dessert – Divabetic

12/11/202412/11/2024

Diabetic Pastry Chef’s Sugar-Free Apricot Brandy Pound Cake Recipe

Living with Type 2 diabetes doesn’t compromise the Diabetic Pastry Chef, Stacey Harris’s creativity in the kitchen. After attending culinary school, Stacey taught herself how to make pound cake, pecan rolls, pies, muffins, cupcakes, and other baked goods with about half the carbohydrates in traditional bakery items.

If you’re feeling deprived of your favorite holiday treats because you’re living with diabetes, then check out this new recipe from our friend, Stacey.

From her tasty treats to her outlook on life, this pastry chef keeps things as sweet as can be as well as … sugar-free!

Diabetic Pastry Chef‘s Sugar-Free Apricot Brandy Pound Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups butter, softened

3 cups sugar-substitute of your choice

6 eggs

1 tsp orange extract

1 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup apricot brandy

3 cups cake flour, sifted

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube cake or bundt pan. Cream butter and gradually add sugar substitute. Continue creaming until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Blend in extracts and brandy. Gradually add the flour and beat until smooth.

Pour the cake batter into the tube pan. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean and the edges of the cake have come away from the sides of the pan. Cool for 20 minutes in the pan before unmolding. Cool completely. Add glaze and arrange apricots and mint on top.

Glaze Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar-free apricot preserves

1Tbsp. apricot brandy or leftover apricot nectar from the can

1 8-ounce can of apricot halves, drained

fresh mint for garnishing

Directions

Heat the apricot preserves until melted. Remove from heat and stir in brandy or nectar. Spread the warm glaze over the cake and sides. Garnish with the apricot halves, which can also be glazed, and garnish with the mint. Enjoy

Stacey Notes for the Best Results:

This recipe is revised from an old Ebony magazine recipe. It is a showstopper! It works well for holidays. I have made it as is. I have also made it using canola butter in place of whole butter. I have successfully made the cake by cutting the butter to 1 cup and adding 1/2 cup sour cream. I suppose yogurt would also work in place of the sour cream. You can read more about Stacey’s experience making her Sugar-Free Apricot Brandy Pound Cake recipe on her blog.

I generally mix my sugar substitutes to get the best flavor, baking properties, and health results. For this cake, I used 1 cup of Splenda, 1 cup of Stevia in the Raw, and 1 cup of Whey Low. Do not try to use Splenda alone unless you’re using Splenda for Baking.

If you’re interested in making over one of your holiday specialties with sugar substitutes, Stacey recommends using a blend of sugar substitutes in your recipe rather than just one for the best results.

06/08/202406/08/2024

Salted Caramel Banana Bars Recipe by Splenda

Enjoy this decadent dessert recipe from our friends at Splenda. This recipe contains US Splenda Stevia Granulated Sweetener and Splenda Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Splenda offers a U.S.-grown stevia sweetener made with simple ingredients that can replace added sugar in all your favorite foods and drinks.

Splenda Sweetened Condensed Milk is a sweet and creamy ingredient with no added sugar and 35% fewer calories than leading brands. It can be used in fudge, pumpkin pie, and coffee recipes.

Salted Caramel Banana Bars Recipe

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons plant-based butter spread or margarine

Get Full Recipe

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a bowl, beat together butter and Splenda Stevia Sweetener until smooth. Beat in egg until fully combined. Then, beat in yogurt and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients (the mixture may be dry), then fold in mashed banana.

11/04/202311/08/2023

Divabetic’s Upcoming Holiday Sugarfree Baking Party On Zoom

Diabetes doesn’t have to dim your sparkle during the holidays. We’re sharing great gift ideas to keep you and your loved ones happy and healthy in our upcoming Gift Guide, demonstrating sugar-free baking tips and style advice.

Join the happy healthcare host, Mr. Divabetic, at Divabetic free culinary diabetes baking party on Zoom with Stacey Harris, The Diabetic Pastry Chef on Thursday, November 30, 2023, at 7 PM, EST

During this fun-filled Baking Party on Zoom, The Diabetic Pastry Chef prepares a Sugar–Free Dessert recipe, demonstrates her favorite kitchen tools, and shares expert baking tips for substituting sugar substitutes and alternative flours in recipes.

Win gifts courtesy of Best-Selling Author Tonya Kappes’s Camper Cozy Mystery and Peak 10 Skin‘s Save My Sole Foot Rescue Cream during Mr. Divabetic’s random drawings. You must be present at our Baking Party to enter our gift drawings to win.

REGISTER NOW – ITS’ FREE

Over 150 people have participated in our past Divabetic Baking Parties on Zoom, so don’t miss out!

10/18/2018

Gingerbread Cake Squares Recipe by The Diabetic Pastry Chef

While training to become a pastry chef, Stacey “The Diabetic Pastry Chef” Harris diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Rather than hang up her apron, she decided to adapt her favorite recipes for her dietary needs and share them with the diabetes community. Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cake Squares Recipe by The Diabetic Pastry Chef

“These big soft, tender cookies are packed full of flavor. The texture is wonderful. The ginger cookies are easy to make with nice results.”

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar or 1/2 cup Splenda For Baking

1/2 cup molasses

3/4 cup melted butter or melted Smart Balance regular spread

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup boiling water

Directions

Beat eggs. Blend in sugar or Splenda, molasses, and melted butter or spread. In separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Alternate adding flour mixture with boiling water to batter, and beat until smooth.

Pour batter into a greased 9-inch square baking pan, or into greased square or round muffin tins. Bake 30 to 40 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cut gingerbread in pan into 18 slices. Serve warm or at room temperature topped with whipped cream. Yield: 18 servings.

Stacey ‘The Diabetic Pastry Chef’ Harris was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes while training to become a pastry chef. She thought her career–not to mention her lifetime love affair with desserts–was over.

Her devastation gave way to innovation, resulting in creating a vast array of desserts specifically designed to satisfy the sweet tooth without sacrificing flavor.

Stacey Harris has transformed more than 200 desserts into diabetic-friendly delights. Harris shares the sweet secrets of her simple-to-use formula that will convert most any recipe into a lower-carb alternative without compromising taste or quality. Now diabetics can enjoy Chocolate Truffle Cookies, Blueberry Tartlets, Cream Cheese Cupcakes, Coffee Bread Pudding, and hundreds of others.

Don’t miss Diabetes Late Nite on World Diabetes Day, Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 6 PM, EST. Guests include Poet Lorraine Brooks, Dr. Wendy Satin Rapaport, Owner of DiabetesStrong.com Christel Oerum, Makeup Artist & Skincare Expert Suzanne Perez, Mama Rose Marie and the Charlie’s Angels of Outreach.

Throughout the podcast we will be playing music from Aretha Franklin’s ‘Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics’ courtesy of SONY Music.

02/17/2017

Pink Champagne Cake Truffles Recipe by Diabetic Pastry Chef

This year Divabetic is working with teams of experts to show you how to embrace the holidays without compromising your diabetes self-care.

If you find it difficult to celebrate the holidays because you’re constantly feeling deprived of the foods you love then check out “the Diabetic Pastry Chef”, Stacey Harris’s wonderful recipes.

Stacey, who is living with type 2 diabetes, wants to help everyone living with diabetes to have their cake and eat it, too, without feeling guilt or unhealthy.

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 our favorite Diabetic Pastry Chef recipes:

Pink Champagne Cake Truffles Recipe by Diabetic Pastry Chef

Ingredients:

3 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons King Arthur cake enhancer, optional

5 large egg whites, room temp

1 cup pink champagne, room temp

2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups Whey Low D Granular, or equivalent dry sugar substitute

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

a few drops of pink or red food coloring

1 15-oz tub sugar-free vanilla frosting or handmade frosting

bag of dessicated unsweetened coconut

Directions: Sift together the first 4 dry ingredients and set aside. In mixer bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. In separate bowl combine the wet ingredients with the Whey Low or other sugar substitute, and food coloring. Mix well by hand until sugar substitute is dissolved. Alternately add the flour mixture and wet ingredients to the mixing bowl beating just until well combined, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Add to greased and floured 11 x 17″ baking pan and bake until cake pulls from the side of the pan, and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cake cool to room temperature.

By hand, break the cake into pieces and add to clean mixing bowl. Turn mixer to medium speed and beat until cake is crumbled about 1 or 2 minutes. Add about 2 large Tbsps of sugar-free vanilla frosting to the bowl and beat until combined. Turn off mixer and gather the dough pressing it together with your hands until a dough forms. You may need to add a little more frosting. With a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough and roll into balls with your hands. Cover and refrigerate the balls for several hours.

Heat the remaining frosting in the microwave just until melted and add a small amount of champagne a teaspoon at a time just to flavor the frosting. Do not let the frosting become too liquid. Remove the cake balls from the refrigerator, roll the balls in the melted frosting and then in the coconut. The truffles are best kept refrigerated. Yield: Approximately 50 cake truffles.

Stacey Harris has been baking and collecting recipes since she was a teenager. Her cookbook “The Diabetic Pastry Chef” offers a healthier approach to baking for diVabetic.

Don’t miss the “The Diabetic Pastry Chef” on March’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast with music by Gladys Knight & The Pips on Tuesday, March 7, 2017, 6-7 PM, EST. Click on this link to TUNE IN

LISTEN: Diabetes Late Nite inspired by George Michael featuring our first-ever Valentine’s Day Party with Chef Ward Alper aka ‘The Decadent Diabetic’, ‘Rich In Love’ fashion blogger Doris Hobbs, the Charlie’s Angels of Outreach, Poet Lorraine Brooks and Laura Laria.

Learning to accept yourself for who you are is the most important step to self-love. Stop comparing yourself to others and learn to embrace the person you are.