All Natural No Sugar Smash Cake for Baby’s 1st Birthday

Payton’s 1st birthday party was a success and as promised, I wanted to share with you my experience making her an all natural, no sugar smash cake!

 

I knew I wanted to make her a birthday cake that she would enjoy AND I would feel comfortable with her eating up! I set out to find ideas and came across this great recipe to use as a guide. I only made some small tweaks as I went along. Wanting to get as much as possible done ahead of time, I made the cake and frosting the day before, and sealed it all up separately in the refrigerator. I did wait to frost and decorate her cake until the morning of her party, but you can definitely do that the day before as well! The frosting comes out a little runny so giving it time to thicken up in the fridge is almost necessary.

 

Cake Ingredients

• 8-10 ripe bananas depending on size

• 1 egg

• 1 cup no sugar added applesauce

• 6 tbsp melted coconut oil

• 6 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

• 3 teaspoon cinnamon

 

Cake Directions

1. Mash your bananas in a medium bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients.

3. Add your bananas, applesauce, coconut oil, egg, and vanilla to the dry mixture.

4. Coat 2 medium baking dishes with coconut oil (I used my Pyrex glass Tupperware bowls!)

5. Spread the batter into your 2 dishes. The batter rises very little so don’t worry about filling them too high.

6. Bake at 375° for 30-40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

7. Turn your baking dishes over onto a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

8. Cut the tops off of each cake so they are smooth and fit together nicely.

For her cake frosting, I didn’t want to use sugar or artificial food coloring. Originally, I had hoped to use beet juice to make her cake red but when I started experimenting with it, I realized it was easily staining my skin. In hopes of avoiding a red-stained birthday girl, I decided to use the ground turmeric spice that I had handy in my cabinet!

 

Frosting Ingredients

• 2 cups cream cheese

• 1 cup no sugar added frozen apple juice concentrate

• 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon spice powder for natural color (adjust the amount based on the look you are going for)

Spice Suggestions for Natural Color

• Yellow – Turmeric Powder

• Red – Beet Powder

• Orange – Paprika

• Green – Spinach Powder

Frosting Directions

1. Combine softened cream cheese, apple juice concentrate and vanilla extract until creamy.

2. Stir in the spice powder until your frosting is completely colored. I did find that my yellow turmeric brightened after sitting a little while.

3. Refrigerate at least 2 hours until the consistency is thicker but easy to work with.

Easy Frosting Tips I Learned Along The Way

• Put a blob of frosting on your cake plate underneath your cake to keep it from sliding around.

• Cut 4 strips of parchment paper and shimmy one under each side of the cake (this will keep your cake plate nice and clean while frosting).

• Spoon some frosting between the layers of your cake (this will help hold the layers together).

• Start with a big glob of frosting on top, then work your way to the sides and around the rest of the cake.

We did a Snow White theme for Payton’s party, and since she LOVES her berries, I decided to cover the top with red and blue berries. I also added some edible broccoli flowers from my Tower Garden to make it extra special!