Sugar Free

My father’s 81st birthday was last weekend. Next weekend we’re having a small get together at his place and my sister is bringing cupcakes. I can’t have sugar, so no cupcakes for me. She can’t have dairy, so no cupcakes for her either. It got me thinking about alternatives. Are there sugar free or dairy free cupcakes available anywhere? I Googled and had my world slightly rocked.

I knew there was a candy shop in Salem, NH that has a sugar free section. I remember going in there once and wishing I had known about it when my uncle was alive. He had type two diabetes and would have loved some candy now and then. I thought it might be a good thing for Harry and his type one diabetes. He can have sugar, he just has to account for it with insulin. I thought maybe sugar free stuff would make the math easier for him. He wasn’t interested. He likes the real thing. I don’t blame him.

What I didn’t know, until today, is that there is a sugar free bakery in Salem too! Now before you think I am getting all excited, I am not. I am sure that whatever they are using in place of sugar is probably less than wonderful for you and I am already WAY overdoing artificial sweeteners (they are in literally everything I eat these days besides chicken and French fries, and even those I’m not 100% sure of) and I am not looking to have more. Do not expect me to start placing regular cookie and cupcake orders at this joint. Okay? I don’t want to go there.

I do, however, have a birthday in May. I wonder if a single slice of birthday cake might be possible. A small, tiny piece of cake that would take me three or four sittings to finish.

I wonder. It would probably cost a fortune and therefore wouldn’t be worth it. I just fantasized a little, you know? Birthday cake shouldn’t be a big deal, but accepting that those days are over forever is, while not difficult, a little sad.