Having your cake and eating it!
One of the great joys for us of cooking and the food industry in general is there’s always such a lot to learn. An even greater pleasure is when we’re being taught something new by someone we used to teach! When we moved down here a million years ago to do the catering at the RDYC (OK 2002 but it seems an age away) we had a gaggle of teenagers to call on for help one of whom was a young Frankie King. Now with Frankie’s help, we can all be having your cake and eating it!
Having your cake and eating it! – what???? Tell me more!
Now Frankie Crewes, a teacher and with 2 daughters of her own (thanks Frankie – that’s all making us feel rather old) she has started up her own cake business and more specifically cake mix to send through the post. No more cupcakes I hear you scream however these are cakes with a difference. Frankly Keto Cakes has been created to satisfy a sweet tooth for those on a low carb diet and as our house is endlessly full of homemade bread that’s not something we know about, we met up with Frankie to find out what she’s up to and, err, to eat cake!
Having your cake and eating it! Here’s what she had to say –
MFD – Hi Frankie, can you tell us about your new business and how it came about
FC – I created Frankly Keto Cakes due to my frustrations with not being able to find many low carb, low sugar, naturally made ‘sweet treats’ that didn’t have a huge amount of ingredients in.
Cake was something I missed and I really craved the ‘naughtiness’ of eating something unhealthy. So rather than fall off the wagon and revert back to my old ways of eating far too much sugar I didn’t give up and instead, I endeavoured to make my own low carb, low sugar cakes that fitted in with a Keto lifestyle.
Having your cake and eating it! – What’s a keto diet exactly?
MFD – What are the basics of a Keto diet?
FC – The Ketogenic (Keto) Lifestyle is a low carb, moderate protein, high fat lifestyle. It can help the body burn fat more effectively:
The theory behind it is that when the body is taking in too many carbohydrates and too much protein the body turns it into blood sugar which therefore spikes our insulin levels if not used for energy. Excess carbohydrate and protein which hasn’t been used will then turn to stored fat. Eating a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet helps to keeps our insulin levels low and our body then uses stored fat for energy. (Please Note I am not a health professional; these statements are based on my own research. Do please read more on The Ketogenic Diet before beginning and you should obviously check with your doctor that it would be OK for you to follow).
A Keto diet/ lifestyle can benefit people who would like to lose weight, improve general health and has even to be known to support Type 2 Diabetes reversal.
A famous doctor who reversed his own Type 2 Diabetes by following a low carbohydrate, sugar diet is Dr Michael Mosely (Creator of The Fast 800 and The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet) whom you’ve probably heard of. He followed the Mediterranean diet which has huge similarities to the Keto diet due to it being a low carbohydrate and low sugar diet.
Having your cake and eating it! – what’s in the mix?
MFD – Tell us about the ingredients – what do you use instead of sugar and flour??
FC – Instead of sugar we use Erythritol which is a zero calorie, natural sugar replacement. It is a naturally derived extract from fruits and plants and tastes just like sugar. It does have carbohydrates in however Erythritol passes through our bodies un-digested which therefore means that it doesn’t spike blood sugar levels (in most people). This is great because unlike some other sweeteners used in products it doesn’t need to be counted when keeping an eye on daily carbohydrate amounts.
We use almonds as our flour replacement. This takes away the gluten, keeps the cakes low in carbohydrate and sugar and instead gives them a good fat content. If you are thinking- urghhh marzipan flavour- I can assure you that they don’t provide that flavour at all.
MFD – Can you use coconut flour as well?
FC – Yes you can. Coconut is still low in carbs and sugar. I personally didn’t like the flavour as much and coconut flour absorbs more liquid. Cost wise they work out about the same too. You could mix both I believe and make great cakes.
Having your cake and eating it! – how do I get to be a tester??
MFD – How did you come up with the flavours and who do you test them on!
FC – I first started with traditional vanilla and chocolate flavoured cupcakes and then moved onto flavouring the frostings in a variety of different ways using natural flavourings and colourings. I love brownies so I had to create my own version of that for myself initially and I had requests off family and friends to make low carb versions of Lemon, Carrot and Cinnamon Cakes.
I tested them on family, friends and the only challenge I had was to create a cake that was edible, tasted great and just like the ‘real’ thing. After many fails I eventually had my recipe and baked, ate and gave away lots of cupcakes to interested family, friends and colleagues – in fact anyone who I was with or near when I had cakes on me!!
The cupcakes were a huge success and I developed the recipe to make low carb, low sugar Brownies, Lemon and Chocolate Loaf Cakes and a Cinnamon Swirl Tray Bake and I will be bringing out a keto cookie mix in the near future.
Having your cake and eating it! – How do we get them?
MFD – Tell us about your online shop – any particular challenges? Are you sending ready-to-eat cakes or the mixes?
FC – On our website we are selling both ready-made Keto cupcakes, Keto Brownies, Keto Lemon Pound Cake and the Keto Cake Mixes. This way there are options for everyone, the ease of ordering a ready-made cake that can be eaten straight away or for the keen baker, a cake mix where you can bake as and when with the addition of some extra staple ingredients.
MFD – How are you getting your cakes and mixes out there?
FC – We promote using our Instagram page @franklyketocakes and our Facebook page @franklyketocakes and are getting a great following with people posting pictures of cakes they have made from our mixes. Also lots of info on our website: www.franklyketocakes.co.uk
Having your cake and eating it! – Who’s buying your cakes?
MFD – Who are becoming your main customers?
FC – We have a great Keto Community following where people follow Keto for a multitude of health reasons and also many health driven people and families who would like to still eat cake but without the insanely high sugar content.
Having your cake and eating it! – Coming soon….
MFD – Where can we see you out and about selling your cakes?
FC – I am really hoping to be at Dartmouth Food Festival in October and have applied for their new business award so fingers crossed you’ll see me there!
MFD – What are your plans for the future and how do you see the business developing?
FC – We plan on getting our cake mixes out into the community and into some local shops so that we can continue in gaining invaluable feedback so we can keep moving forward. It would be a dream come true to see my Keto Cake Mixes in shops and supermarkets one day. Exciting times!!
MFD – So it seems you can have your cake and eat it; excuse us while we just rustle up a cupcake or 12; remember us when you’re a cake mix millionaire Frankie!
