Usually it makes people feel a little uneasy to try baked goods that are reduced sugar or sugar free. You get a weird, bitter aftertaste and the texture can be sacrificed. But not anymore!

I have a soft spot for people with diabetes, especially Type 1. They were born with a bad pancreas that is attacked by their own cells destroying the islet cells that produce insulin. Insulin helps glucose enter our cells so it can be converted to energy that is used by our muscles and tissues. Therefore, these diabetics can’t handle large amounts of sugar as there is no insulin to facilitate its travel. Without the ability to regulate the amount of sugar in the bloodstream, it just builds up in the bloodstream causing life threatening complications.

With that said, cake is pretty much out of the question for most diabetics unless they have insulin on hand and ready to use! So I decided I wanted to make reduced sugar cakes. And after many attempts…success! I have a chocolate and red velvet cake that has no where near the sugar as a regular cake.

There isn’t a whole lot of good info (at least that I have found yet) on the Glycemic Loads of certain foods. I did find one site that had a pretty comprehensive list of foods, but I don’t know if it is really reliable. So I will go do some more research and hopefully get a book that I can refer too. But based on the site I used….

A regular chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting has a GL of about 29. The new chocolate cupcake with a whipped cream cheese type frosting has a GL of about 8. Yes, that includes frosting! And it’s good frosting. I am actually going to offer it as a regular frosting flavor. The cake is moist and chocolaty without any texture sacrificed. Now I am going to try and expand to other cakes – especially vanilla. I knew chocolate would be the easiest. So now that I know how to substitute the sugar, I want to make as many flavors as I can.

I hope this will not only allow children and adults with diabetes to have a birthday cake or a cupcake, but also give an option to diabetic brides and grooms to have a wedding cake they can actually enjoy. That way they can have their cake and eat it too.