Baby Cakes

First Birthday Parties are weird.

 

You spend your baby's first year trying to give them the best start with the best nutrition. You're supposed to brush their little gums before their teeth even pop out, and you wouldn't even think of giving them candy, for goodness sakes. You've successfully protected them from the dangers of honey, dairy, egg whites, gobs of peanut butter, grapes, hot dogs, and popcorn.

But then on that magical day that they turn 12 months old, all of a sudden you're supposed to surround them with a bunch of strangers who all want to gather around and stare at them, or even scarier, pick them up and make funny noises at them! We expect them to be pleased about all this because this whole shin-digg is FOR THEM, after all. And just in case they make it through an hour or so of all that excitement without any meltdowns, you're also expected to let your pure, undefiled baby dive into a gob of butter, sugar, eggs, shortening, and dyes (along with who-knows-what they put in those store bought cakes) because if you don't you are an over-protective neurotic mother who needs to cut those apron strings and let that poor kid have a little fun. (We'll all have gone home by the time your little one has that sugar crash anyway, so that won't be a problem.)

No need to fear. We can fool all those grown ups and still give our babies the joy of diving into something sweet. Solution #1 ...

Yes, I do realize this may be the ugliest cake ever. Had I not had to transport it an hour away in a Honda Civic, had all of about 5 minutes to try and decorate it, AND ran out of my pre-made frosting, it MAY have turned out better. But, it's completely junk-free and still yummy, and someone with a tad bit of cake decorating skills could work magic with this recipe.

Sam's 1st Birthday Cake

Beat 1 1/3 cup Mashed Banana with 1 cup Softened Butter.

Beat in 1 1/2 cup Apple Juice.

Beat 6 eggs until foamy, then add to mixture.

Blend in: 4 cups unbleached flour (you could even use whole wheat if you want to be an over-achiever), 4 tsp. Baking Powder, 2 tsp. Baking Soda, and 2 tsp. Cinnamon (optional)

Grease (with butter or olive oil) and flour 2 cake pans (I had a TON leftover I used as a base for muffins.)

Bake at 350 for 20+ minutes.

Frosting:

Puree Bananas in the food processor to get close to the amount of frosting you would want on the cake. Then start adding Rice Cereal; this will give it the consistency you'll need for it to hold up like frosting. As it sits it will get harder and harder. After traveling in the car for an hour it was completely un-spreadable so I put it back in the food processor and added apple juice to get the right consistency. Oh, I also forgot to mention that that rice cereal is going to turn those bananas to a very artistic color of GRAY. So ... if you're against food coloring, get out the beet juice because you're gonna need to add some color.

Option #2 ...

Sam's Second 1st Birthday Cake

Sam actually got 2 first birthday parties. The first was at my dad's house and the second was at home. For our party at home I took a different tactic. I was blessed with a little boy who loves to eat. One of his favorite foods has always been mashed potatoes. I figured, he has no idea a cake is supposed to be sweet, so I baked corn bread in 2 cake pans and frosted it with mashed potatoes that I added green food coloring to. Then I added a couple of his farm animal toys on the top. It was SO totally cute, I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it!

Option #3 (For the second baby)

Jonas's 1st Birthday Cake

Poor second babies. We're never quite as diligent with them, are we? I was so busy planning clever decorations and food that I totally forgot to put some effort into the baby's cake. Besides, he had an older brother that already introduced him to the wonderful world of sugar, so he wasn't quite as protected as Sam had been!

Honestly, for the cake part, I copped out and just used a Butter Yellow Cake Mix. BUT, if you wanted to be just as easy and a tad healthier, you can mix any flavor cake mix with a can of pumpkin.

 

For the "frosting" I used pureed bananas and rice cereal with a generous helping of jarred baby food sweet potatoes to get that orangey color. (I was going for a goldfish, can you tell?) And since my mother in law and I decorated it with fruit on top, he actually just spent a long time eating all the fruit off!

See? He got just as messy as any other baby and had just as much fun 

(except without the sugar-crash tantrums.)