I know what you're thinking! How can someone who loves baking cakes bear to part with sugar? It's a tricky change, that's for sure. I love sugar and often crave something sweet after dinner; however, I'm realising that, like many women my age, sugar is not a good companion to my changing body. In fact, I'm not sure it ever was a good companion!
This issue has been on my mind a lot lately. I still want to continue baking and offering sweet treats for people but I have realised that I need to think outside the box. There are a lot of potential customers out there who, like me, want to have a treat but for a variety of reasons need to reduce their sugar-intake. So, I have decided to conduct some research into sugar-free baking.
I baked some brownies for my brother today and, with my new awareness, was taken aback by the amount of sugar in the recipe. Delicious as they taste, one piece of brownie will take an adult over the recommended daily amount of sugar (30g for an adult). Therefore, it is clear that a sugar alternative is going to be a shock to the palate, especially for someone addicted to refined sugar. I've only had one week so far without sugar in my diet (apart from low sugar fruit) and already, I can sense my palate adjusting. I didn't taste the brownies and knew that I would have found them too sweet. I am hoping that after a month without sugar, I will losing my sweet-tooth craving. I'm also hoping that if customers are on a sugar-detox, they will appreciate my sugar-free alternatives in the scone van.
On the internet there are a lot of sites offering sugar-free baking recipes but, unfortunately, they replace refined sugar with sugar alternatives. I'm not convinced that the sugar alternatives are firstly, environmentally friendly and secondly, a healthier option. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/sugar-free-baking provides some interesting information about using sugar in baking. Following this, I have decided to experiment with recipes that use vegetables and fruit as sugar alternatives. I'll keep you updated on my experiments.
To summarise, I will still be baking the usual cakes with sugar but am aiming to include a sugar-free alternative so that no one has to miss out on a treat from the blue scone van.
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