Making Alternative Cakes

These days, many people have special dietary restrictions that are necessary, either because of medical conditions, allergies, or lifestyle choices so some cake decorators and bakers have begun specializing in finding alternatives to traditional cake ingredients to create cakes that are tasty and beautiful, but meet special dietary restrictions.

Here are some ways to substitute alternative ingredients to make your cakes fit a variety of different diets:

Gluten and Wheat Free Cakes

For people who are allergic or sensitive to wheat gluten, you can use a gluten-free flour to make a traditional cake or for people who can’t tolerate any flour at all, there are lots of easy recipes for flourless cakes.  Flourless cakes are more dense and heavier than cakes that use flours, but cake without flour can be just as tasty as cake with flour, although you may not be able to get the same kind of rise and consistency that you would get using flour.  If you are making a cake for someone who can’t tolerate wheat flour, try rice flour instead.

Sugar Free and Low Sugar Cakes

To make a sugar free cake, just substitute your favorite sugar substitute into the cake recipe for sugar.  Be careful, though, because some sweeteners may not give the cake the same amount of sweetness.  To make a low-sugar cake, try using fruit juice as the liquid portion of the cake and cutting the amount of sugar the recipe calls for in half.  That should give the cake enough sweetness while using less sugar.

Vegan Cakes

Vegans don’t eat any animal product, meaning you can’t use eggs or animal milk or butter in your cake.  You can, however, use egg substitutes, rice or soy milk, and soy butter or olive oil.  You can also use distilled white vinegar, but rice milk or soy milk is usually a better choice.  Since rice milk and soy milk are a bit thinner than cow's milk, you may need to add a thickener.

Low Fat Cakes

Low fat cakes are easy to use if you modify your ingredients. Use low fat or no fat milk, low fat butter, and low calorie and low fat versions of other ingredients.

Remember that you may also need to adjust the recipes for your icing to accommodate different dietary restrictions!