coated with the chopped pecans, I placed it on the final cake board:

Then I took some of the remaining pecans and did a free-hand monogram

Voila!!

The ultimate test is to come- the official TASTE!!!

(edited to add) The taste test went over VERY well!  My concerns about the density and moisture content were proven incorrect, and I had a very hard time discerning the flavor difference from a sugar based recipe.  Laura ate almost a whole piece (she despises carrots!), and 2 taste testers took second (generous) helpings... including his Excellence, the Arch Bishop of Slovakia, Jan Sokol!  THAT is a high commendation, indeed!

2 comments:

  1. You might want to try rice flour or glutten-free flour as diabetics have to watch carbs closely as well. I might suggest also as a sub for Xylitol stevia or Splenda. Stevia you would cut it down though as it is truly sweeter than sugar. I use the size of my little finger tip for an entire cup of coffee. I usually use 2 tsp splenda in coffee. Can't wait ot hear The Princesses comments on it! That will be the true test!!

    Love to you all,
    Aunt Jan

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  2. I have tasted Stevia and found it to be completely BITTER... blech! Mike's dad is completely against Splenda (and I can taste the "chemical" flavor in it). I was quite surprised that I didn't notice a difference in the taste of the xylitol... I might even start using it in my coffee now!

    I think rice flour and glutne-free flour are pretty well on par with regular flour on the glycemic index, due to the high starch content and fine milling. Whole grain flour would be better, if only a little... quinoa flour even better than that. Mike made almond flour before (yum!), and I know there are other substitutions out there. Maybe I could just throw in some flax seeds :P

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