By Michelle Anderson
Cake Decorating Expert
There are times that the cake required for an event needs to address
special diets or lifestyle choices. Although weddings and special
occasions are often times to splurge there could be a serious diet
concern or strict lifestyle choice that makes a special recipe a need.
This should not be a problem with a little research because there is a
great deal of information out there about baking sugar free or gluten
free or other considerations. These types of modifications to a recipe
need to be calculated carefully because you can't simply swap out
ingredients and get the same results.
One type of special cake that might be a choice for your guests is one created without refined sugar.
Baking without sugar can be a daunting challenge for many people who
are looking for quality products that taste delicious as well. There are
numerous sugar substitutes on the market that work fine for sweetening a
drink or sprinkling on grapefruit but simply don't perform in more complex cake recipes.
For example, aspartame usually breaks down when
heated up and this will wreck your cake. Other potential sweetener
choices don't add the volume, texture and delicious caramel taste sugar
does to baked item. Baking is not an activity that you can approach with
pinches and extra ingredients; it is a chemical reaction that depends
on very precise combinations of ingredients. You cannot just switch the
required refined sugar with a sweetener and expect great results. This
also includes icing and filling recipes as well.
Beyond
the complications of baking with sugar free substitutes, many people
are reluctant to use artificial sweeteners at all due to many reports
about their safety. There are some wonderful natural alternatives that
work very well in cake and icing recipes such as brown rice syrup, agave
nectar, coconut sugar, barley syrup, malt, honey, stevia, sucanat,
erythritol, maple products and molasses. These different products
provide very different flavors so don't be afraid to experiment. Trying
new ingredients can lead you to new favorites that don't have the
detrimental effect of refined sugars.
When looking at these type
of substitutions for your recipes be aware that alternative sweeteners
can fall into two different types: nutritive and non-nutritive. A quick
tip to help you choose which type to use is that many commercial bakers
use nutritive sweeteners. Nutritive sweeteners can provide the necessary
bulk and desired browning required by the baking process. This
sweetener family has calories and carbohydrates but are not actually
classified as sugars. They also include glycerin and sorbitol.
Non-nutritive sweeteners include the very common aspartame and
saccharine and do not contribute any calories to your finished products.
They simply add taste to the cake or icing.
Sugar alcohols are also a perfectly viable option for baking and
provide a pleasant mild sweetness with many of the baking
characteristics of sugar itself. Lactitol and maltitol syrup are common
sugar alcohols.
The best way to achieve the results you are
looking for is to try the various sweeteners and sample the end product.
Does it taste good, is the texture pleasant and is the finished cake or
icing consistent. Using recipes already tested can cut down on nasty
expensive failures. Keep in mind there are many diets that do not allow
or recommend consuming refined sugars. A rule of thumb to consider is
that pretty much every healthy diet does not recommend this type of
ingredient. If the bride or majority of the guests want a cake made
without refined sugar for whatever reason you have many resources to
create a perfect cake creation. Macrobiotic recipe sites and books are a
great source of sugar free baking ideas and there are many sources as
close as your computer or library to explore this recipe option.
source: about.com
