Ottava Ella Birt turned ONE at the end of February. (You can read her birth story here) Oh my goodness, how did my baby girl turn one already? Now, I may need to take a second to cry in a corner before I write more in my post. Although I had every intention to get this recipe up right away, it’s over a month later. I know some of you have been wanting a baby friendly, grain free birthday cake recipe and now it’s here! I’ve had a lot of people wanting a baby birthday cake recipe, and here it is.
Ottava has been eating a nutrient dense, grain free, dairy free diet since six months old. I have’t given her any sugar, she hasn’t had a ton of fruit (she loves pear and berries) and she only had some teething biscuits with molasses. I wanted to discourage a sweet tooth early on because we have such an abundance of sweet things in our diets, I wanted to load her with unique flavors until she has an understanding of what sweet is.
I had been dreaming of her first birthday cake for a couple of months before her party. The secret is that I really wanted a party just so I could bake a cake and make it so special for her. She won’t remember, but I really loved throwing her party and having friends and family there. And I do love experimenting with baking recipes and coming up with something I imagined and have it meet the specific food requirements I have for that particular recipe.
Why a Grain Free Birthday Cake?
Phil and I eat grain free. It’s what we feel the best on. And I don’t avoid grains with Ottava only because we are grain free. If I ate gluten free grains I would still feed Ottava grain free. It’s my best understanding with the research and science that babies should be grain free for the first 1-5 years of their life. Now I know that’s a really wide range, but that’s what I’ve read. And sometimes ancient grains are in the diet from 2-5. Here’s my take after sifting through all of research. My best recommendation is for their first two years of life I believe kiddos should be grain free.
Infants and toddlers guts aren’t ready to process and digest grains appropriately until 2 years old. Their tight junctions in their gut are still open (which means things go in and out) until 2 years old because they are meant to be able to readily bring nutrients into their gut from breastmilk until the age of two. You can think of it like mom and baby kind of share an immune system, if that makes sense. Even if you’re not breastfeeding, I believe it’s important to stay grain free for baby. Grains are one of the biggest gut irritants of any foods we eat. We were never meant to eat the high quantities of grains we have available to us today.
Before you think I’m too crazy, I’ll tell you from a mom who’s doing a grain free diet for baby (and learning from other mom’s who do the same), it is doable. You can do what you set your mind to. You may not be able to buy the puff snacks or grab a piece of bread for a snack, but there are a lot of great foods for travel that aren’t too messy. But, if you want to know more about grain free baby diets, let me know and I can write a separate post.
Why Did I choose to make a Banana Cake?
I went back and forth about what kind of cake to make and I decided on a banana cake with coconut flour. We have done very few almonds with her (only a taste here or there) and she has been eating coconut flour for a while now and does well with it. Bananas are naturally sweet, so I was able to make a sweet cake with very little sweetener. Although I did use some sweetener, I kept it small. I mean, it is a birthday cake after all, it has to be sweet!
I will tell you, I went a bit overboard on her frosting. It is a fancy one, but I’m convinced anyone can make it. There’s only two steps that make it a notch above beginner. But it’s great frosting. One of the best I’ve tasted and I could have eaten it by the spoonful. Tava loved it and it pairs well with Banana.
There is butter in the frosting, and I’m sure it can be substituted with ghee. I didn’t try coconut oil so I’m not sure if it will turn out. After this, we realized Tava can’t have butter yet because she had a little breakout on her face. So, it’s ghee and goat cheese only for this girl. Someday I’m sure she can have butter. I think high quality grass-fed (and full fat) dairy can be great for babies. It’s just not for my baby!
Ingredients
2 Organic Bananas, fresh (not frozen)
3 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
3 Tablespoons Unsulphured Molasses (this brand)
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Coconut Flour
1 teaspoon stevia (This is my favorite brand)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
- Grease 2-4 inch cake pans (I used these) with butter or coconut oil (you can use 1-8 inch cake pan, reduce the cooking time)
- In a medium bowl, combine the wet ingredients and mix with a hand or stand mixer
- In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix together quickly with a fork
- In two batches, combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and mix once in between
- Once the cake is mixed together, fill each cake pan with half of the batter
- Bake for 60 minutes and a toothpick should come out clean
- Let cook and use the buttercream frosting recipe below
- 2 Organic Bananas, fresh (not frozen)
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 3 Tablespoons Unsulphured Molasses (this brand)
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
- 1 teaspoon stevia (This is my favorite brand)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
- Grease 2-4 inch cake pans (I used these) with butter or coconut oil (you can use 1-8 inch cake pan, reduce the cooking time)
- In a medium bowl, combine the wet ingredients and mix with a hand or stand mixer
- In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix together quickly with a fork
- In two batches, combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and mix once in between
- Once the cake is mixed together, fill each cake pan with half of the batter
- Bake for 60 minutes and a toothpick should come out clean
- Let cook and use the buttercream frosting recipe below
Refined Sugar-Free French Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
In a stand mixer (this is optimal, but hand mixer would work) beat the 2 eggs. In a small saucepan heat up the coconut milk, stevia, and maple syrup. Once warm, add the coconut milk powder and mix together. Slowly add mixture to the egg yolks while beating. Mix until cooled (about 3 minutes or so). Add in butter and you’ve got your delicious buttercream frosting.
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 2 teaspoon stevia
- 2 Tbs maple syrup
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs coconut milk powder (I used this brand)
- 1 stick butter, room temp (can’t be melted, has to be room temp)
- In a stand mixer (this is optimal, but hand mixer would work) beat the 2 eggs. In a small saucepan heat up the coconut milk, stevia, and maple syrup. Once warm, add the coconut milk powder and mix together. Slowly add mixture to the egg yolks while beating. Mix until cooled (about 3 minutes or so). Add in butter and you’ve got your delicious buttercream frosting.
Frosting the Cake
To frost the cake, put the bottom cake layer top side down on your cake stand. I use top side down so I can have a flat “top” to work with. Use about 1/4-1/3 of the frosting on the top. Put the second layer of cake on the top the right side up. Use the remaining frosting to frost around the whole cake. I usually put a thin crumb layer on first and use the second layer to make it look better, then you won’t have a really messy looking frosting with bits of cake in it.
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