One of the most frequently asked questions I see posted in our Facebook group relates to inquires about healthy recipes for baby’s first birthday cake.
We don’t recommend that grains be introduced that early, or sugar or chocolate … really at any age, so what is a parent to do?!
Recommendations from our community members:
- “I made a coconut flour hummingbird cake. And a cream cheese frosting sweetened with maple syrup.”
- “I made these coconut flour cupcakes for my sons and the other kids at their 1st birthday parties. But I subbed sucanat and maple syrup for the agave/honey and coconut oil for the grapeseed/palm shortening. They were a big hit.”
- “No cake just a bowl of raw whipped cream and berries.”
- “I used Modern Alternative Mama’s white bean cake recipe for my middle child’s 1st birthday. My 1st and 3rd children didn’t even get cakes. Oops!”
- “I made a watermelon cake for my daughter who was born in July. Just carved the watermelon and added fruit cut outs, blueberries, etc to decorate. So much fun to watch them eat and easy.”
- “I put some raw Greek yogurt with a birthday candle in it in a silicone baking cup and froze it. I also did one without the candle for my daughter to eat right away. Let it sit out a bit before you’re ready to use it. We got the cute messy baby pics and she had a blast licking the frozen yogurt.”
- “I made a cacao quinao cake but looking back I would definitely substitute with carob powder. Big mistake giving chocolate anything to a 1 year old.” We actually recommend that one avoid chocolate.
- “Use 1/4 cup of coconut flour and 2 eggs to substitute for 1 cup flour.”
- Coconut Flour Cake by Nourished Kitchen
- Grain free Banana Cake by Food Renegade
- Coconut Berry Icebox Cake bv Self Proclaimed Foodie
- Carrot Cake by Primal Palate
- The Perfect 1st Birthday Cupcake: Grain, Nut, Egg, and Refined Sugar Free by Raising Generation Nourished
- The Grain, Dairy and Refined Sugar Free Smash Cake! by the Urban Poser
- Sugar Free Cream Cheese Frosting by Intoxicated On Life
- Refined-Sugar Free Vanilla Buttercream by the Modern Alternative Mama
- Coconut Flour Classic Vanilla Cake published by Healy Eats Real
- Fruity Turtle Cake by Raw for Beauty
- Coconut Flour Birthday Cake with Maple Buttercream Frosting [Baby Friendly]
- Coconut Flour Vanilla Cake by Nourishing Hope
A note about honey and egg whites:
According to Jill Allbitron’s article Nourishing a Growing Baby, the recommendation is to avoid giving babies honey up to 1 year because infants do not produce strong enough stomach acid to deactivate potential spores. Use blackstrap molasses, which is high in iron and calcium. Egg whites should also be avoided up to one year due to their high allergenic potential.
Ingredients
Via our Amazon affiliation:
- Viva Labs Organic Coconut Flour
- Nutiva Organic Coconut Flour
- Bob’s Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour
While this isn’t an ingredient, I’d love to recommend the Happy Birthday, Baby [Dr. Seuss Nursery Collection] book.
What would you recommend that we add to our list?
Click on the photograph of Max’s Smash Cake to see the source.
Nourishing Our Children 
5 Responses to Baby’s First Birthday Cake
Birthday cake for little ones (and big ones)
Recipe is:
3 pastured eggs
150 gr coconut sugar
200 gr almond flour
50 gr chopped almonds
Whisk eggs and sugar until frotty, stir in almond flour, bake at 150 degrees celcius hot air or 175 degrees celsius normal for 30 min
Topping:
Kefir creme fraiche 200 ml
Whipped cream 250 ml
One bag of organic frozen raspberries
Cook raspberries slightly with a vanilla bean and purée through strainer, let cool
Whip the cream, stir in creme fraiche and the cool raspberry sauce.
Top the cake (make sure you let the bottom cool completely before you top!)
Decorate with fresh or freeze dried berries
Thanks, Michelle! Here is the photo you posted of the cake in our Facebook group: https://nourishingourchildren.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/birthday-cake.jpg
We did jello in cute little molds using this recipe for my son, it turned out pretty good.
http://paleomagazine.com/paleo-jello-strawberryblueberry-flavor/
My son just had his first birthday and we had great success with a peach banana cake
1 small peach
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Blend fruit together in a food processor until perfectly smooth. Whisk fruit puree, milk, egg, oil, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly pour your liquid ingredients into the dry, mix. It will be thin. Pour your batter into a greased 6 inch round pan. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, or until you can stick a knife through the center and it comes out clean.
For banana cream frosting
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil
Puree banana until perfectly smooth, set aside. Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Gradually whip banana, vanilla, and oil into the cream, being careful not to over whip. Place in fridge for at least twenty minutes to harden and for best results place cake in fridge for ten minutes after frosting.
I had significantly more frosting then I had cake but the frosting was the most popular part. Some of the leftover frosting made great smoothie pudding pops blended with some more fruit and some greens.
I decorated it with blueberries and a bit of the frosting colored blue (more purple) with blueberry juice and he loved it. His dad and I didn’t mind it either!
My friend sent this recipe to me a few months back as an option for my kiddos second birthday “cake.” No grains or sugar- lots of eggs and coconut oil and they are TASTY so I thought I’d share. I frosted them with raw milk cream fraiche with a tiny bit of vanilla bean and honey mixed it and they were a total hit. https://paleogrubs.com/banana-nut-muffins-recipe