It’s Little Lady’s 3rd birthday very soon (where did the time go??) so I am thinking about what kind of cake to make her. She wants a “pink, purple, unicorn, Peppa Pig, Sofia The First, chocolate and Smarties one” which I have no idea how to make but I will do my best! As you all know I believe anything is fine in moderation so for both of my kids’ first birthdays (and subsequent ones) they have had sugar and chocolate loaded birthday cakes. They really only ate a tiny bit so I wasn’t concerned and for their special day they were allowed as much sugar and chocolate as they wanted. However a lot of people tell me they want their baby’s first birthday cake to be as healthy as possible so here is a really delicious sugar free cake recipe that’s perfect for a first (or second, third, fourth, fifth and so on) birthday. 

Banana and Apple Birthday Cake:

225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)
6 medium bananas (preferably as brown as possible)
250g pureed apple (homemade or from a fruit pot or pouch)
90ml milk (or dairy alternative like soy, oat, almond, coconut milk etc or breast milk)

Mash the bananas and mix well with the milk and apple puree. Add the flour, bicarb of soda and cinnamon / nutmeg if you are using. Mix it well with a big spoon ensuring everything is combined well. Spoon into a well greased cake or loaf tin and cook at 180 degrees C. After 45 mins stick a sharp knife or skewer in the middle and if it comes out clean it’s cooked. If it is not yet cooked check every 15 minutes.

NB: If you wanted to make this into a chocolatey cake then all you need to do is add a few teaspoons of cocoa powder to it and hey presto you have a sugar free chocolatey cake!

Once you have your lovely cake you probably want to ice it with some yummy icing or frosting. There are various icing options available (buttercream, fondant, royal) but they all contain sugar. Here is a lovely sugar free icing idea that you can add various things to if you wanted to make it even more special. (Remember this icing won’t set like buttercream, royal or fondant).

Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing:

225g cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract or essence

Soften the cream cheese with a fork then add the vanilla extract and whisk it either with a fork, handheld whisk or hand held beaters until its light and creamy. You can also add in some pureed fruit to if you wanted to make it more tasty or add in some food colouring (you can get ones made from vegetables like beetroot if you want natural ones) to make a coloured icing. You could also add in a couple tsp of cocoa powder if you wanted to make a chocolatey icing.