Since my husband is still on his no refined carbs kick, I’m continuing my efforts to create baked goods he will eat.  I’ve had some success with baking whole wheat oatmeal cookies and whole wheat pumpkin bread sweetened with a modest amount of unrefined cane sugar.  But on the cruise we recently took, they served Splenda-sweetened desserts at dinner, which inspired me to give Splenda a try in home baking. 

I substituted Splenda for sugar (1:1, like the box said) in a simple chocolate cake recipe that’s worked well for me in the past, and the result was less than appetizing.  For starters, the batter did not change shape at all when baked.  I wish I’d taken a picture to illustrate, but when I spread the (quite thick) batter in the pan, the swirls and dollops looked exactly the same after baking as when the batter was raw.  That seemed so unnatural to me, because baked goods nearly always spread as they bake.  And the cake was extremely dry.  Even with a generous amount of whipped cream, it was so dry we nearly choked on it.

So much for cake.  Next I tried brownies (pictured above).  These weren’t quite as awful as the cake, but the texture still wasn’t quite like normal brownies.  They were cakier and again very, very dry.  The flavor also had chemical overtones that were unmasked even by chocolate.  Obviously, there’s a reason God gave us sucrose, not sucralose. 

After he tried the brownies and the cake, my husband said, “You know, it’s OK if you make normal desserts just for you and the little tike.  I don’t really miss them, and it won’t make me feel bad if you eat them without me.  It’s just like our friends where one spouse is Mormon and the other isn’t.  Just because one is a teetotaler doesn’t mean the other can’t have his beer or wine.”  So I have permission to continue my sugar addiction, although it’s not nearly as fun to partake alone.