Healthy Birthday Cake Ideas

What about angel food cake with only a little lite whipped cream on top? That's what we did for my son's first birthday.

If you have or know anyone who owns "What to expect the first year" there is a recipe in there for birthday cake that uses apple juice instead of sugars. There are a couple of different choices for cakes in there and for frosting as well. I hope you find something that works for you.

I made an awesome organic carrot cake for my daughter's first (and second) birthday. I think I found the recipe at wholefoods.com- if it's not there and you are interested, just google "organic carrot cake." I think that is how I found it. It was really moist and tasted great. Good luck!

There are some yummy ones at this website. For my daughter we did a banana puree (she loved banana's at that time) in between two thin rice crackers. She loved it. Good luck!

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipFirstBDay.htm

My mom gave me a delicious cake recipe that she made for us when we were little. I recently made it for my husband's birthday and everyone raved about it! The cool thing is that there is no white flour (no flour at all in fact) and I used sorghum (tastes like molasses) instead of white sugar. You could probably sub molasses. There's real whipped cream in the middle, so it tastes like an ice cream cake. We found no need to serve this with ice cream as it seemed to already be there. Here are the ingredients:

Birthday Egg Roll Cake

6 eggs
1/2 c. sugar (sorghum/molasses)+ 2 T.
6 level T. cocoa
1 t. vanilla

Grease cookie sheet and line with wax paper. Separate eggs. Beat whites until they stand in peaks (stiff). Beat yolks until thick and creamy. Add sugar (molasses, etc.) gradually to yolks. Continue beating until smooth. Add cocoa and vanilla to yolk mixture. Fold whites into yolk mixture (don't beat). Spread over wax paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Dump out onto floursack towel sprinkled with powdered sugar (optional). Roll cake up in towel and let cool. FILLING: 1/2 c. sugar (here I used honey and raw sugar), 1/4 c. cocoa, 1 t. vanilla, 1 c. whipping cream, dash salt. Beat together until stiff and creamy. Unroll cake and remove wax paper. (You'll need to do this carefully and use a butter knife. It's okay if it crumbles during this process because this will be the inside of the cake and the filling (and freezing) will keep it together.) Spread filling on cake. Re-roll cake (using towel as an aid) and freeze. You can make this cake up to a week in advance (and it keeps for a long time, like a month or more). I wrapped mine in aluminum foil and stuck it in an old bread bag. When you serve, let it thaw just enough so you can cut it into slices with a sharp knife. If you're having lots of guests, you may want to make two. I had 22 guests and two cakes were plenty.

S.,
I just made this cake for my daughter's 3 year old party, and everyone loved it. In fact, my sister asked for the recipe and made the same one the next week for my mom's birthday. It has become our new favorite. It's really moist, and really easy to make!
CAKE
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/4 cup water
2 T veg. oil
1 egg
2 egg whites
6 ounces lowfat yogurt (vanilla, lemon, strawberry, or banana)

Mix all ingredients with mixer for 2 minutes. Pour batter into 9x13 and bake at 350 for 30 minutes (mine took longer, my sister's took less...just watch it carefully)

FROSING
1 8ounce container lowfat cool-whip
1 small package instant vanilla pudding (sugar free)
1 cup cold milk
1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)
Beat milk, sugar, and pudding until smooth. Fold in cool-whip. Frost cake.

I hope it works! Good luck! Happy birthday to your son!

I have started making many of my quick breads and muffins by modifying the amount of sugar and oil by using applesauce. I typically replace both half the asked for oil and half the asked for sugar with applesauce and I can't tell at all. You could try
a carrot cake or how about blueberry or banana muffins. By using only a limited amount of sugar and sweetening it naturally with applesauce it should work fine. Icing the cake or muffins will be a bit more tricky as icing is typically more than half baker sugar but you could use heavy whipping cream with a small amount of sugar for sweeten it.
K. H

Home made angel food cake is naturally low in sugar and low in fat and is wonderful decorated with fresh fruit. If it doesn't take at least a dozen real eggs it's not the old fashioned recipe! It's fun to make, and naturally beautiful!
Angel food takes only the whites. The yolks were saved to make old fashioned egg noodles, also fun to make, and so easy you can make them in the time it takes to bake the cake! A pizza cutter works great to cut them up. Store bought cake mixes are full of additives, sugar, etc.
Have fun! If you need an old fashioned angel food cake pan call me, ###-###-####.

I think that you can substitute unsweetend applesauce for sugar in most recipes.

http://krisvog.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/christina-pirello...

http://www.christinacooks.com/recipes/c/chocgingercake5.html

You are speaking my language :o)
These are Christina cooks recipes who uses only brown rice syrup instead of cane sugar. They of course don't taste like a white cake with cake flour, but they are satisfying.

Hi S.! I feel the same way about feeding my kids. I am a registered dietitian, and what I do anytime I need to make a birthday cake or cupcakes, I use pumpking puree to up the nutritional value. It works best in chocolate cake because you can't even taste it. All you do is take a chocolate cake mix, add one entire can of pumpkin puree (15-16oz), 3 eggs and 1/4 cup of water and bake as usual. It does not lower the sugar content, but it does increase the vitamins and minerals and adds fiber! (It's also a lower fat cake so the adults can feel less guilty about having a piece!)

Just one more bit of advice, if it's your son's first birthday, don't skimp on the frosting! Giving him some sugar will not ruin the hard nutritional work you've done already. If anything it teaches him that treats are an okay part of his diet as long as you don't give them to him everyday.

For my son's 1st b-day we made him a traditional cake. Honestly, my son didn't even eat his cake. I think the taste was so odd to him that he didn't even know what to think. Also, we made him a seperate cake from what everyone else was going to eat. This way he could "dig in" to the cake and really get messy. I got ton of really cute pictures.

S. -

Good for you!!! I've been trying to limit unhealthy choices in my kids foods as well. I'd suggest making a muffin of some sort just for your son (he probably will just smash it anyways). I would probably provide a different 'dessert' for the rest of the family (fruit kabobs or something like that).

Hi. I don't know if this is true for all kids, but my son still really doesn't eat more than a bite of most cake -- given after a full meal, he is just not hungry enough and hasn't been trained yet by our society that being full doesn't matter when it comes to cake, lol! So, I guess my point is that, unless your son really goes to town on desert in general, I wouldn't worry too much about it. :-)

For his first birthday, my son pretty much just played in his "smash" cake and didn't eat much of it at all (cake was a new thing at the time). For his second birthday, I made my son a cupcake -- he licked off the frosting and didn't touch the cake -- so spread that frosting THIN (or use white cake with fruit & maybe some whipped cream on top). :-)

Of course, not all kids are the same...

My friend made banana cupcakes and used yogurt instead of frosting. Frosting is where the majority of the sugar is when it comes to cake. Good Luck!

try applesauce for the egg.
Some boxes of cake mixes has the equal on it.
I try 1/4 cup for eACH EGG.
Cinnamin helps thickeen it a pinch works.
I also cut sugar to 1/4- 1/2 of what is called for and use
spices to help the taste.

The taste is not bad but most people prefer sugar and the spices helps this.

Banana cake is a good cake and health.

You can add nuts and rasins to this.
Or shredded carrot cake.

Call your local dairy section dietican and she can tell you more ideas like my nephew add calcuim by useing sour cream.

Happy birthday to you child and happy birth given day to you.

also you can bake cakes in ice cream cones and then decorate it to make a flower, sun flower, sun, clown,loin, etc.
Kids love this.
And the older ones can help decorate it.

younger ones love like the older ones to dip them in say choclate chips,add hard syrup, healthy nus ,etc. so add frosting and watch the fun.
D.

Hi S.,

Aaaah - as a nutrition major that's exactly what I wanted to do for my twins' first birthday. Unfortunatly, my family knew I was going that route and unanamously said they would protest the party if I didn't let them have "regular" cake. Seriously I got a confrence call....it was horrible....

The suggestions below for banana bread or carrot cake are good suggestions and that is the route I was considering - especially if home made from scratch because baked goods made from scratch are almost always healthier than their commercially made counterparts.

I don't think the organics will make a big difference because the sugar content really isn't enough to make a difference in a piece. Cake is still cake. But you could go that route if you'd like.

Another thing I would consider is angel food cake. Although it still has suger - it's so full of air that your son will get a lot less sugar out of a bite/piece than a traditional cake. Toping it with fruit would also provide vitamins that you son needs.

Here's the thing. I did end up going with a white normal cake with a whipped frosting, and the boys didn't like it that much. They didn't really eat it and enjoyed pounding it into the table more than anything. If you've been limiting sugars this whole time, they might find a normal cake too sweet, and when they reject it, no one can complain. To this day they still eat the veggies before anything else on their plate.

Good luck and congrats!

S.,

The book "What to expect the first year" has a healthy cake recipe; your baby will love it, but your other guests won't. It is pretty bland when you are accustomed to real cake.

You could also do a typical cake recipe and use whole wheat flour or split flour 1/2 and 1/2 with whole wheat and white. Unsweetened applesause is a good butter substitute and unsweetened apple juice concentrate is a good sugar substitute. Carob is a good chocolate substitute.

Good luck,
S.

Healthy and Cake shouldn't even be in the same sentence...

check out a carrot cake, or angel food, or check on a diabetic website for sugarfree recipes.

my children love it when we make angel food cake and serve it with strawberries, vanilla ice cream and whipped topping like cool whip. this is what alot of my extended family uses for birthdays as well b/c diabetes runs in the family.
hope this gives you an idea
and that you have a fun birthday party :)

Hi S.,
I watched Oprah a while back and she had Jerry Seinfeld's wife on there and she has some very good recipes using pureed veggies. she has a book too, It's called something like Delightfully Deceptive. I'm sure you could find it online. I'm sure she has a cake recipe. Good luck!
D.

Hi S.,

I also try to limit sugar for my daughter, especially the first year. I couldn't imagine setting a big piece of cake loaded with frosting in front of her, as she just hadn't really had much sugar prior. I found a great recipe on Dr. Weil's website for a carrot cake made with lots of fresh pineapple, applesauce and wheat flour. It was very moist and really delicious! I made a large cake for the whole family and frosted it with a cream cheese frosting(that they loved, surprising themselves! Kids and all!) and then made a small special cake in a mini pan for my daughter that I frosted with some very lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream. I would highly recommend the recipe if you can find it on his web site! Hope this is helpful!

Have you considered making an ice cream cake? My SIL makes an ice cream cake each year for her daughter's summer birthday and it's very good. You could use frozen yogurt or low sugar ice cream. If you can find a low-sugar cookie recipe, you could make a giant cookie "cake".

On the flip side, I agree with the person who said her child only eats a bite... even at 5, I'm surprised when my DD eats more than a bite. She doesn't have a sweet tooth so it doesn't matter what we make - the cake is for the rest of us. :)

My daughter did not have any sugar until her 1st Birthday. Good for you for being concerned with your child's health and diet! My daughter is now almost 5 and now, because of our efforts, does not have a sweet tooth at all! We ordered her 1st (and all subsequent) birthday cake from a local woman who runs a liscensed bakery in her home. "Artistic Cakes & Cookies" (in the Yellow Pages) We always get a carrot cake. It is always beautiful and delicious. Yes, the cakes do have sugar in them, but the cakes are made from scratch and that helps me feel better about it. (Plus there are carrots!)

Take any cake mix and replace the oil with the same amount of applesauce. The cake will be moist and you will cut a lot of calories, but I am not sure about the sugar content.

Hi S.,
For my son's 1st birthday I made a banana bread cake. I used Tofutti brand non-dairy cream cheese and added some peaches to it for flavor and color. I decorated it with Happy Birthday Gavin written with dried currants. Everyone loved it!
Happy sugar-free baking.
T.

I would try just making an organic cake, with organic frosting of course. I have made the cake & frosting, from organic mixes bought at the store. The cake tastes almost the same as the regular kind, the color is a bit off since there is no artificial colors. The frosting tasted a bit different too, but not bad by any means. Still good, a 1 yr old would certainly not notice the difference. Good Luck!

Hi I am a mother of a wonderfull 2 1/2 year old and he loves everything in life. My only advice to you would to use splenda instead of sugar. But you will have to make it from scratch. My mother and father in law are diabetics and they make their cakes and most anything that has suger in it with splenda and they come out really good. I admit they do taste a little different to me because I eat sugar all the time but slpenda is heathier for them so they use it. And my family is getting used to it. ANd where you have always limited his sugar he may not know the difference. That is my advice but I am sure there may be somthing better but thought I would give that to you. Good Luck and just to remember to enjoy the day and take lots of pictures. A. R

S.,
Just about any homemade cake can be made with 1/2 the amount of sugar called for and most people would not notice. There are also some good recipe books that cook without artificial sugar or refined sugars. Some of them use pureed fruit and fruit juice concentrate. I made one with frozen cherries for valentines day and my family could not have been happier. When I make frosting I put whey powder in it. It then takes less powdered sugar in the recipes. So it has protein and is less sweet. Check out Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free by Janice Feuer(these recipes are used in a restruant in Montana) or The "I Can't Believe This Has No Sugar" Cookbook.

I don't have a great recipe with less sugar. But one thing I try to do with most my baking now is use whole wheat flour instead of the regular all purpose. I find I can always substitute half with ww flour with no real impact on taste or texture. If I use all whole wheat, I usually use an x-large egg instead of large, or add an extra egg.

The ww flour is not as easily converted to sugar in your body so it has an impact on that "sugar high/low" that we and our kids often experience.

Good luck