Who doesn’t like desert? Ok, I know there are some folks out that that aren’t in the majority on this (Greg is one), and hey, to each their own. I’m not judging.
But me? I love desert! I know that without being able to eat desert, and of course, without Greg’s help, I would not be successful in this new Keto lifestyle. If you are new to Keto, one food saver when it comes to cooking and baking is Swerve. Swerve makes a great sugar alternative, and is available in many forms – they have confectioner’s sugar, brown sugar, and granular sugar substitutes.
picture credits: Amazon
What I just recently found out is that they have pre-made box mixes as well. We were at our local Earth Fare recently, just perusing the aisles looking for new and interesting things. (See my first post about how I went from being super picky, to eating like a normal person that isn’t afraid to try new things.) I have to admit, I got kind of excited. I mean, I do love baking, and making things from scratch. But a pre-made mix is awesome when you’re running short on time. Or….when you really like to buy and try new things, and then spread the word on what you think of it. I guess that means I like to make opinions and inform…call me a social influencer.
Earth Fare carried all four types of pre-made mixes, AND they were on sale. How could I not put them in the cart? Actually, I was only going to get two different ones, but Greg said, “Just get them all!” Well, ok, don’t twist my arm too much. So I threw the Vanilla Cake Mix, Chocolate Cake Mix, Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, and Pancake & Waffle Mix into the cart.
picture credits: Swerve Sweets
Also available on Amazon if you can’t find any locally.
- Vanilla Cake Mix – https://amzn.to/2HQWE0K
- Chocolate Cake Mix – https://amzn.to/2HQsr1S
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix – https://amzn.to/2HQYG10
- Pancake & Waffle Mix – https://amzn.to/2HQsv1C
The other fun part (for me) about finding new Keto friendly foods is making and feeding them to our non-Keto friends and family. Especially when it’s something that we know they’re probably not going to like. To be fair, most of the items that we have encouraged…ok, forced our loved ones to try haven’t been bad; and a lot of the time are quite good. But with the good comes that bad, that’s a part of life, right?
So far, I have only tried the two cake mixes. As soon as I make the others, I will be posting about them as well. First up is the chocolate cake mix. Per the box, it makes one 8” round cake or 12 cupcakes. Each serving has just three net carbs. And the fat to protein ratio works out for Keto because there’s 50% more fat than protein – 6 grams of fat and 3 grams of protein. Not perfect, but close enough for a delicious treat.
The mix itself looked a little different than normal box cake mixes to me as it was a lot darker and looked texturally different – it reminded me of a coarser brownie mix. But it smelled like chocolate, mmmmmm…….
The directions were typical of any box mix – add eggs, oil and water.
And of course, if you’re baking under the Keto guidelines, you’re going to use avocado oil, right?
We use Marianne’s Avocado Oil from Costco, but this is another good alternative from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2HVpqgG
The rest of the process is just like any other boxed mix. Mix everything up, pour it in the pan, throw it in the oven and set the timer. But, going back to my previous statement of the mix looking more like a brownie mix, the batter also resembled brownie batter. Usually cake mixes are pretty runny and smooth, but this was much thicker and lumpier.
In order to track the macros better and make sure the portions were more even, I opted to make cupcakes.
And here’s where I will point out to make sure you read and ingest the baking directions accordingly. Yes, I preheated the oven as I was directed, but I baked the cupcakes according to the timing for the 8” round cake pan, rather than the cupcake timing given. And that resulted in some over baked cupcakes. However, I didn’t realize this until trying them for the first time. No wonder they were so hard to pierce with the toothpick to check them! *facepalm* Live and learn (again and again), right?
I opted to make a vanilla buttercream frosting to go with them, and as you’ll see in my picture, I did not attempt any fancy frosting techniques. I just slapped that yummy goodness on top.
Here’s the recipe I used to make just a small amount (double it if you want a larger amount of frosting to put into piping bags):
- 1/2 cup of room temperature butter
- 3/4 cup Swerve confectioner’s sugar https://amzn.to/2YI1CBX
- 1 Tbsp of heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
Combine everything but the sugar with a mixer, then slowly add the powdered Swerve until it is all incorporated in the butter mixture. Use a knife to spread it on the top of the cupcakes, or put it in a piping bag and decorate the cupcakes as you see fit. Feel free to add food coloring prior to adding the sugar if you want something other than a vanilla color.
Any remaining frosting can be kept, covered air-tight, in the refrigerator for up to a week.
(Alternately on the powdered Swerve, if you have a spice grinder, you can use the granulated kind and just grind it up into a powder and it works just as well.)
Final thoughts on the chocolate cake mix from Swerve – pretty darn good, even if overbaked. I think that if I had followed the baking directions, and served one to someone who didn’t know they were eating a Keto cupcake, they wouldn’t have had a clue.
Leading with that thought into the next section of this post, I was more mindful of my timing with the vanilla cake mix.
Again, I made cupcakes for the easier macro tracking and portion sizing. Plus, I’ve always preferred cupcakes to cakes. There’s just something about having your own personal mini cake. But I digress…..
I did not overbake the vanilla cupcakes, and since it was St. Patrick’s Day, I threw in some green food coloring.
So, ok, I’ve seen some differing viewpoints on whether or not food coloring is Keto friendly. I think it’s fine. It doesn’t have any sugar, there aren’t any carbs…so it doesn’t affect your macros. Yeah, if it’s not natural, you are putting processed something or other in your body, but the amount is so small, I don’t find it bothersome. And when it’s a holiday treat, it makes it that much more fun.
The picture above has two missing because I’m a terrible blogger and didn’t think about taking a picture until I had already served two. And even worse, I didn’t take any pictures of any with frosting.
Speaking of frosting, I made a different type that was more of a thicker glaze, if that makes any sense? I didn’t have any room temp butter, and we had friends over for dinner. This was desert, and I had forgotten to make the frosting beforehand. So I threw some powdered Swerve in a bowl with some water, whisked it up, then slopped it on top. Only the best for our friends and family! 😆
General consensus the second time around? “You can’t tell the difference between a regular cupcake and this cupcake, except the frosting is weird.” Well, you can’t win them all! I’ll have to put a little more oomph into the frosting next time. The non-Keto-ers were definitely able to tell something was up with the frosting due to the cooling effect that comes with using erythritol. We’re pretty used to it by now and don’t really notice it anymore.
I think anyone on Keto is likely to be happy to have non-sugar frosting, especially if they’re a sweets person like I am. Have you baked anything using any of the sugar alternatives? What have you used, and what has been your experience with it?
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