Diabetic Birthday Cake

by John B.
(Tampa, Florida)

My daugher's birthday is always a special occassion; however, because of her diabetes she hasn't been able to enjoy a typical birthday cake like most children her age. This year, though, I wanted to tackle the task of creating a low sugar, low carbohydrate cake that everyone could enjoy. I decided that I would like to make an 8" round chocolate cake with vanilla icing.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as prepared as I would have hoped to be. When I first raided my cabinets for cookware to complete the project I found that I only had two 10" square baking pans. I also had zero cake decorating tools! Well, you have to work with what you have available, sometimes.

I ended up following the directions for my sugar free cake, but baked the two layers in the square pans. When I pulled the cakes from the pans I first cut the rounded tops off with a cake knife. I then used a bit of sugar free chocolate icing between the two layers to "glue" them together. Once that was completed I then used the same cake knife and cut the square cake into an 8" round. Following that, I then iced the sides and the top of the cake.

Since I didn't have any decorating tools, but both chocolate and vanilla sugar free icing, I ended up taking a small zip lock bag and filled it with chocolate icing. By cutting a small piece off the corner of the bag I was able to create a somewhat perfect beading for the decorating.