* Less than 2g carbs after subtracting fiber!
* No sugars or starch
* No need for sugar alcohols
* No grain, dairy or soy

What comes to mind when you think of a cake made entirely from nuts? Luxury? Decadence? Elegance? Not on your diet?

Not necessarily. Nuts are good food -- lowcarb enough for lowcarbers, and full of the good fats that experts are now recommending for everyone. There is little doubt that these natural repositories of vitamins and minerals are far more flavorful than grain. OTOH, baking with nuts is quite a challenge, even for professional bakers, and that's without the challenge of leaving out other typical bulk cake ingredients -- like sugar.

That's where Expert Foods comes in.

We have found a way to turn ground nuts and nut flours into delicious, moist baked goods that taste and feel the way cakes and muffins should, but rarely do. Cakes with character, tea breads with texture, muffins with substance -- real foods that satisfy rather than send your blood sugar reeling. And you make these sumptuous and scrumptious cakes and tea breads without sugar, starch, grain, soy, dairy or odd chemicals -- with just 2g bioavailable carbs per 1 1/2-ounce serving for the basic recipe.

With Wise CHOice Cake-ability Baking Aid, we supply the texture -- and the easy recipes -- and you are the "expert" baker. You create baked goods of your choice, with the ingredients of your choice. Your "from scratch" creations will benefit from the fresh flavors, and you will benefit from using the ingredients right for your diet. Our recipes are easy -- faster and easier than using a regular cake mix -- our cakes don't need all that beating, and you can bake them in a microwave oven. (However, they will be slightly prettier if baked in a regular oven.) Furthermore, it's perfectly safe to remove them from the pan while still hot -- in fact, the crust is better if you do that and let them cool on a rack (unless you don't like a distinct crust -- another place you get to choose).

You can even underbake them -- on purpose, of course (that's what you say) -- to get delicious a creamy center. Just try that with the high-carb kind!, Or overbake them slightly to get something that resembles a high-carb torte (in other words, rather dry). If you overshoot entirely, slice them and rebake them into biscotti. After all, they are just variations for you to choose. (However, the moister the version, the sooner it can spoil, so be sure to keep it refrigerated.)

If you can't find ground nuts or nut flour, it's not hard to grind your own nuts in a food processor. Just combine them with our Baking Aid and other dry ingredients and grind away -- don't worry if it comes out a bit "damp" -- it just makes combining it with the liquid ingredients easier. It's the fineness of the nuts that affects whether you get a tender "fancy" cake (very finely-ground nuts) or a heavy muffin (coarsely-ground -- or add chopped nuts) or anything in between.

Here are the label directions.

1. Mix (or grind) together, breaking up any lumps: ½ cup Baking Aid (55g), ½ lb ground nuts (225g or about 2 cups), sweetener equal to ½ cup sugar (100g) (or add liquid sweetener in Step 3), pinch salt, dry flavoring ingredients.

2. Line baking pan with parchment or foil, or grease and "flour" with mixture from Step 1.

3. Combine liquids: 1 cup water (240ml), 3 eggs, 3 Tbs oil (45ml), other liquid ingredients.

4. Stir liquid and dry ingredients together until thoroughly wet -- no need to beat!

5. Immediately pour into prepared pan and microwave (around 7 minutes) or bake at 350°F (175°C) -- loaf pans 40-50 minutes, round pans 25-35 minutes, cupcakes/muffins 15-25 minutes -- or until center springs back.

Chocolate Cake: grind nuts very fine. Add ½ cup cocoa, plus an extra 1/4 cup sweetener, 2 Tbs water, 4 Tbs oil, 2 tsp vanilla. (For a Torte, skip the extra water and sweetener.) Bake in round pan, preferably springform.

Banana Bread: use loaf pan; only 2 eggs; cinnamon to taste; swirl in 1 oz. (30g or 1/4 cup) chopped walnuts and top with 3 oz thinly-sliced banana (1 small or ½ large).

Muffins: use 2 eggs; coarse nut flour or add chopped nuts. Makes 12-16 regular-sized muffins, or six oversize.

More ideas: replace water with coffee, etc. Add extracts, syrups, fruit (diced or pulp), other nuts, seeds, coconut, and/or spices to taste -- and invent away!

Nutrition* per 1/16th of basic recipe (1 1/2 oz) made with pecans and 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (calculated by Mastercook): 140 calories; 13g fat (1.3g sat); 4.2g carb (of which 2.2g is fiber); 3.7g protein, 95mg sodium

* based on no-calorie sweetener

Wise CHOice Cake-ability Baking Aid is available in a 6-ounce package -- enough for three 1 1/2 pound cakes or tea breads -- each recipe requires a half cup -- plus extra for "flouring" the pan if you don't use baker's parchment. It's packaged in our usual stand-up zipper pouch.