The First Birthday Cake

For Gretchen's birthday cake, I semi-followed a Banana Cake recipe that I spotted on Green Parenting. I love that there's no added sugar -- I only dusted the top with a little icing sugar before serving.

Here's my tweaked version of the recipe:

3 bananas mashed
½ cup butter, softened
3 large eggs

½ cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup water
2 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1-2 cups fresh blueberries

Mix bananas and butter together until nice and smooth, then add applesauce and water. In another bowl, beat eggs until foamy -- add to banana mixture. Then slowly blend in flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Then stir in blueberries. Pop in the oven (I actually used greased glass tart pan, but you could make cupcakes, or use a cake pan, or even a loaf tin) for about 20-30 min (depending on vessel of choice) at 350° or until it tests done (aka a knife inserted comes out clean). Let cool, dust with icing sugar & enjoy!

This cake definitely had a loafy texture to it, but the sweetness was just right with the bananas and berries -- so tasty and Gretchen loved it! She nearly at an entire slice to herself & I felt great knowing she wasn't being pumped full of chemicals & icing & all sorts of nasty traditional cake ingredients.

Happy baby, happy mama! Bon appetit!