A lot of us experience late night cravings for salty, sugary and starchy foods that can cause havoc with our diabetes self-management.

What and how much you eat can directly affect your blood sugars both overnight and the next morning, especially if your snack choices are mostly carbohydrate foods. Your diabetes medicine may not completely “cover” excessive eating at night and you may be unpleasantly surprised the next morning when you check your blood sugar and find that it’s higher than desired.

March’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast guest, The Diabetic Pastry Chef, Stacey Harris who is living with type 2 diabetes wants to help you to have your cake and eat it, too, without sacrificing  your diabetes self-care.

Stacey has created recipes for making breads, cakes and other desserts diabetic-friendly by swapping out the sugar, blending the flour and cutting the milk carbohydrates. Here’s one of the Diabetic Pastry Chef’s most requested recipes:

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces sugar-free or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces and softened
• 2 whole eggs
• 4 separated eggs
• 1 cup sugar or equivalent dry sugar substitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Melt chocolate in double boiler or bowl set over hot water. Remove from heat and whisk in butter until it melts; set aside.

In a bowl, whisk whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar or equivalent dry sugar substitute, and the vanilla, just until blended. Whisk in warm chocolate mixture.

In a separate bowl with an electric mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Slowly add remaining sugar or equivalent dry sugar substitute. Beat until whites form soft peaks and hold their shape but are not quite stiff. Stir approximately 1/4 of beaten whites into chocolate mixture to lighten it. Gently fold in remaining whites.

Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan that has been lined on the bottom with a round of wax paper. Smooth top of batter and place pan in a preheated 350-degree oven. Bake until top of cake is puffed and cracked and center is firm, approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Do not overbake.

Cook cake on a wire rack. Center of cake will fall as it cools. At serving time, fill center with sweetened whipped cream or sugar free chocolate sauce and dust top lightly with sifted cocoa. Run tip of a knife around edges of cake, and carefully remove sides of pan.

Yields 8 to 12 servings.

BUY NOW: “The Diabetic Pastry Chef” by Stacey Harris (Pelican, $24.95)