Sugar Free, Gluten Free Cakes? - Page 2

Jayde, thank you! Politely say no or eat a little and suffer later.

What rips me a brand new orafice, are the people who insist they can't eat that stuff and then I see them stuffing their faces with every processed, overloaded with sugar item they find in the grocery aisles. This does not include the full sugar soft drinks and alcohol, they supposedly never drink.

One of these people happens to be a very good friend. She now wants me to make my signature cake, without flour, butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate, flavoring, dairy, coffee and the alcohol.

Guess I'll just get some brown spray paint and brown modeling clay and do a Styrofoam dummy for her birthday.

OMG are you kidding me??? Why even bother at that point? Just stick a candle in a piece of fruit and call it a day.

All right so I tried the vanilla GF sponge from allrecipes. It was umm, ok. Very trampoline like.

In all honesty if wasnt horrible, but it wasnt cake. It tasted more like and had the texture of a bread pudding. Drowned in vanilla bean ice cream it wasnt bad at all.

Sorry Ceshell, still doesnt hold a candle to the real thing..

Bahahaaa! Trampoline like . I agree it was spongier than traditional cake, but I'll still go back to my original question: did you use Thai rice flour? LOL I know I sound like I am clinging to a dream, but I swear the cake was good. More of a twinkie-like texture, but definitely not a trampoline. ReallyreallyIswearIswear! So I keep wondering if the kind of flour affected the outcome. I haven't tried it with any other kind of flour, but some of the AllRecipes reviewers DID and stated that it made a crucial difference. I also soak the flour in the liquid for about 10 minutes before mixing everything together. Actually you make me curious to try it with normal rice flour to see if I too get the less-desirable results.

I, by the way, am NOT an adventurous eater, not in the least, and if my desserts aren't the real thing (scratch, gourmet ingredients) I don't even bother--I am definitely a dessert snob. When I first baked this cake I did not even want to try it! I made everyone in my family sample it first . But I knew I HAD to try it if I was going to consider baking it for my gluten-intolerant friend. I couldn't believe it was so good and was "real cake." A year later when I had the chance to bake it again, I did ANOTHER test cake because I didn't trust my original results. It was still good, so I baked it for the party (my Santa Surfin' cake). About 35 people ate it and nobody realized it wasn't traditional cake. Of course the caramel ganache filling and IMBC probably had something to do with it . Anyway it definitely did not have the texture of bread pudding. It was absolutely, positively "cake."

I'm totally stumped by your results. but you know what: if that's what bakes up for you then of course I can see why you won't be in a hurry to try it again. I guess you'll just have to go back to "truffle cakes" - oh the horror .

It wasnt horrible, it just didnt have a cakey texture, it was more dense and really spongy. I didnt try the Thai rice flour, I havent been able to find it yet, and I will try the recipe again with it.

I did let the batter 'rest' after it was all mixed up, a lot of GF recipes suggest that you do that actually. The best I could describe it was like Paula Deen's bread pudding recipe. It had that chewy, spongy, dense texture. Like I said it didnt taste bad, it just wasnt very cake-like.

Well, maybe I am little slow or something.

A person with fool allergies doesn't realize there are some foods they simply cannot get?

In our family, there are food allergies (some quite severe) among my generation and the next generation down. Even my 4yo niece realizes that she cannot have citrus fruits and is very happy to be off gluten and diary free diet. Even she concentrates on what she can eat and the other things she leaves out, without regret.

Seriously:
I have an idea for almost all-free cake.
You need a base - there you are on your own. Bake this gluten free cake (get the memory out of my head, where my father some 20, 25 years ago says to my brother: "look, how delicious" and runs to the kitchen to spit it out)
You turn your cake form upside down, give a layer of fruits there, cover it with gelatin bloomed in juice and after thickening give the "cake" on top.
You need only something to hold the rest of the cake in place - max. 1" thick.
Cool it, turn it right way again, serve.
I suspect you can make the same with agar agar.
We used to get such cakes quite often.

Okay, so my son is gluten and casein free and it has been VERY difficult to find baked goods that taste decent but I feel I have been successful. I found a chocolate cupcake recipe that he LOVES and a bread mix that works WONDERFULLY!!! The bread mix probably wouldn't work as well, but we cut, freeze and only take out what he will use that day. Then it stays nice and soft and isn't crumbly and hard. He refused to eat PB & J's for a few months because we couldn't find "soft" bread. As soon as we figured out what to do he was back on the PB & J train!!!!

What I've discovered with cakes is that if I add a little less gf flour than the recipe calls for and add a smidge more baking powder to help it rise higher, the cakes turn out better. (I use regular recipes and just change the ingredients he can't have-like rice milk in place of regular milk, etc.) That was the problem that I had initially - I replaced regular flour cup for cup with gf flour and the same with baking powder and it resulted in a flat, tough cake. I make him muffins, bread, pizza (with soy cheese - doesn't really taste at all), cake, cookies, etc now using this method. Had MANY thrown out before - but I get better each time!

Buttercream frosting is gfcf as long as you use all shortening (and the butter flavoring seems to be okay - as far as I could figure out on the internet!) so the frosting is great regardless!

I would say that maybe my 5 year old is easier to please than most celiacs or other kids on the gfcf diet - but he is EXTREMELY EXTREMELY picky.

I wouldn't want someone to tell me that I couldn't order a cake for my child, but I do know that it would be extremely difficult for any bakery to maintain a clean environment so his cake didn't get contaminated. Plus, I'm lucky enough to be able to do it myself!!!!

I can tell you what though - if anyone around me has a gfcf kid and needs a b-day cake I'm totally on it!

We're not alone. One of the domestic companies is now making a gluten free beer.
I can't wait!

This stuff wasn't poison before?

to the OP - try using stevia (marketed under brand name Truvia). It's supposed to bake the same as sugar, although it is not a cup-for-cup sub. Disclaimer - I have not tried it yet. I do know it is an all-natural sweetener and does not cause the same effect on our bodies as actual sugar, so it's recommended for diabetics

Stevia is not FDA approved as a food additive, only as a dietary supplement. As far as I know if you are doing cakes commercially you cannot use it legally. Though, I suppose if your customer oks it.....

I have been finding it very frustrating as it seems like it would be a good alternative to sugar alcohols and artificial sweetners. And, its a natural product.

We are all going gluten free and sugar free and no processed foods :) because my husband has is gluten free.  Could I please get your cheesecake crust recipe?  I have tried a few and they are all very nasty.  Thanks and I love reading your comments with this.  I am stressing at this very moment to produce a client a gluten free and sugar free red velvet cake....after reading this I know it isn't me....its just a very difficult thing to pull off.  I mean I even tried two different recipes and all 6 layers are like 1/2 in think....I think its bc of the Splenda, because I used cake flour on one and another kind on the other and it made no difference.  I think that is just how Splenda bakes - which is frustrating but I'm glad to see I'm not alone.  Again, thanks for de-stressing me.

You can make a rice flour cake. Milk/Coconut milk, rice flour, splenda, oil/margarine, vanilla, baking powder. Steam.   This might give you an idea:  http://feastasia.casaveneracion.com/special-puto/