Baby Chocolate Purple Cake

First Birthday Cakes are always something special, you want them to be:

  • beautiful to impress your guests and family
  • healthy so that your little one will be able to enjoy it too
  • tasty to please the adults’ palate too
  • easy to prepare
  • without artificial colors or flavors

a lot to ask to a simple cake, you have to admit it 😉

Today I would like to share with you a new “1st Birthday Baby Cake” recipe that has been tested and approved by my family. It’s a multi layer chocolate cake, fluffy and moist, with a Japanese Sweet Potato frosting. The cake is egg free + dairy free + refined sugar free, basically it’s vegan. Quite impressive, I know.

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The final color is incredibly beautiful: a delicate pale purple….perfect for a girl birthday!!!

The cake is very easy to make and you can prepare it the day before the party. Bake the cakes and, once cooled down completely, place them in an air tight container on the countertop. Prepare the frosting and store it in the refrigerator. The day of the party simply assemble the cake. It will take less than 20min to do it.

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Baby Chocolate Purple Cake
Ingredients
CAKE:
  • 1 1/2 Cup flour 230gr.
  • 1/2 Cup dry figs puree 150gr.
  • 1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder 40gr.
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 Cup coconut yogurt 80gr.
  • 2/3 Cup coconut milk 170ml.
  • 1/3 Cup coconut oil 70gr.
FIGS PUREE:
  • 15 dried figs
FROSTING:
  • 2 large purple sweet potatoes 500gr.
  • 1/4 Cup coconut milk 60 ml.
  • 4 Tbsp figs puree
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. prepare the figs puree soaking the dried figs in warm water for 30 min.
  3. remove them from the water and place them in a tall container.
  4. add 1/4 cup water left from the soaking phase
  5. puree everything with an immersion blender in order to create a smooth thick paste: our natural sweetener is ready.
  6. in a big bowl add all the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda. stir and set apart.
  7. in another bowl add the wet ingredients: vanilla, 1/2 cup of figs puree, coconut yogurt, coconut oil, coconut milk, apple cider vinegar. Mix
  8. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix well
  9. As I wanted to create a multilayer cake, I divided the cake batter in three small square baking pans.
  10. Bake the cakes for 20 min. Remove from the oven and let them cool down.
  11. While the cakes are baking, let’s prepare the frosting. Peel the purple potatoes and chop them in small pieces.
  12. boil the potatoes up until they will be tender (15min)
  13. drain
  14. place them in a tall container
  15. add in coconut milk + 4 Tbsp figs puree
  16. create a smooth cream using an immersion blender
  17. place the frosting in the refrigerator for 20 min to cool down and thicken a bit
  18. remove the three square cakes from the pan.
  19. using a round plate cut them in circles
  20. place the first round cake on a cake stand
  21. remove the frosting from the refrigerator and spread a layer on top of the first cake
  22. place the second cake on top and another layer of frosting, finish with the last cake and start frosting the cake all over with the purple potato mix.
  23. decorate the cake with some unsweetened coconut flakes
  24. Happy Birthday!!

12 Comments

Did you make this recipe? Share the love, tag @buonapappa on Instagram and hashtag it #buonapappa I would love to see your creations!

  • Reply
    Courtney
    April 5, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    Beautiful and sounds delicious! My little girl just turned 10 months and I have decided to make this for her first birthday! She loves purple sweet potatoes, so this is going to be perfect! I will let you know how it turned out in June 🙂 thank you for posting!

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      April 7, 2017 at 10:07 pm

      Hi Courtney!! I’m so glad you like the cake idea!! Let me know how it goes and Happy Happy Birthday to your little one!!!!! ciao, b

    • Reply
      Sailaja
      June 30, 2018 at 6:56 am

      Hello! Such a wonderful recipe. I would love to try for my daughters 1st birthday and will definetely come back with pictures.
      Could please also suggest alternative for japanese potato. i live in germany and tried to buy it and could not find.

      • User Avatar
        Reply
        Barbara Lamperti
        July 5, 2018 at 1:18 pm

        Hi!! if you want to keep the purple color I would suggest to use sweet potatoes with one teaspoon of beet puree, or as many teaspoons as you need to get the desired level of pink. OR…instead of beets you can use a raspberry puree to color the frosting. Happy Happy Birthday to your little one and take tons of pictures!!! they are priceless memories!! ciao, b

        • Reply
          Sailaja
          July 7, 2018 at 10:33 am

          thats so nice to see reply from you… i would defintely share pictures … Fortunately i found japanese purple potatoes 🙂 did not find the coconut joghurt.. 🙁

  • Reply
    Kunal
    November 5, 2017 at 7:21 pm

    Hi…i so loved this recipe and want to try it as a smash cake…but can’t find the purple sweet potatoes any where in Amterdam…please please give me some alternatives..Kunal

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      November 13, 2017 at 10:31 pm

      What about using regular potatoes and adding a tiny piece of boiled or steamed red beet? Beets give an amazing natural color that varies from pink to deep purple pending how much you use and are easier to find than Japanese sweet potatoes. I would suggest adding a bit of beets at the time to reach the desired color. That being said, regular potatoes are not as sweet as the purple ones, so I would add some vanilla powder or extract to the mix too to give a delicate sweet background to the frosting. Let me know how it goes!! ciao, b

  • Reply
    Shahaja
    June 28, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    Hi, thank you for the wonderful recipe.. I’m planning to do this with whole meal flour instead of all purpose flour. Should I take any precautions in that case?

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      October 19, 2020 at 6:34 pm

      Hi Shahaja, you can substitute with a 1:1 ratio. Just consider that with whole wheat the cake will be a bit more dense than using regular all-purpose flour. To fix it I would add a bit more liquid, raise the coconut milk quantity to 1 cup. That should work! Happy baking 🙂
      Ciao, b

  • Reply
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    […] babies with food allergies, a vegan 1st birthday cake may just tick all the boxes. This recipe is free of eggs, dairy, and refined sugar, but the resulting cake remains moist and fluffy. The […]

  • Reply
    Roxana
    March 13, 2023 at 2:11 pm

    Hello! I made this cake recipe but I am unsure if the batter was supposed to rise at all or not. For me it didn’t really rise. I used a 18 cm diameter pan, it seems barely 5 cm tall. What size were your pans or is there a way to make the cake rise more? Thank you!

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      June 6, 2023 at 12:34 am

      Hi Roxana,
      I used a smaller cake pan, that might be the reason. The 18cm one is wide and that might be the reason why the cake didn’t rise as in the video. The glass pans I used are square, 15cm side and 5cm high.Thank you! ciao, B

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