Hello Everyone,
I have started last week my journey on Keto and once I have baked a cake using a sweetener (mix of Erythrol and Stevia), I noticed that I put on back 1 Kg (after losing 3 in a week) after having one slice per day and I also feel bloated in my stomach so I thought to cut off sweeteners in baking.
Have you tried baking without sweeteners how does affect recepies?
Thank you!
I didn’t make my normal cakes without sweetener but I can have sponge cake with cream without sweetener. The biggest problem is probably individual: are you fine with not overly sweet and sometimes totally not sweet cakes? I needed a decade (and carnivore trials :P) to arrive to the point that I don’t even except sweetness from my desserts but I got bored with cakes previously anyway (I ate them all the time on keto back then).
If it’s no problem (or you use some other things to sweeten your cake - not the dough itself) then there is texture. I never liked cakes with so much sugar/sweetener that if had a big effect on it. Maybe a bit more “flour” is needed and it should be fine.
I mostly use recipes very close to sponge cake. Or egg yolks with a little something else. But I admit I tend to make my own recipes (and changing them almost every time). But if you use keto recipes, skipping sweeteners should do and if it’s a lot of sweeteners, more “flour”… But there are recipes with some very dense sweetener and skipping some stevia drops should make little difference.
Sometimes even I use other people’s recipes (almost never as people put almond flour into everything baked and I don’t use that)… I never completely skipped the sweetener but seriously reduced it. It was fine just like when I did it with my own recipes. It really shouldn’t make a big difference unless it’s some insanely sugary stuff. Cakes aren’t like that. When I make a cake dough, it’s not really sweet, that is the role of the cream or whatever we put on it. And you can use naturally sweet things there, it means sugar but well, if you want sweetness and no sweeteners, it’s pretty much inevitable. I would use mascarpone and/or whipped cream and possibly raspberries. Not many carbs but it’s nicely sweet (for me. not for the average beginner ketoers ). I found various flavors makes my desserts seem more dessert-like, even sweeter without having a more than negligible amount of carbs. Some vanilla, clove, maybe a few drops of rum… I am absolutely sure instant coffee or cocoa doesn’t make mascarpone sweeter but it still makes it better for a cake. But maybe they aren’t for a beginner ketoer without sweetener.
Whipped egg whites help me tremendously with the cake feeling too. I always preferred sponge cakes on keto as they are heavily based on eggs, at least the good, classical kind my Mom made. I admit I chose to sacrifice texture, thickness and even taste to have my very eggy ways (it can be avoided with more “flour” but eggs taste better than any of them except walnuts to me) but as long as I whip my whites well, it is a good base for a cake for me. But I am quite extreme if it’s about my eggs. I have proper cakes fit for others but I use sweeteners there - not for texture but for sweetness.
Here is a copy paste of Kelly Hogan’s “Oopsie Cake” That uses no flours or sweeteners. I haven’t made it and I don’t think I will, but it is an example of a base recipe that you could add other things to:
For each layer, you’ll need:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks into two large bowls.
In the bowl of egg whites, add a large pinch (approximately a quarter of a teaspoon) of Cream of Tartar. Use a mixer to whip/beat the whites until they are stiff enough that you can turn the bowl nearly upside down without them falling out. (Typically takes several minutes on HIGH). You can’t overdo this part, so really make sure they’re stiff.
In the bowl of egg yolks, add all of the cream cheese and a pinch of salt. (If you want, you can also add a splash of vanilla flavoring/extract if it is for children and not for a pure carnivore. Completely optional, but I do it when making this for kids.)
Beat the yolks until they are mostly smooth (only takes about one minute on high).
Very gently , combine the egg whites and yolks into one bowl by adding the yolk mixture into the whites bit by bit and slowly folding it in. Do this until the mixture is evenly distributed. Do not quickly mix or vigorously stir this mixture, which could cause the egg whites to fall.
Pour the mixture into a well-greased 9 x 13 non-stick pan (I prefer to use butter to grease the bottom and sides).
Bake for 25 minutes; remove the cakes when you see a light tan color form on on the top.
While the cakes baking, use a mixer to whip the heavy cream in a large bowl until it reaches the thickness/consistency of Cool Whip.
When the “cakes” are done baking, pull them out and let them cool. When cool, gently remove from the pan. (They sometimes stick, so you may need to use a spatula to loosen the bottoms. They will get thickly covered in cream soon, so it doesn’t matter if they look good or if they crumble a little.)
Cover the bottom layer of cake with a thick layer of cream. Place the top cake on and thickly cover the cake in heavy cream.
It is light, but filling. Almost completely carb free and will give NO sugar rush. Gluten free. Sugar free. My kids and I love it! Enjoy!
It is possible that the particular non-sugar sweetener you used affected you, while a different sweetener might not. It’s also possible that there was more carbohydrate in the cake than you realised; we’d have to see the recipe, to tell.
In general, if the sugar is present in the recipe only for its sweetness, it is easy to substitute a non-sugar sweetener for the sugar. (The manufacturer will give the equivalent to sugar in terms of sweetness.) If the sugar is in the recipe for its chemical effects, however, the recipe will need to be carefully re-worked, if you want decent results, and not all sweeteners will work equally well.
Some sweeteners effect people different. Different sugar alcohols act differently in people. Some can cause bloating. It’s most likely you’ve just got some water over it, unlikely you added that in fat. I’d look at your flour replacement as the culprit first. For me, almond flour will absolutely put weight on me for days. Baked goods without sweeteners would be gross, but that’s up to you. If you’re not tracking what you eat, then start. You’re a week in and have a lot to learn about yourself and what things effect you and how, mentally trying to keep track of this stuff is 100% impossible. If you look back in a log and see that cake constantly results in weight gain, then you can start narrowing it down. Maybe it’s the sweetener, maybe the flour etc.
Do not see anything wrong with that. We all be different. You can try without sweetener… maybe check out one of those cake mug recipes and try to experiment with that.
How many almonds can you eat in a sitting without getting bloated?
You are possibly eating more almonds than that, once it is ground into flour and formed into a slice of cake.
You might like coconut flour? It is cheaper, more sustainable and more easily digested.
(I am a human goat. I can eat anything, tin cans whatever. But almonds are my Kryptonite.)
Yes, I think I will try it next time.
There are the macros of the cake, which was cut in 12 slices and one slice has these macros:
142 Kcal
Fats 8.7g
Carbs: 5g
Proteins 4.5g
