This Is My Secret to Making a Tasty, Sugar-Free Cake—and No One Can Tell the Difference

Ask any baker and they'll tell you whipping up a sweet confection is an artform. As someone who loves to cook, I feel the same way about salty, savory foods, but the experimental, jazz-like cadence of cooking dinner pales in comparison to the scientific exactness that is required for baking. Measuring sugar in a dessert, for example, needs to be precise to get the flavor and texture just right, and the type of sweetener used matters just as much.

For people who can't have sugar, like my grandfather, or those who don't like or want it in their diets, artificial sweeteners and other substitutes (think: honey, agave, stevia) have tried to take its place, but it's hard to replicate that flavor—especially when using something fake that has a bitter, chemical aftertaste. That's where Purecane baking sweeteners came in to save the day when I was recently tasked with making a cake to celebrate my grandfather's birthday. I was hyper-aware of his need for a sugar replacement and the fact that he loves sweets and would be able to tell in an instant if I tried to deceive him.

To buy: $8; purecane.com.

What makes all of Purecane's products special is that they're each an all-natural alternative to traditional sugar that's actually derived from sugar itself. The brand does this by fermenting sugarcane to create a "pure" sweetener that's diabetes-friendly, tastes just like regular sugar, is all natural, and is environmentally friendly and responsibly sourced. Purecane sugar was easy to use in my recipe and replaced the traditional sweetener in a 1:1 ratio, so, thankfully, no math or extra thought was required on my end. But most importantly, the cake I made tasted exactly like it always has, and the half dozen or so people who ate it were none the wiser.

Plenty of shoppers seem to have had similar experiences. One called it "hands-down the best sugar substitute on the market" and another added that they recently became diabetic and couldn't imagine not being able to add sugar to their coffee, and with Purecane, they don't have to. "You can't tell the difference," they wrote.

Stop sacrificing flavor when you make your favorite treats sugar-free by switching to Purecane sweetener. The brand has options to replace traditional sugar, brown sugar, and confectioner's sugar for baking, as well as table sugar for coffee and other beverages starting at just $5.

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