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Homemade Cakes - how much carbs?

S

SophiaW

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,015
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
My daughter is going away on a 3-day school trip in a couple of weeks time. They have asked children in the class to bring along some cakes (homemade or bought) to share with everyone as their afternoon snack each day. I'll be going along on the trip too as I've offered to be a parent volunteer to help with the catering. That way I can also be on site to calculate carbs and work out her insulin requirements with each meal. The bought cakes won't be a problem because they'll have the nutrition labels with the packaging. But what about homemade cakes, how to I calculate how many carbs are in a portion? I know I'm going to have to guess, what do these figures look like, do you think I'm way off or near enough?

1 cupcake without icing - 13g carbs
1 cupcake with icing - 23g carbs

If there is a large cake cut into pieces what would you guess the per 100g carb will be assuming it has icing?
 
Thanks Nigel. I think I've under-estimated in my figures, I may increase the carb content a little but not too much. It's like asking how long a piece of string is!
 
SophiaW said:
Thanks Nigel. I think I've under-estimated in my figures, I may increase the carb content a little but not too much. It's like asking how long a piece of string is!
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Yes it is Sophia, but I have always maintained that when out and about and one is not sure of the carb value of food, it is always best to under-estimate and be safe, than to give to much insulin and deal with a hypo 1-2 hours later.

Interestingly, when I did my DAFNE course last year, I methodically started to weigh and count every carb that I ate, and was quite surprised by the results of some of the foods I had eaten for years, some I found I had to eat less of, but some I found that I could eat more as I had grossly under-estimated the carb value for all these years! :o

Hope your daughter enjoys her trip and stays safe and well!

Nigel
 
noblehead said:
Interestingly, when I did my DAFNE course last year, I methodically started to weigh and count every carb that I ate, and was quite surprised by the results of some of the foods I had eaten for years, some I found I had to eat less of, but some I found that I could eat more as I had grossly under-estimated the carb value for all these years! :o
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Me too. I am incapable of correctly guessing rice or chips. And accurately separating noodles into two portions is challenging. Surprisingly I was dead on with all my estimates about pudding and cake! I guess that shows where my priorities are... :-)
 
I weigh absolutely everything to the last gram. I'm useless as guessing the carbs and as our control is so variable I dare not guess. Probably why I'm having such a problem with trying to guess these cakes.

Nigel, thanks, I'm sure she's going to love the trip :)
 
Yur daughter has probably been away now but this is what I do with anything I make. I calculate the % of carbohydrate for each particular item eg flour has a % of 72.3 so if you are using 250g that's 250 x 72.3% = 180.75. I then go on and do that with each item that has carbohydrate in it. Then I total up all the carbohydrate and divide it by the total weight of the cake x100 and you will get the total carbohydrate for that cake. You have a couple of options with a cake you can either divide the number of slices cut into your total carbohydrate of weigh each slice as cut and multiply by your % carbohydrate.

Do hope that makes sense but if I have mashed it try this example -
Carrot & Pineapple Cake: 450g flour @69.8% = 314.1 + 110g muscovado sugar @95% = 104.5+ 350g carrots @8% =28 + 50g pecans @6% = 3 + 110g raisins @69.3% = 76.23 + 25g desiccated coconut @6.4%=1.6 = 250g tinned pineapple in fruit juice @12.6%= 31.5 Total CHO = 558.93. The cake out of the oven weighed 1361g so 558.93/1361 = .41x100 = 41%. If you cut the cake into 10 slices instead then each slice would have 55.8g CHO. Just in case you want to try making it it also had 2tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tbsp cinnamon ground, 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg, 1/2 ground nallspice; 125ml light olive oil, 2 eggs. Mix everything up, turn into a 23cm lined tin and cook for 1hour at 180 C/350 F/GM4 Cool in tin for 15 mins and turn out to finish cooling. Very nice it was too!
 
Hi Mary, thanks for your reply. I work out homemade foods the same way as you describe. It's more tricky though when you don't know what the recipe was as is the case when someone else has made and provided the cake.

We have been away and back already. The trip was great fun and it all went very well. As it turned out Jess was so active (we had beautiful weather with lots of outdoor activities and open space to run about in) that she didn't need any insulin with her afternoon piece of cake. Before the evening meal, despite having had a piece of cake in the afternoon with no insulin to cover, she was 3.4 and 4.2 on the two evenings. I also cut back on her bolus insulin ratios with meals as her blood sugars were mostly on the low side.
 
Sophia - I'm pleased everything worked out fine and sorry I mis read your original message. I agree that trying to estimate what might be in a recipe and then the quantity you are eating is definitely an art form which I havn't cracked yet. However, I suppose if people are using standard recipes you can probably work out the amount of CHO you would expect to find and work on that. Best wishes
 
mary123 said:
Yur daughter has probably been away now but this is what I do with anything I make. I calculate the % of carbohydrate for each particular item eg flour has a % of 72.3 so if you are using 250g that's 250 x 72.3% = 180.75. I then go on and do that with each item that has carbohydrate in it. Then I total up all the carbohydrate and divide it by the total weight of the cake x100 and you will get the total carbohydrate for that cake. You have a couple of options with a cake you can either divide the number of slices cut into your total carbohydrate of weigh each slice as cut and multiply by your % carbohydrate.

Do hope that makes sense but if I have mashed it try this example -
Carrot & Pineapple Cake: 450g flour @69.8% = 314.1 + 110g muscovado sugar @95% = 104.5+ 350g carrots @8% =28 + 50g pecans @6% = 3 + 110g raisins @69.3% = 76.23 + 25g desiccated coconut @6.4%=1.6 = 250g tinned pineapple in fruit juice @12.6%= 31.5 Total CHO = 558.93. The cake out of the oven weighed 1361g so 558.93/1361 = .41x100 = 41%. If you cut the cake into 10 slices instead then each slice would have 55.8g CHO. Just in case you want to try making it it also had 2tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tbsp cinnamon ground, 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg, 1/2 ground nallspice; 125ml light olive oil, 2 eggs. Mix everything up, turn into a 23cm lined tin and cook for 1hour at 180 C/350 F/GM4 Cool in tin for 15 mins and turn out to finish cooling. Very nice it was too!
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Hi, Mary. My husband is a type 1 diabetic and I do what you do. I weigh or measure every ingredient, making sure that I am using the total carbs for each item. One exception is meat, as 3 oz of meat is approximately the size of a deck of cards. A scale is a valuable tool if a person does not feel comfortable in eye-balling and estimating the nutritional value of a piece of meat, which typically has little or no carbs anyway. I also include the nutritional value and totals for potassium and sodium. I include potassium and sodium as he has kidney and heart issues. Then I divide the totals of potassium, sodium and carbs by the number of servings to determine the values of a serving. I also include the size of a serving (e.g 1 cup or 1 muffin). I haven't used the % method and perhaps that is a better way of calculating the nutritional values. I keep subtotals of these items throughout the day so that he can stay within the prescribed daily protocol for potassium and sodium. Since I have done this, he has not been hospitalized for kidney or heart problems for over seven years. And, he has had only two episodes of low glucose in the last two years and those episodes were not a result of the recipe or my miscalculations. He worked in the yard or exercised without letting me know. If he had told me, I would have decreased his insulin. It is important to discuss changes in insulin dosage with a physician. I agree with everyone that it is better to underestimate carbs.

My mother, who was a diabetic, had a friend who was also diabetic. One day, the friend went into a coma and was taken to the hospital. In those days, glucometers were not yet available. The hospital staff erroneously determined that the friend had a coma due to high glucose levels and gave her insulin. She died. When in doubt, it is always better to underestimate. Occasionally I have to guess and I use one of the web-based nutritional sites that include potassium and sodium levels in their nutritional values. I keep a notebook of my recipes with these nutritional calculations. I also keep a notebook of nutritional values (potassium, sodium, and carbs) for many foods that we frequently use such as fruits, milk products, vegetables, fast food items, and pre-made items such as pizza. For fast food and pre-made foods, I frequently need to reduce the serving size listed on the original package. I add additional items, such as vegetables to provide a more substantial serving, while calculating the adjusted nutritional levels for potassium, sodium, and carbs. This seems like a lot of work but it's pretty easy once you develop a routine. I started the notebook method as labels (and many websites) do not include potassium. Even if the label indicates 0 potassium, the label is probably not correct as most foods contain potassium. I got tired of constantly looking up potassium levels and that is when I decided to keep a notebook. I am 77 and my husband is 85. This method has made a difference in our health. Using pre-made items is not ideal but looking at labels helps, especially if you look for food that do not have saturated fat, high levels of fat, and, have reduced levels of sugar and sodium. Fast food is a once a week (or so) treat for my husband. I don't eat fast food. Hope this helps.
 
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