I almost flat-out didn’t have a birthday cake for my son’s first birthday. I didn’t want him having sugar, dyes, preservatives, or any other weird or unhealthy ingredients you find in box mixes or bakery cakes.
“He won’t know the difference. This doesn’t make me a bad mom,” I told myself.
The thought occurred to me to try to make him a cake myself with minimal and healthy ingredients, but I was having a hard time finding a recipe that actually met my standards for him. Plus I’d have to find a frosting recipe to go with it.
It seemed like a daunting task to me, and I felt like it would be more trouble (and time consuming) than it was worth - especially if this was going to be a typical smash cake situation where Baby has a couple bites and then he’s done.
Then some friends reminded me of a couple things: (1) the cake is less for Baby, and more for Mom. It’s all about that photo op! (2) The only person who needs to like it is your baby, so you COULD just slather the cake in mashed sweet potatoes and not even concern yourself with a frosting.
By the grace of God and many Google searches, I stumbled upon eatingbirdfood.com, and sure enough she had a recipe for “‘Healthy’ Birthday Cake” that I modified with my preferences.
And it’s actually really yummy! It’s more of a banana bread consistency and less of a cake consistency.
“Healthy” Birthday Cake
3 large eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 cup cassava flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray three 2c Pyrex glass bowls with oil or line with parchment paper.
- Whisk together “wet” ingredients in a large sized bowl.
- Mix together “dry” ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
- Add “dry” ingredients to “wet” ingredients and stir to combine.
- Pour evenly into three bowls and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top. Make cupcakes with any leftover batter!
I won’t bother sharing the frosting recipe since it really wasn’t tasty. I’ll get back to you on that if I ever find a good one that’s not loaded with refined sugar. In the meantime, I’d recommend just using mashed sweet potatoes to support the cake layers.
0 Comments