1st b-day cake question

[mykidsmom]

My dd will be 1 in just 2 months. Hard for me to believe the time flew by so fast. Does anyone has a recipe for a healthy cake for baby to eat (or just plow her hands into). I want those cute cake all over the face photos from her 1st b-day, but don't like the idea of her having all that sugar. Any suggestions, recipes or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

[SnuggleBuggles]

I know that the "What to Expect the 1st Year" book has a recipe that you might be able to track down.

This link has a few good recipes:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipFirstBDay.htm

I admit that for ds' birthday I just made regular old, homemade yellow cake. Something I do do is buy Evaporated Cane Juice and use it instead of refined white sugar. I actually have completely eliminated white sugar from my house and only use ECJ. I buy it at Whole Foods or the local natural food co-op. The price is very similair. I know that your body handles it better than white sugar- it doesn't hit your system the same way. Just something to consider. It makes me feel a bit better about my love of baked goods. :)

Beth

[hez]

I'd just make sure if you're giving cake with eggs in it that you've fully investigated whether or not eggs cause allergies in your DD. Payton had a reaction to his, which was not a disaster, but less than fun to clean up.

[MarisaSF]

I made banana bread cupcakes with whipped cream frosting. The frosting was my friend's idea: just pour some whipping cream in a bowl with a little bit of sugar. This should have been something Jazz would eat.

However.... no matter what recipe you go with, I highly suggest you *don't* put candles anywhere near it. We did the whole candles, song singing, video-taping. As soon as DH blew out the candles, we had a total freak-out fest. Made for a really funny video, but DD wouldn't touch the cupcakes.

[kaylinsmommy2]

I made DD a healthy apple cake from a recipe someone else had posted. It was an egg free, low sugar cake that reminded me of a healthy type muffin. I ate it as a breakfast muffin; DD didn't eat it at first, but did later. Some people either looked at us weird or made comments about not letting her eat her "real" cake (that us adults, and some of the other kids ate). But, I told some of them who didn't understand that it was because of worries of egg allergy. And, when people asked us to give her some of her cake when she (we) blew out the candles, I put some frosting on her nose just for pictures and that was good enough for them.

Email me for more recipes, I just copied and pasted all the ones I found in a search that looked good into a word file. Some general advice - you can make any other recipe but just cut the sugar in half (and usually you won't notice the difference much). You can switch some or all of the white flour and use spelt, soy, or whole wheat flour for a healthier grain. You can replace all the oil with apple sauce, or maybe try to replace some of the sugar with apple sauce? Or you can try to replace some of the white sugar with honey or real maple syrup. For frosting, you can do like Marisa suggested - real whipped cream with a touch of sugar or make a creme cheese frosting with a pinch of sugar.

Here's the apple sauce I made:
from liza:
***i have a great recipe (from an egg allergy friend for my egg allergy son) for eggless cupcakes. VERY yummy.

applesauce cake:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups flour (whole grain spelt flour)

preheat oven to 350. cream first 5 ingredients together. stir in applesauce and flour. grease an 8x8 pan and pour in batter. bake 30-45 minutes. cake can be topped with powdered sugar or icing. this recipe makes one layer cake. (i have had it as cupcakes, too.)

my friend says you can add shredded carrots to make it like carrot cake, and she had it as her wedding cake with buttercream icing.


Caroline
Kaylin 6/5/04

[Melanie]

That applesauce cake looks delicious! I am definitely going to try it.

Anyway, here are a couple I tried for Ds' last birthday (I can't remember which I ended up going with):

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake

Cake:
5 cups flour (unbleached white flour really goes over best with the people who are used to sugary sweets, but you can use whatever you want)
1 1/2 cups cocoa
3 cups sucanat, Rapadura, maple sugar (not syrup) or other dry sweetner -- if you want to use a wet sweetner you'll need to adjust your dry ingredients.
4 tsps. baking soda
3/4 cup oil (your preference -- I use melted coconut)
4 3/4 cups brewed coffee cooled to room temp (You can use water, but the coffee adds so much flavor to the cake. Use decaf if you want. You can also use instant... measure out 4 3/4 cups water and add 5 tsps. instant coffee powder)
1 tbsp. vanilla
2 tsps. almond extract
1/4 vinegar (apple cider or white vinegar)

1. Preheat oven to 350º
2. Sift dry ingredients (except sugar) into a large bowl. Add your choice of sugar and whisk together. If you do try a wet sweetner do not add it here... add it to your wet ingredients.
3. Mix wet ingredients (except vinegar) in a separate bowl.
4. Add wet to dry and mix well. Add vinegar and mix for a couple mins. on medium.
5. Pour batter into two prepared 12" pans.
6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few sticky crumbs on it... about 30 mins.

Mousse:
2 cups grain sweetened chocolate chips
2 boxes of extra firm silken tofu
1 tbsp. vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp of any other flavor if you wish .. almond, orange, raspberry, etc.

1 1/2 cups toasted sliced almonds (not slivered)
a few chocolate covered almonds

1. Melt chips over a water bath
2. blend tofu in a food processor until very smooth. Add remaining ingredients (except nuts!) and continue to blend. Put mousse in a bowl and chill until firm... 4 hours at least, overnight is best.
4. Spread a generous amount of filling on one layer of the cake. Put the other layer on top. Fronst the sides lightly and the top generously. Press the sliced almonds onto the sides. Decorate the top with chocolate covered almonds.

Variations on this cake are endless. Two I have done and really liked are using water instead of coffee in the cake and adding 1/2 cup of peanut butter to the mousse for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake, or making a 1/2 batch of the mousse and adding raspberry flavoring to it -- then use raspberry preserves in the middle and frost the cake with the mousse and decorate with raspberries and chocolate shavings on top. Hows that for a totally misconfigured sentence?
-------------------------------------
THE VERSATILE VANILLA CAKE

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Oil two 8-inch cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper

Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 tablespoos whole-wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour (or you can use wheat) 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/4 cup canola oil (or safflower) 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup 3/4 cup vanilla ricemilk or soymilk 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar 3 tablespoons vanilla extract

1. Sift the dry ingredients into a medium bowl: whole -wheat pastry flour,
unbleached white flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt. Stir with a
wire whisk to mix.
2. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients: canola oil, maple syrup,
soymilk, vinegar and vanilla, with a wire whisk until foamy. Pour the wet ingredients
into dry ingredients and mix until the batter is smooth.
3. Pour the batter into the pans dividing evenly. Level the tops by gently rotating pans. Tap the pans lightly on the counter to eliminate air bubbles.
Bake cakes on center rack of the preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and springs back at its center when touched lightly. A cake tester inserted in the center of the cake should remove clean. 4. Remove cakes from the oven and place the pans on cooling racks. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then use a dinner knife to release the layers from the sides of the pan. Turn layers out of pans, directly onto wire racks to finish cooling.
5. When cool, enclose each layer tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until layers are cold, about 1 hour, before filling and frosting, or wrap in aluminum foil. Freeze for longer storage. Serves 10-12

mousse/frosting
1 package of the silken (firm) Tofu. (I think it's approx. 8oz.) 1 10oz. package of Carob or Chocolate chips. 3 - 4 Tablespoons of Maple Syrup

In a double boiler melt the carob/chocolate chips.
Puree the tofu in a food processor til smooth, then add the melted
carob/chocolate chips into the tofu. Then add the syrup. Blend well. Pour into a bowl (or individual dishes, if doing a mousse) and chill for at
least 3 hours.
Can keep in the fridge for up to a week.

[DrSally]

Hi, I know this is an old post, but DS's birthday is coming up and he has a milk and egg allergy. Did you say that you can substitute applesauce for the butter? I assume he can't have butter in addition to cow's milk. Also, anyone done a simple frosting with just powdered sugar and water (ie no butter). I like the idea of shredded carrots. TIA

[Melanie]

I used Earth Balance (A Vegetable Shortening "butter"). It's yellow, though, so you'll want to make sure it's not for white.

[DrSally]

Never heard of it, can you find it at groc stores, or did you have to go to Whole foods or wild oats or something like that? Thanks.

[Melanie]

I get mine at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.