1st Birthday cake: carrot with tofu/vanilla frosting

An healthy and tasty first Birthday cake: it sounds like a culinary challenge. An unusual list of ingredients (tofu for frosting??!!!) that will end in a delicate cake that is perfect for your little one (100% allergy free) and will also please the rest of the family.

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Recently I’ve been testing a lot of 1st Birthday cake recipes as my little Alex is getting close to his 1st Bday. The tricky part is to bake without using the traditional ingredients like eggs, milk, sugar and butter that you might not have introduced yet in your baby’s diet. I was not happy at all with a lot of recipes (too chewy, no taste at all, too cheesy, too gummy, strange flavor….) and my official testers, my husband and my 3yrs old Luca made really funny faces when testing some of the samples 🙂 The “testing committee” gave thumbs up to this carrot cake with tofu and vanilla frosting. The cake itself is not too sweet, very delicate and works very well with the creamy tofu frosting. Definitely on the top 5 we tried.

CAKE INGREDIENTS:

1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup whole grain flour1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp agave syrup
4 tbsp coconut milk
2 tbsp extra virgin oil of olive
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

FROSTING INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb firm tofu
2 tbsp extra virgin oil of olive
2 tbsp lemon juice
5 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

First thing to do: preheat the oven at 350 F. Than drain the extra liquid from the tofu. Remove the tofu from the container and place it in a plate in between two layers of paper towel. Put any heavy weight you can find in your kitchen (a pan, the salt container…) on top of it to help the liquid draining out. Let the tofu drain for at least 30 min.

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In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl mix the wet ones. Gently combine the dry ingredients with the wet ones and stir the mix.

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I decided to go for a one layer cake this time and I used a 6 inch cake pan. Bake the cake in the oven at 350 F. for 30 minutes.

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Meanwhile prepare the frosting. Mix all the ingredients for 1/2 min in a food processor up until you will obtain a nice and compact cream. Place the cream in the refrigerator for 30min (or 1 h if you can) to get more firm.

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When the cake is baked and cooled down you can start the decoration with the frosting. This kind of frosting will never get very thick and I recommend to prepare the final decoration the day of the party, if you keep the cake overnight in the fridge, the frosting will get hard.

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Enjoy the cake and most of all enjoy your little one 1st Bday day, it’s a special one!!!

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See you next week with another recipe and I would be happy to listen to your comments!

ciao!b

 

 

 

 

 

10 Comments

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  • Reply
    brownies blog
    March 25, 2014 at 7:05 pm

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  • Reply
    Tseegii
    October 8, 2014 at 4:53 am

    Hi there, I really like your recipes! It’s healthy, easy and of course yummy for my little one. What can I use instead of tofu? My baby girl is turning 1 on 28th and she is allergic to eggs :(.
    Thank you 🙂

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      October 13, 2014 at 3:32 am

      Hi!
      thank you so much for watching BuonaPappa!
      I would change frosting if you do not want to use tofu. Try the frosting with cream cheese + apple sauce + vanilla that I used for another 1st bday cake. here you are the link to the recipe: https://www.buonapappa.net/1st-bday-cake-healthy-and-tasty/
      The egg allergy might go away with time. some babies are allergic to eggs but by the age of two is over. I wish you and your baby a wonderful 1st bday party!!! have fun and take tons of pictures!!! ciao, b

  • Reply
    Tseegii
    October 26, 2014 at 6:55 am

    Thank you so much! I am going to tryit right now!

  • Reply
    Tseegii
    October 26, 2014 at 6:57 am

    Can I use her formula instead of coconut milk?

  • Reply
    Estefania Sanz
    March 31, 2015 at 6:00 am

    Hi there, what happens if I let the cake in the fridge overnight? Isnt hard frosting what we want? I got confused with that part. Please reply, thank you! Loved the recipe xx

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      April 9, 2015 at 4:27 am

      Hi Estefania!
      Thank you for watching BuonaPappa 🙂
      This particular frosting doesn’t have any sugar inside, that’s why it will not harden like a traditional frosting. The concern about keeping the frosted cake overnight in the refrigerator is related to the fact that the frosting might dry out more than harden, creating unpleasant cracks. More or less like when you leave some cream cheese in the refrigerator without covering it. If you need to frost the cake the day before, I would suggest to place the cake in a cake container, the one with the tall lid. That will limit the cake exposure to air and prevent the frosting from cracking. I hope I was helpful, let me know if you have any other questions!!
      ciao!!
      b

  • Reply
    Estefania Sanz
    March 31, 2015 at 6:03 am

    Hi there, so what happens if I let the cake frosted in the fridge overnight? Isnt hard frosting what we want? I got confused at that part. Please reply! Loved the recipe xx

  • Reply
    Pat Peñalosa
    August 27, 2015 at 6:34 pm

    Hi there! I came across your recipes when I was searching for birthday cake ideas for my baby who is turning 1yr old on December. He is exclusively breastfed. Can I omit the coconut milk in the recipe? Or I can use my breastmilk? Also can there be a substitute for the agave or I could just skip it? Thank you so much!

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      Barbara Lamperti
      September 1, 2015 at 6:38 pm

      Hi! sure, you can substitute coconut milk with your milk without any problem, it will be even more nutritious!! You can use your breastmilk to cook your baby food and simply substitute any kind of milk in the recipe with your milk. Agave. you can skip it, it’s not a big quantity and between the carrots and your milk your little one will have enough natural sweetness in the cake. Or you can substitute agave with dates. Two dry dates. Soak them in the water overnight and puree them with few tablespoon of water in order to create a sweet creamy paste. It’s a natural (and healthy) sweetener for babies. Let me know if you have more questions and enjoy your little one 1st birthday!!!! ciao, b

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