Birthday Ideas & Advice

Making a cake for a vegan sounds like a daunting task and possibly not be very rewarding one. No eggs, no butter, no milk – how can that be a cake. But the secret is to stop thinking of it as a series of prohibitions and think of it as an opportunity to be creative.

Your vegan cake may be the best one you have ever made if you think outside the box. You are not making a substitute for a traditional cake. You are making a vegan cake. This is a cake in its own right.

A vegan cake might be a stack of pancakes made with buckwheat flour and layered with cashew cream and fresh strawberries. Cashew cream is made by grinding cashew nuts with a small quanity of water in a food processor.

Many fruit cakes do not require eggs because they are not intended to rise very high like a sponge cake. When decorated with icing they will be indistinguishable from any other fruit cake. Obviously you must use vegetable margerine.

A brownie type cake can be made without egg using only baking powder to make it rise. It will not have the height of a traditional sponge cake. But once it is cool you can assemble it into a taller and more impressive creation.

A cake of this kind can be made with good quality vegetable oil rather than margerine. This has definite health benefits.

For preference use wholemeal flour in your vegan cake. You can also cut down on sugar or eliminate it altogether by using applesauce or grated carrot to sweeten it. This will make your vegan cake a much healthier option.

Sometimes you will have just have to make a birthday cake. In this case you will have to resort to an egg substitute. There is no other way to get the effect of a sponge that rises and stays risen when baked. The protein in the egg sets in the process of baking. Your local health food store will be able to provide you with a product known as Ener-G Egg Replacer. This will do the job and allow you to produce a vegan cake that is indistinguishable from a the “real thing.”

This article has some top tips for making a diabetic birthday cake for anyone who craves cakes even if they are diabetic, I know I do. Obviously diabetics are still allowed sugar just not in the quantities of most people. But everyone has a sweet tooth and when it comes to your birthday you are craving that birthday cake.

Here are some top tips when you are planning to make a diabetic birthday cake.

1.    The first tip of mine is to use a sugar substitute instead of granulated sugar in the diabetic birthday cake.

2.    Plan the cake out well, make sure there is not too much icing as this contains a lot of sugar. Make the icing with a low sugar topping or even try an alternative to icing such as fruit or cream.

3.    Fashion the cake with sugar free candy to make it look aesthetically pleasing to anyone.

Other ideas are going for a totally different diabetic birthday cake such as an apple cake or another sort of fruit cake. How about a carrot cake, personally I hate carrot cake but some people can live of it. Angel cake is also another common alternative to a birthday cake as it has a lower level of sugar.

If all this sounds a bit to hard and confusing, a little too much effort before your friend/family members birthday you can buy many useful guides/cookbooks on diabetes. I have the best hand selected eBooks and various other diabetic products on my website with some great reviews, come and have a look.