A Week of Birthday Posts - #1 - My Strawberry Banana Baby's First Birthday Cake

"A whole cake?! What is going on here? Do you REALLY want me to eat this?!"

Both of my daughters and my husband have birthdays in the same week (lucky me, I am in November). This means there was a lot of cooking, baking, crafting, and party throwing going on last week. I will be posting some photos, how-tos, and recipes to share with you during the coming week.

Emmanuelle, our baby, turned ONE last week! A very exciting time which has included three new teeth (bringing the total to 7), walking her first steps, and surprising us with new skills every time we turn around. For her first birthday cake, I wanted something that was healthy or at least healthier than something from a big store. Our oldest daughter was given a super sugary, very blue frostinged cake for her first, by my mother, and Andre and I were smuggly thrilled when she wouldn't eat it. For Emmanuelle, who is a big eater, I wanted something delicious and free from colorings. I decided that a strawberry banana cake would be awesome. I searched the internet and was surprised that I could find reference to a couple of them, but no recipes... I decided to cobble together several recipes and try to make my own. I decided to make a banana honey cake and to frost it with a cream cheese butter strawberry frosting. It was a hit! ESPECIALLY with ME. YUM YUM... This cake is amazingly moist and soooooo delicious.


Banana Honey Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting - Baby's First Birthday Cake
by Tiffany Teske

Banana Honey Cake

Makes 2 8" square cakes

Ingredients
~ 1 c honey
~ 1 tsp soda
~ 1 c organic oatmeal, uncooked (quick or old-fashioned)
~ 3/4 c organic unsalted butter (omit sea sale below if using salted butter)
~ 1/2 c natural sugar
~ 2 organic eggs
~ 1 c mashed bananas (I used 4, three that were pretty ripe, one frozen one that was thawed, the riper the better)
~ 1 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour
~ 3/4 tsp baking powder
~ 3/4 tsp sea salt

Directions
1. Bring honey to a boil in medium-sized saucepan. Add oats, the pour 1/2 teaspoon
of the soda over oats and stir to combine. Cover and let stand 10
minutes.

2. Beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy.
Blend in eggs. Add oats mixture and bananas then blend well. Sift together
flour, remaining 1/2 teaspoon soda, baking powder and salt. Add to
creamed mixture and blend well.

3. Pour batter into 2 greased 8-inch square cake pans. Bake in preheated 350 F degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack about 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool. Frost.


Quin blowing out her sister's birthday candles...


Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Approx 2 cups

Ingredients
~ 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
~ 1/4 cup organic butter, unsalted, softened
~ 1 cup icing sugar (For the baby cake I only used 1/4 c icing sugar)
~ 1/2 cup mashed drained fresh strawberries

Directions
1. Blend together the cream cheese and butter using an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
2. Add sugar, gradually, and the mashed strawberries; blend frosting again on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute.
3. Increase mixer speed to medium and blend frosting until fluffy, 30-45 seconds more. You can add as much sugar as you like for the spreading consistency you want.


Emmanuelle, loving her first birthday cake... (No, she didn't eat it all, she ate less than 1/4 of it, which is a lot for a babe!