A friend's child age 12 just was diagnosed with Diabetes. I would love to make some special things for her for different holidays during the year that use sugar replacements that she can enjoy. Has anyone else already dealt with this problem and have some solutions that I know will make a little girl very happy. Thanks for any advice, ideas, that anyone can come up with!

Check out the recipe section. I was just looking and there are lots of recipes and even icing recipes for diabetics. That is such a tough age to get the diagnosis.

My dad is also a diabetic. I used to find sugar free mixes in the health food section at Kroger. They also carried a sugar free icing. We tried the checolate and white cake...both tasted pretty good.

My dad is also allowed to have angel food cake. We have always served it with fresh strawberries and a sugar free whipped topping.

I'm afraid I will be no help! I have had type 1 diabetes for 20yrs (in Dec. ). My doctor always told be that most sugar free things can be just as bad for you as the sugar. It has something to do with the sugar alcohol and the fact that when they take sugar out, they have to replace it with something. Most times this ends up being fat. This goes mostly for store boyught items like candy. As far as sugar free cakes or icing...I have never found anything that tastes as good as the real thing. I also didn't have parents that cared enough to tell me no about things like that...it would have meant they would have had to change their own diets as well. I have found that it is just as easy to eat the real thing. I just eat what I want so I have 1 or 2 highs as apposed to a couple days worth. My doctor gave me this advice one year at Halloween time. Since I have gione on an insulin pump, this is not as big of an issue. Since I am a bit over weight, and I am an adult and more mature, I find I can let stuff alone easier now. Like I said, it won't help...just wanted to give it to from my perspective.

Here's a previous thread:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-49643-.html

HTH

just wanted to 2nd what was mentioned above about sugar free substitiutes being almost as bad as the sugar itself. If you find a recipe itself, check the carb amount to make sure it's not too high also good luck, I'm trying to find a good diabetic recipe also with super low carbs for a little boy in my sons class. (he's only allowed like 35 carbs a day, and even diabetic cakes make this kind of hard to follow)

Thank you everyone for your insight into Diabetes. It has really helped. Thank you for providing me with the previous thread on the issue of Diabetes.I did not realize that it had been adressed previously. I found some great recipes that listed the protien, fat, and carbs. for each recipe, so that I could present the mom not only with a recipe but exactly how it would work with her dietary requirements. I am always thankful for Cake Central! This gives me an opportunity to say thank you in writing to all the wonderful members who are always there to help, inform, support, and enrich the lives of all who come to this forum to be a part of something wonderful.

try the desserts on this website or check out George Stella's cookbook. Any high carb foods will make a diabetic's sugar spike. That means sugar or flour. Most people think diabetics only need to limit their sugar intake. They are way behind the times.

http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/lowcarb-desserts.html

My uncle is diabetic but he can eat pumpkin cake without icing. Something about the cinnamon in it helps regulate his insulin. PM me if you want the recipe.

Being a diabetic myself, I think the best thing you can do for her is when you make a cake, sugar free or not, have the amount of carbohydrates that are in the cake available to her. Make sure you inform them how many servings are in the cake and how many carbohydrates are in each serving. That way the mom and daughter can calculate the insulin based on the amount of food (carbs) she eats.

I just wanted to say goes to show the difference in Ireland and America with Diabetes Diagnosis. I was diagnosed a fortnight ago, thankfully its pregnancy diabetes and should disappear once my baby is born, but all I've been told to watch out for is Sugar Content. Nobody mentioned counting carbs to me and I thought that if I got a sugarfree recipe it would suit my needs but from what I've just read, probaly not.

What I was told was that Diabetic Labelled Foods which use sweetner can leave you with bowel problems, constipation and the like and so to avoid them as much as possible.

Think I'll just sit the couple of weeks out and forget about the sweet stuff till the new year!

That's probably a good idea Sparklycake. I avoided the artificial sweetners like the plague when I was pregnant and don't let my son have any now. Congratulations on your pregnancy!

Here is some information I found on gestational diabetes and diet:

http://www.babycenter.com/expert/pregnancy/pregnancynutrition/3128.html

My husband and I are both type 2 diabetics. We limit carbs to high vegetables and fruits for the most part. Therefore, we eat no flour products, sugar, potato and high starch vegetables. When choosing carbs we choose carbs with lots of fiber. Fiber in the diet slows the absorption of carbs, lessening the impact on the bloodsugar. Missing variety I searched and found a great flour substitute, "coconut flour", low carb and great fiber. I use this regularly for muffins and pancakes to add variety to our meals, and occasionally a cake to celebrate a birthday or holiday. The cake has about 7 effective carbs (carbs minus fiber) per 1/8th of a 7" cake , but has quite a few calories as I used a sugarfree chocolate ganach for frosting and adapted a white frosting recipe to sugarfree. Because of the frosting, I used it was pretty high in calories so, I usually freeze the leftover in individual pieces.
Here is a link to a cookbook and a download for a few sample recipes. Most have a sugarfree variation that uses Stevia, but I used Splenda instead. Coconut flour is available in most healthfood stores or from online stores.
http://www.simplycoconut.com/cf-recipes-download-pt1.htm

Here is a picture of my husband's low-carb, sugarfree birthday cake.

THat is beautiful!!

Oh my God that does not look like anything that could be healthy enough for a diabetic. Fabulous!

As the mother of a little girl with Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes, I can tell you that the easiest thing for her AND I is to let her have a 1-serving size of cake and just count it into her meal plan. Artificial sweetners can cause some people and a lot of children to have tummy troubles (diahrea). As long as she has a "normal" sized slice of cake (not a monster piece) I do not worry. It's not like she eats cake everyday anyways, just special occasions. As children, they still need the carbs/fat/calories to grow and develop so it's not good to try to totally deprive them of these things. When they get older it will be more of an issue then, but the way I see it is that I will let my child be as "normal" as any other child at this point (and yes, she does eat on a schedule and has a certain amount of carbs at each meal) and we will worry about limiting fats, calories, sodium, etc. when she gets older. At that point a lot of adults are worrying about the same issues anyways.

I have to absolutely agree with TPDC who said:

That would definitely make life easier!
Pam

Have read several recipes that use unsweetened applesause instead of sugar... hope it helps