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Type 2 Diabetes and baking

Andy_Morton

Member
Messages
5
Location
Hampshire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi everyone, I'm a recently diagnosed type 2 diabetic. This is my first time on this forum, in fact pretty much any internet forum. I apologise in advance if I'm doing this wrong.
I have a question about baking. I've been asked to make some cakes for the MacMillan coffee morning at work, and thought, as I'm diabetic, and I'm not the only one, that I would try and make a diabetic friendly cake, as well as a not-so-friendly one for everyone else.
I have looked online for diabetic friendly cake recipes, but have noticed that most, if not all of them include sugar, or expensive granulated sweeteners. I did however stumble upon one recipe that uses three tbl spoons of honey instead of sugar.
My concern is that honey is still sugar. I did a bit of Google-Fu, and the results were confusing to me at best.
So my actual question is, "Is using honey OK to use in a diabetic 'friendly' cake?"
If not, can anyone suggest a good source for diabetic friendly cake recipes (preferably UK, so I can at least source the ingredients)?

Thanks in anticipation.

Andy
 
Hi. I'm afraid honey is just as bad a sugar. My wife sometimes makes Molly cake which has no added sugar but just uses the natural sugar in the fruit. Google it.
 
Daibell said:
Hi. I'm afraid honey is just as bad a sugar. My wife sometimes makes Molly cake which has no added sugar but just uses the natural sugar in the fruit. Google it.
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Hi Daibell, I'll have a search for molly cake on Google a little later. It sounds promising. Thanks for your help.
 
As already suggested, Ewelina's blog is a great diabetic baking resource.

And I'd suggest that in general if you want diabetic friendly baked goodies, that you search for "low carb" recipes rather than diabetic ones. You can look on the forum in our low carb section, or on the web. We use nut and seed flours (e.g. almond flour or the cheaper ground almonds, sesame flour, coconut flour although this one can be a tricky beast to work with) and sugar alternatives such as stevia or erythritol which are both as diabetic friendly as you could get but tend to be more expensive . (Xylitol is also diabetic friendly and also apparently very good for baking, but is dangerous to and can be lethal to dogs, so I'd recommend not to use it.) You can get low carb "icing sugar", e.g. Natvia or Sukrin -try Amazon, Avidlite, and also Sukrin's own site. Butter and cream are excellent to use, but don't use marge, or anything "lite" or low fat as these generally tend to compensate by being high in sugars.

And finally, if you bake, for example, a couple of coffee and walnut cakes or chocolate ones with real cocoa powder, I'd bet that no-one would actually have a clue that they were eating yummy and healthy "diabetic friendly" cake - and you'd be making best use of our somewhat more pricey ingredients.

Happy baking!

Robbity
 
Thanks Robbity. I will need to stock up on some ground almonds and natvia. I already bought some 100% steviosides, but haven't used any yet, as I'm not sure how it will affect the cakes chemistry. One conversion I found today has the 100% stevia extract as ½ tsp = 2 cups of regular sugar. So apart from sweetness, I don't think it would contribute much to the baking properties, such as the maillard reaction, due to the minute quantity used.
Anyway, I'm always learning! And I will definitely explore Ewelina's blog. Thanks again for the useful advice.
 
I would advocate Xylitol and qualify this as we produce some naturally ourselves and after over 50 years of commercial use the possible side affects are wind / diarrhea (mainly with excessive use), and as mentioned above a danger to dogs. The Finns have used Xylitol for over 40 years with the benefit of improved tooth health . My wife and 2 kids who are non-diabetic have not had any issues or I (although I haven't had cakes for a while). Should you choose this option I would advise to use two thirds of whatever the Sugar measurement is, as Xylitol is sweeter, but on the plus side is low calorie and usually friendly to blood sugar numbers.
 
@Andy_Morton On the diabetic baking website mentioned in the second post of the thread by @BeccyB look out for Ricotta cake it is delicious
 
@BeccyB let me know what you think if you bake one. I loved it and her blueberry muffins
 
My understanding is that the sugar in honey is fructose, the same as in fruit so low GI.
 
asparagusp said:
My understanding is that the sugar in honey is fructose, the same as in fruit so low GI.
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There is significant evidence that shows fructose is one of the main drivers causing the non-alcoholic fatty liver which affects many type 2 diabetics.

I avoid it like the plague, including most fruit and that high fructose corn syrup stuff found in a lot of processed foods.
 
I love to bake and use the Hairy biker diet books, they tweek recipes that would normally be a Diabetic no no and one of them was pre diabetic. I use stevia in baking or half the sugar and use ground almond, I make fruit pies by using filo pastry ( lower in calories and carbs) and sweeten the fruit with just a tsp of stevia ( you don't need much ) and rose water and it turned out yummy.
 
I found stevia is good and you don't need much
 
I use ground almond alot for sweetening food. A bit of almond and a bit of stevia
 
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