This weekend we celebrated my nephew's first birthday. He loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates so we made him a pirate themed cake. My concern for his birthday cake was that he really hasn't had a lot of different foods to eat yet, so I worried about overhauling his tender little system with sugar, chocolate and other ingredients he hasn't tried. We have had several kids with allergies early in their first few years and can attest to the fact that you will have a wonderfully horrible evening with a screaming child when you do that to them. They love it at the moment, but don't let you forget about it for a couple of days afterward.
So we opted to make a healthy first birthday cake sweetened with applesauce and infused with his favorite puree (pumpkin) and some cinnamon to flavor.
He loved it, although I was a little disappointed he didn't just dig in and make a huge mess of his cake. No, he waited until it was sliced nicely for him and then he ate those pieces. He had a little bit of frosting around his lips and chin, but overall a very neat birthday.
Crazy kiddo. Hopefully that changes by next year. For the accompanying Jake and the Neverland Pirate Cake complete with hidden treasures inside the cake, come back on Friday!
Ingredients
- ½ cup fruit or vegetable puree (see notes)
- ½ cup natural no sugar added applesauce
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour (can substitute gluten free flour)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup (4 ounces) cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup applesauce
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 5x7 rectangle pan (pictured) or a 9 inch round baking pan.
- In a bowl, stir together the fruit or vegetable puree, applesauce, baking soda, flour, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. Pour into the greased baking dish and use a spatula to smooth.
- Place pan in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes until edges are browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean.
- Remove pan from oven and allow to cool for several minutes in the pan. Remove cake from pan and place cake on a cooling rack to finish cooling completely. Frost when cake has completely cooled.
- To Make the Frosting: In a mixing bowl, whip the softened cream cheese until light and fluffy on medium speed (approximately 1-2 minutes). Slowly stir in the applesauce, vanilla and cinnamon and continue mixing an additional minute.
- Frost and decorate the cake as desired. Refrigerate cake immediately until ready to eat.
- To serve: Remove any decorations a baby may be able to choke on prior to allowing baby to eat the cake.
Notes
* Puree ideas: Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, pumpkin, squash, applesauce, cherries, or a combination of any of these. Hint: This is a great way to use up all those baby food purees you don't need anymore.
What an adorable and healthy First Birthday Cake. Enjoy all the memories! Thanks so much for joining our Foods of The World Tour to Mexico, hope you will join in France next month.
See You Soon!
Miz Helen
Stopping by from the blog hop. Thanks for sharing this recipe, such a great idea!