Evie recently had her first birthday and I went searching online for a healthy option for a birthday cake but didn’t find much. Even on paleo-diet sites I couldn’t find a recipe that suited us. So I made up my own. My main concern was Evie. She had never had cake of any sort of dessert before, therefore I didn’t want the first time to be for her birthday party where I had no idea how she would react. A full blown tantrum or a grumpy baby wasn’t what I had in mind for a nice day. That may sound selfish, but I also didn’t think it would be nice for Evie to feel upset when she didn’t know why. If that was the result of eating dessert for her.
Here is the cake that I made. It turned out perfectly and was especially loved by Evie. She loves eating fruit and it was a much healthier option than a standard cake.
You can get the directions/recipe for this cake here.
When I was making this cake, I started thinking about how I couldn’t find any healthy cake options online and I began to wonder what other parents do?! Maybe I’m just an extreme person for not feeding my baby normal birthday cake?
Then I remembered a Facebook discussion I had once read. I can’t remember where it was but essentially it was a status update saying something along the lines of ‘I fed my 1 year old birthday cake on his birthday for the first time. Other parents at his party all had different views on the topic. What are yours?’
There were around 120 comments from parents about whether they would or wouldn’t give their child cake or other desserts, and when they did/would for the first time. Most parents gave their child cake for the first time somewhere between 6 and 12 months. A lesser proportion of parents gave their child cake between 12 and 18 months. And there were only 5 parents who commented that they waited until after age 2, with one waiting until after age 4. The parents who waited longer also stated that their child very rarely consumes any sort of cake, lollies or desserts whereas the parents who fed their child cake before 12 months commented about their children being allowed to have cake (etc) on any special occasion and usually at least once a week for dessert.
Whilst I have my own way of doing things, I realise that there are lots of different opinions on the topic. I would be interested to know what other parents do as far as sweets and desserts are concerned. No judgement, I promise! What age did your child first eat cake or dessert? And is it a regular thing? I am genuinely interested in what other parents do… I’m nosy!
Alex, god I love your blog. I spent all last night researching cake options for my 1- and 3-year-olds’ upcoming birthday and couldn’t believe how TERRIBLE the ‘options’ are. I even used search words like “paleo vegan gluten-free natural sugar dairy-free no sugar” etc, and quickly discovered that some people’s version of “paleo” includes 200g of dark chocolate, while the American version of “vegan” seems to entail “vegan cheese, vegan margarine and vegan milk” (all presumably from your local supermarket — YUCK, GROSS etc). I’ve finally found some recipes that are gonna work — they’re not as pure as your fruit extravaganza cake, but the ‘worst’ ingredient is maple syrup, so they’re going to be pretty healthy and tasty.
We’ve started getting invited to lots of birthday parties now and I cannot BELIEEEEEVE what parents are shoving into their under-12-month-olds’ mouths with comments like “Yes, of course you can have a chip darling. Good girl!” Are they SERIOUS?! Praising a baby for eating food that could ultimately kill them or make them morbidly obese?! The last two parties I’ve been to had 1) ALL junk food, not even any fruit or anything that was not processed or a lolly and b) lurid bright green cake icing on packet-mix cake for a one year old. Trying to keep both my children away from the food tables, when all the other children were wolfing it down, was bloody hard work and probably makes me look like a control freak horrible mum. But seriously… do I want my 12-month-old staying up all night screaming because her tummy’s rejecting crap food?! It’s not rocket science. I’m not going to pretend that sweet food doesn’t exist until they’re 25 year old, but I’m not going to feed my still-breast-feeding baby chemical-filled Betty Crocker icing either.
Rebecca Dettman recently posted..My birth story in a new book!
I think you did a pretty damn fine job with your paleo cake today!! No Betty Crocker there
PS. We’ll just have to keep going to each others parties & play dates so that we at least know there will be edible food for our children! Socialising with children has come to this. Isn’t that crazy?! (note the word ‘edible’ – is it really so much to ask?!)
[...] A few people have asked me for more information about the birthday cake I made for Evie’s first birthday after I posted this post. [...]