I've baked with stevia. I've baked with a commercial sugar/stevia mixture (sorry, I can't recall the namebrand). But I haven't baked with a baking mix that included sugar and stevia. So this information will be based on past experiences using stevia as well as the stevia/sugar mixtures.

Since there is a portion of sugar in it, it will have better taste, texture, and will keep better than using stevia alone. You should still expect some stevia aftertaste, especially if you aren't accustomed to the taste of stevia. But the aftertaste will be less noticeable than if you used stevia alone.

Stevia is interesting, sometimes the baked goods taste sweeter the next day, or if they have been frozen, than they do when they first come out of the oven.

A little trick when using stevia alone in baked goods is to add a tablespoon or two of frozen fruit juice concentrate to recipes (orange, apple, pineapple, or orange/pineapple juices work well). Stevia is enhanced by the natural sugars in the added fruit juice. The added flavors from fruit juice, even in those small amounts, blend nicely with stevia to help mask the aftertaste associated with stevia. The addition of fruit, fruit puree and fruit sauces is beneficial, especially when using stevia alone.

Another tip when using stevia alone is to add a small portion of another natural sweetener, such as honey, date sugar, palm sugar, agave nectar, etc., but your mix already has that base covered by the added sugar.

You should be fine since the mix also has some sugar in it. I would also suggest serving the pound cake with some kind of fruit or fruit sauce. Fruit and stevia go very well together.

-Grainlady

Thanks Grainlady. What I mean by baking mix is the sugar/stevia combo that you mentioned. If things get sweeter do you need to cut down on the amount you use when baking? A friend used the sugar/stevia mixture in an apple pie, I've tried, and it was great, but like you mentioned it had the fruit. I didn't know if the sugar/stevia mixture would work well with the texture of a cake or not.

OOOPS, I thought it was a commercial baking mix for pound cake sweetened with sugar/stevia. That changes things.....

Sugar in baked goods has a lot of science to go along with it - especially in pound cake. Sugar not only brings sweetness, but it (along with fat) is a tenderizer. Anytime you reduce the amount of sugar you also sacrifice some tenderness and possibly some moistness. Because stevia only brings sweetness to the recipe, you will not get the exact results because it doesn't act as a tenderizer. In essence, you will be drastically reducing the amount of sugar.

When it comes to pound cake, the structural elements (flour and eggs) need to be balanced with the structure "wreckers" (sugar and fat). If you have too much flour and/or eggs, the cake will be dry, and essentially you will not have the proper amount of sugar if you use it as a substitute cup-for-cup for sugar.

By any chance are you following a recipe that is written specifically using the sugar/stevia blend? Check their web site for recipes to follow because they are going to increase your baking success because the recipes were designed to use the product. They may also have some helpful hints using it as a replacement in your regular recipes.

Cakes sweetened with stevia tend to form surface cracks and often puff-up in the center, and occasionally collapse after you take them out of the oven. So if you are substituting this product in a favorite recipe, rather than one designed for it, you probably won't get the same results. You may need to reduce the baking temperature by 25-degrees F. - that's common when using stevia in a cake recipe. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature.

Leftovers might tend to dry out or stale quickly, so keep them well-wrapped and plan to use them within a day or two at the most, or store them in the refrigerator or freezer.

Sorry about the misunderstanding....

-Grainlady

Thank you or the help and education. I always learn so much from you. I'm using a recipe I already have and was just thinking if I could cut the sugar then my dad could eat a little more of it. Since I'm baking for their company I better just stick with the T and T. I can always experiment later.

Thank you again for the help.