Me Too.
@xezar: During weight loss phase people would always offer me food and stuff that I didn’t want to eat and it became a bit if a chore/annoyance to politely and repeatedly decline.
If a dear friend made me a cake for my bday I would’ve felt inclined to eat it (even if I didn’t want to). Luckily my bday did not fall within my weight loss phase window, lol
Like someone mentioned above, maybe ask your friend if they would like a dessert from you (and if so what kind), and then go from there.
Although from this quote below from your post, sounds like your friend already gave you their answer. Its kind of you to want your friend to feel “normal”, but perhaps they are looking for a different kind of normal…and you probably don’t need “to convince them otherwise”.