Sunday, March 27, 2016

Make-a-Cake your way with Low Glycemic Sweeteners

Cane sugar breaks down in the blood spiking your blood sugar...not a good thing, BUT it tastes great,  moistens baked goods, helps cakes rise, and gives the top a golden brown hue. Arnel baked 5 vanilla cakes using Arnel's Originals Make-a-Cake, your way Mix with two buyers from Mexico's Yogurt Boutique Rebeca and Guillermo, testing low glycemic alternatives to cane sugar and here's what we found. (In order of the photos below L to R)

1) Tagatose (comes in granules)-
~ The raw batter was very thick and and although we added extra almond milk, the cake came out dry. 
~ It was slightly sweet.

2) Monk Fruit / Erythritol (comes in granules)-
~ Because monk fruit is very concentrated, just like stevia, it is often cut with erythritol.
~ Just like stevia, when heated the sweetness disappears and you are left with a slight after taste.
~ The cake never browned and it was extremely dense, dry, and tasteless.
~ This batter was also thick and although we added extra liquid, it didn't seem to add enough moistness.

3) & 4) Coconut sugar (granules) / Agave Syrup (thick syrup)-
~ We combined these sweeteners 50/50 because coconut sugar produces a dry cake and agave adds extra moistness. In addition, coconut sugar is less sweet than cane sugar, and agave syrup is more sweet so this combination worked well.
~ The cake was moist and delicious but the flavor from the coconut sugar over-powered the vanilla flavor. The color of the cake no longer looked “vanilla” but much browner.
~ This sweetener combination would work best in a spice cake where the cinnamon and cloves would  be complimentary to the coconut sugar flavor.

5) Allulose (thick clear syrup)-
~ This cake turned out delicious. It was sweet, pleasant tasting, browned beautifully, and satisfyingly moist.
~ The only drawback is that this sweetener is not easy to find for the average consumer....yet. Keep this on your radar because we all gave it the thumbs up.

Cane Sugar (not shown)
~We baked a vanilla cake with cane sugar to have a comparison. It was perfectly delicious, but not low glycemic.



We love working with our INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS from Yogurt Boutique Monterrey, Mexico

Arnel and Rebeca                                 Arnel and Guillermo