ISO: a GOOD carob cake!

[CompassRose]

So I have a friend, poor deprived thing, she's allergic to chocolate and has never tasted it (that she can remember, anyway).

As if that wasn't enough, she's recently been diagnosed with a possibly-pre-diabetic blood sugar problem, and so has been instructed to eliminate refined sugars and flours from her diet. She can, however, still have non-refined sugars like Sucanat and maple syrup and things, in moderation. (Makes little sense to me, but her doctor told her so.)

I want to make her a chocolate-like cake. I know, I know, carob ain't chocolate. But I was thinking, maybe with some coffee as a liquid? (She does still drink coffee.) Or some hazelnuts? Or both? To mute and "choccify" the carob taste?

It'll have to be whole-grain flours, of course - but still, I'm hoping for something that isn't TOO granola-virtuous - you know, one of those political vegan cafe "desserts" that aren't really. That's NOT what I'm looking for.

I've really never worked with carob, though I've eaten some carob-ish things - and some were actually tasty. Has anyone got a bit more experience, who could offer me some direction, some help, tips, or even (perhaps!) a recipe?

Thank you all....

[LotusCakeStudio]

I don't eat chocolate for religious reasons; I stopped eating it for so long, I am now allergic. Generally, I'm not much of a carob fan. When I make carob cake, I melt in some white chocolate couvreture and it tastes great. If you want to avoid refined sugar, if you search health food stores, you can find white chocolate made with less refined sugars. You could also just add food grade cocoa butter, since that is the ingredient in white chocolate that is giving the carob it's chocolatey flavor. I've never tried it, but with the white chocolate, I melted some, and added enough "until it smelled right", which was about a handful of coins.

Here's the recipe I use. It says chocolate, but it was actually originally a carob cake recipe using the same amount of carob powder. Just add the melted white chocolate to the room temp. milk. Yeah, I know this recipe is eggless, and I even list a vegan version, but believe me, it's not whole wheat flour, hippy-granola scariness since I refuse to eat that type of stuff. BTW, I made this recipe with Sucanat once and it was acutally pretty good.

[W.DeBord]

LotusCakeStudio I really enjoyed visiting your site. Although there were many photos that wouldn't open...and I'd love to look at them if it's possible. Can you tell me any simple thing I can do so they'll appear?

Very nice work!

[LotusCakeStudio]

I skimmed through the photos and I could see all of them just fine? Weird. Maybe you can't see them if you're not a registered user? I dunno? Maria (mpshort) was the only one posting pics on there so you can just go to her site: Creative Pastries. She's a good friend of mine. We went to the same school, but at different times. I met her on another cake decorating message board and we hit it off, finding out we were both L'Academie alumni. I got to meet her in person a couple months ago. She taught me how to make some gumpaste flowers. Weeee!

When I get pics of my current stuff, I'll post them. I have had bad luck with film getting lost at Target. There was a pic of a wedding cake on there and one of a really cool bday cake I did. Grrr! The only stuff I have pics of are from '98 - '99. One from last year.

[LotusCakeStudio]

I skimmed through the photos and I could see all of them just fine? Weird. Maybe you can't see them if you're not a registered user? I dunno? Maria (mpshort) was the only one posting pics on there so you can just go to her site: Creative Pastries. She's a good friend of mine. We went to the same school, but at different times. I met her on another cake decorating message board and we hit it off, finding out we were both L'Academie alumni. I got to meet her in person a couple months ago. She taught me how to make some gumpaste flowers. Weeee!

When I get pics of my current stuff, I'll post them. I have had bad luck with film getting lost at Target. There was a pic of a wedding cake on there and one of a really cool bday cake I did. Grrr! The only stuff I have pics of are from '98 - '99. Two from last year, but one of them (the pics) came out horrible. That's what I get for depending on the wedding photographer! I could have done a better job with my husband's Hulk Hogan 110 from his elementary school days!

[W.DeBord]

Your freind does nice work. I think the idea of making mini cakes on sugar cookies is great!

It's horrible to loose photos, I'd be pretty darn mad at Target.