There are plenty of diabetic recipes out there. I can also make my regular recipe and replace with granulated Splenda. But that in combination with no salt. How can this be good? Do I want to have a cake that could taste horrible associated with my business?
Anyone ever have to do this before?

What about a vegan carrot cake? My niece had one at Christmas that was very good. No refined sugar was used.

If your client is a diabetic, leaving out the sugar isn't really going to help. It is a common misconception. It's the carbs in the flour that is the real problem. As a diabetic I can have what I want in moderation. I just have to adjust my meals. If I have a party/special dinner/event I make sure I limit my carbs around that occasion, have a small piece of cake and my blood sugar is usually fine.

But, leaving out the salt may cause chemistry problems in your recipe.

Have you ever baked with Splenda before? If not, it is not like baking with sugar. Sure the taste is equivalent. But baked goods do not brown the same. Splenda.com has some tips to help with this. Also, you have to watch how you store items with Splenda in them.

Whenever a cake recipe calls for salt I leave it out and have no issues. You could sub sugar for honey, I don't have recipe but I saw them create low fat cupcake on the biggest loser using honey instead of sugar.

i rarely put the salt in my cakes... so that wont be a problem..the sugar bit is bit iffy but...

I never add salt to any dessert recipe.

I've baked with Splenda. It sucks. And its expensive.

Do a practice cake (or 2 or 3 or 7) before committing to this.

The thing about "baking" splenda is that its half sugar. I've tried A LOT of pure splenda recipes and they have always been...less than ideal. Do you know WHY they want a cake without salt and sugar? Is it a health kick or do they have health problems that require it? Because that will change what you use as a substitute. And what I want to know is -- WHY ARE THEY ORDERING A CAKE IN THE FIRST PLACE? I mean, I wouldn't order bread and ask them to hold the flour. Hmmm. Maybe you could just make french bread and decorate it like a cake with butter frosting. (Not to be confused with buttercream. Just put whip some butter up and put it on there.)

The thing I find interesting about this is if someone who can't have sugar wants a cake...why in the world wouldn't they seek out a baker who specializes in this? Why would they go to any old baker who has no idea how to do this and have them have a go at it? Is she aware that you have no idea how you'll accomplish this?

I mistakenly put a dash of salt in a fruit pie last week. Best. mistake. ever. It cut the "perceived" sugar. I think a dash of salt greatly improves most desserts. Not a lot, just a dash.

Thanks everyone for the advice! I feel better about the salt thing now.

[quote="LilaLoa"]And what I want to know is -- WHY ARE THEY ORDERING A CAKE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The customer is diabetic and it's for her mother who can't have any salt for medical reasons. She asked for a marble cake with vanilla icing/filling. But she was kind of indecisive so maybe when I call her back and can see if I can change her mind to something else. First I'll give my recipe a whirl without salt and using Splenda. See how it tastes and go from there. I also saw a post or recipe on here about a sugar free cream cheese icing, maybe I can get her to do that instead of buttercream.

And she chose me because she won a GC of mine at a fundraiser. I appreciate the new business, but I did the GC to help a friend and gain new business. If I don't do well on this odd request it's not going to help me out much. grrr

I add a dash of salt to everything sweet that I make. I also add a dash of sugar to green veggies and tomato sauces. Call me crazy, but that's what my mom did, so that's how I learned to cook.

On the sugar substitution, I use to order erythritol (I hope I spelled that right) to use as a sugar substitute for a low-carb diet. I used it in a brownie recipe with flax seed. Baked up nicely. Today it is sold under the Truvia brand name. Truvia is really expensive; it was a lot cheaper before the brand name came along.

Be careful when you use the Splenda...I did this once when we had a get-together with my fam and had to come up with a diabetic cake...followed the instructions as to 1=1 and it came out too sweet. My cousins who are diabetics found it too sweet and I even told them that it is made with Splenda. I'm not a big fan of it, but I have to come up with a cake that will cater to my diabetic cousins and uncle...and I'm still searching for a great cake recipe.

[quote="Niffer817"]Thanks everyone for the advice! I feel better about the salt thing now.

Some artificial sweeteners make some people sick. Not all, but some. Just wanted to put that out there. For example Splenda is my worst enemy.

I made a sugar free cake for a friend and I used Sugar Shacks recipe found here.
http://sugaredblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/brotherly-love.html
I see no problem leaving out the salt.
Actually her blog has a couple of other sugar free options as well that I haven't tried yet.


Also I used left over cake crumbs instead of sprinkles on the side and my cake did not have the rising problem other people's cakes have had using splenda. The icing is awesome but mine got lumpy. I took step by steps of this project because I had never baked sugar free before. You can see how mine came out at http://www.keeponcaking.com/2010/10/sugar-free-chocolate-cake/

This cake has to be refridgerated because of the fresh strawberries and whipping cream.

I just got a request for a sugarfree cake as well. I told my co-worker, who wanted it that I just couldn't go there. I have tried and tried various sugar-free deserts and I have been disappointed every time. This cake would have been served to many people(75 guests) and I just did not want to risk my still-good reputation on a sugar-free chemi-cake. I'm trying to convince her that with good dietary planning-watching the carb intake, the birthday girl could still have regular cake as she has just recently been diagnosed with type-two diabeties and is not even taking meds for it yet. But alas, my friend is insistent on doing sugar-free. ohwell, I guess I can't get them all!

If you're not opposed to using doctored mixes, Pillsbury has a line of sugar-free cake mixes, and there are sugar-free pudding mixes available, too. I haven't tried them, so I don't know if they're any good, but it might be an easy way to make your customer happy.

My mom is diabetic too, and like a PP said, it's ALL carbs (except fiber) they have to watch out for, not just added sugar. You'll find a lot of "sugar-free" treats end up having just as many carbs as the regular versions, so they're not really any better for diabetics. For example, I just checked the nutrition info on those Pillsbury mixes. Sugar-free yellow cake has 29 grams of carbs in a 38 gram serving (76% carbs); regular yellow cake has 34 grams of carbs in a 43 gram serving (79% carbs). So, yeah, it's lower in carbs, but not by much.