Party Pics and Cake Recipes

Big, huge thanks to everyone who came out for the Meatball’s first birthday party this past weekend. We were so blessed by everyone’s love and thoughtfulness, and even more blessed when we started talking about how it felt like Sunday that afternoon, ’cause we just had church … with the addition of some family. Sometimes it’s easy to forget what an awesome village we have in our friends and (mostly) church family.

I didn’t get many pictures, ’cause I was making coffee and cutting cake … and, okay, talking about babies. A lot. And the ones I did get aren’t great ’cause I try to use the forward-facing camera to get Meatball’s attention and we dimmed lights for cake. But for the sake of documentation:

That cake is healthy(ish) and delicious, and I’ll get to that in a minute. 

My favorite part, though, was when his bestie – a mere two months younger than him, and whom we met a day or two after he was born – showed up. He got a big smile on his face and threw this free arm around his shoulder. And then left it there in a little baby-bro side-hug while the paparazzi tried to get them both to look the same direction at the same time.

And a moment later, when they were on the floor, and Meatball walked to up him and gave him a big hug. Love those boys.

About the second the last person left, he crashed out. Party hard, man cub. Party hard.

Let’s talk about cake. I’m all about the first birthday smash cake. I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about food lately (brace yourselves for that brain-dump when I get a free minute), and I just didn’t want to suddenly pump his little body full of refined sugar and bleached flour and all the rest.

Ya, I’m becoming that mama.

I remembered Sarah recently posted her recipe for a healthy birthday cake she developed for her little man. (Her blog – Kids Heart Real Food – is awesome, mamas. She’s a nutritionist with a toddler, and she posts recipes and practical info all the time.) I pulled it up and had it waiting in the wings, ’cause it sounds awesome.

I also browsed around a bit though, just out of curiosity, and found these. When my week got crazy, and I realized I’d be making a cake the morning of our 10 AM party, I glanced over the second options again because one had promised to be easy. I also had almost everything I needed in the house already, so I decided to try it. I just needed to run out for blueberries and frozen juice concentrate.

It was super easy, baked faster than the instructions said, and was really stinking good (and very moist). It makes a 9×13″ cake, and after I cut out a square for the baby to smash his face into, other people started asking for it instead of the bakery cake that had been ordered. I only brought a few pieces of it home!

So here it is, for anyone who wants to try it. The original is the fourth one here, I only omitted the salt.

Banana and Blueberry Cake

Stuffs:

• 1 C old fashioned rolled oats
• 1-1/4 C whole wheat flour
• 1 C all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2-1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 6 ripe bananas, peel and mashed
• 1/2 C unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 C blueberries*
• 4 eggs, beaten well
• 3/4 C (half a can) sugar free frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed**

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine dry goods in a bowl and mix.
3. Add everything else to the bowl and mix.
4. Pour into a greased 9×13″ cake pan.
5. Bake until a knife comes out clean. The original said 50 minutes. Mine took about 35, so keep an eye on it.

* The original says to chop them, but I liked the idea of big, juicy blueberries in the cake. I also didn’t have time Saturday morning to do anything as tedious as chop blueberries. And I may have used more than a 1/2 C. Can you have too many blueberries?

** My local grocery store didn’t have sugar free apple juice concentrate. Which means my cake had way more sugar in it than I wanted, but I was out of time and there was no plan B. It wasn’t super sweet, but I really want to try this with sugar free juice now, because I’m curious. I think the berries and bananas, and the moistness of it, would still make it delicious.

(I also cheated because I wanted him to have some kind of frosting to smear all over the place, because that’s half the fun. I thought about just whipping some heavy cream, but he hasn’t had much dairy and there wasn’t a dairy-free alternative. I found some whipped topping that is organic, no hydrogenated oil, no high fructose corn syrup, no trans fat, no birthday magic, no fun, and just a little sugar.)

I hope you all had a great weekend. Excuse me while I eat some left-over cake with my tea …