Adeline’s First Birthday Cake

Time flies! I cannot believe that it has been already one year since our little Adeline was born! We were first planning to celebrate her birthday just in the family circle and then we were even thinking to make it bigger and invite also friends. In the end, the current pandemic situation didn’t allow us to do anything bigger than just a chamber celebration the three of us. But still, I wanted it to make it a real party for her and for us. About a month prior to her birthday, I started to look for ideas for her first birthday cake. Adeline´s first birthday cake had to be healthy and tasty at the same time so I made this banana oatmeal cake with a greek yogurt cream with raspberries. 

And so I took my banana bread recipe, modified it slightly so that I could also serve it to the little one without any concerns. Basically, I replaced the complete flour by ground oats that she’s been eating for some time already and butter by healthier coconut oil. I wanted to make it without any additional syrup or sugar but as I wanted my boyfriend to enjoy it as well, I added some maple syrup. If you can survive without that, that’s fine. But if you serve it to adults who prefer the sweet taste, you can add maybe a little bit more – at the end, your baby will not eat half of the cake and it’s only once, right?! 😉

A friend of mine advised me to make the frosting from dripped Greek yogurt which I mixed with raspberry powder from freeze-dried raspberries and vanilla extract. I baked the cake day before and made the frosting and completion on the day D. I decorated the cake with fresh raspberries that were attacked at first. 🙂

She started to taste it already when I was taking pictures of her together with her daddy posing at the birthday table. After the first raspberries, she touched the yogurt frosting with her fingers and she looked so cute doing so until she touched the cake with her shoe and almost renversed it! 😀 As I was photographing her, I didn’t notice she put some raspberries aside and then sat in them 😀 luckily the raspberry stains are easy to wash! This would not be the case if you use blueberries for example… After unpacking the presents, we sat at the table having a decent piece of the cake and to my surprise, she ate all her piece! And we both enjoyed it too!

If you make the cake, keep in mind you need to drip off the Greek yogurt overnight. Also, the more ripe the bananas are, the sweeter they are, so buy them a week ahead or so. The cake and the frosting can be made a day ahead if you like to have a less stressful day D. If you give it a chance and make this first birthday cake, let me know how it turned out! I hope your little one, as well as the others, will enjoy it! 🙂

First Birthday Cake

Print

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas
2 tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
2 eggs
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup ground oatmeal
1 tsp. baking powder without phosphate
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
For the frosting: 1 kg Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup freeze-dried raspberries, 1 tsp. vanilla extract
For the decoration: 1-2 handful fresh raspberries

Instructions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour the cake pan (I used a 19cm cake pan and sliced the cake into layers afterwards).

Using a fork, mash the bananas until smooth, add the freshly squeezed orange juice and set aside. In a big bowl, mix the melted coconut oil with eggs, add the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Incorporate the bananas with orange juice.

In another bowl, mix the flour, ground oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and fold into the liquid ingredients. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake it for about 45-50 minutes, doing the toothpick test. 

Frosting

Place the Greek yogurt into a linen or muslin cloth placed over a colander and a deep jar. Let the whey drip for several hours/overnight in the fridge. 

Place the freeze-dried raspberries into a blender and blend until you obtain a powder. Mix it with the dripped Greek yogurt and add vanilla extract. You should get a nice light pink frosting. (You can sweeten it a bit with a 1 tbsp. of maple syrup, if you like.)

Assembly

Cut the cake horizontally into 2-3 layers. Place the first layer on a plate and then using a spatula spread it with a layer of frosting, cover with a second layer and repeat. Spread 1/2 remaining frosting over the whole cake, then clean the spatula and repeat. This will ensure that you won't get visible crumbs of cake in the frosting. Decorate with fresh raspberries and store in the fridge before serving.