"Berry First Birthday" cake recipe
(made with low- to no-sugar!)
Looking for a cake for baby’s “Berry first birthday”?
Want that cake to be refined-sugar-free (or almost-free)?
Got you covered! 🙂
(Modifications are below!)
The ‘Berry First Birthday’ theme is adorable, so versatile, and SO fun. You can even adapt it for baby showers (“A ‘berry’ sweet baby is coming soon!” or “We are ‘berry’ excited to meet our sweet baby!’ etc.)
THE BACKSTORY
I received a request for a ‘Berry First Birthday’ smash cake for a first birthday cake – and I was so excited!
Working on a cake recipe that would be tasty but not full of added sugars was a fun challenge. Fruit sugars are definitely the way to go – this cake recipe gets its sweetness from applesauce, bananas, and crushed freeze-dried strawberries! It does make for a bit more of a dense muffin-like cake – but if baby hasn’t had sugar-filled-cake before she won’t know the difference, and she’ll love it!
Decorating
Decoration ideas were so much fun to sort through. I threw a few different design ideas up on my Instagram page and asked for votes – the design I went with here was the top-voted design from that poll. That said – there are SO many options even within that vein!
Wanting to keep the recipe low-to-no-sugar, whipped cream definitely took the top spot for low or no-sugar frostings. Cause y'all. I cannot stomach plain yogurt. >< And stevia-sweetened cream cheese frosting is almost equally gross.
I didn’t want to add freeze-dried strawberries, because they make the whipped cream chunky and difficult to smooth – that said, if that doesn’t bother you, go for it! It’ll be delicious 🙂
MODIFICATIONS: No-sugar
So the recipe - as written - is ALMOST refined-sugar-free. With one tiny exception.
Personally - I won't lie - I found unsweetened whipped cream less than palatable. I went ahead and added a bit of sugar to the whipped cream recipe because that's what I used - but you can absolutely leave it out! Maybe I'm used to sweetened whipped cream, but baby won't care 🙂
MODIFICATIONS: Low-sugar
I had wanted to decorate with fresh strawberries, and maybe even strawberry flowers. ...But...the only strawberries in my area (late fall) were imported, half-green, and golf-ball sized. (And some of them were starting to grow fuzzes.) Just too ugly and way too big to use to decorate a smash cake!
That left ‘fake’ strawberries – and my options were fondant, candy melts, buttercream, or trying to color / pipe whipped cream.
I opted to decorate with bits of red, green, and white buttercream. (Here’s my reasoning – fondant or candy melts seemed like they could turn into a potential choking hazard. And trying to color whipped cream knocked all the air out of it and made it unmanageable in the molds.)
MODIFICATIONS: More sugar
The recipe below was put together with the tiniest amount of sugar that I could manage – if that’s not your thing here’s an insanely-simple more standard smash cake recipe!
I sometimes mix about ½ a cup of blended strawberries into a cake mix for smash cakes to keep costs down when I’m filling orders (provided the client is okay with that. So far they all have been.) I also add a touch of pink food coloring because strawberries go kind of gray in the oven (ask me how I know, lol).
Anyway, there are a couple of options if you want more of a ‘cake’ smash cake than a ‘muffin’ smash cake!
And that’s it! On to the recipe!
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Don't forget to pin this recipe for later!
Berry First Birthday Cake (low- or no-addded-sugar!)
Equipment
- Strawberry Cake topper (optional; linked is the one I used in in the pictures/video)
- metal cake ring (optional; I found this the easiest way to smooth the whipped cream)
- Silicone Strawberry molds (optional - I used these since I couldn't find good fresh strawberries to decorate with)
Ingredients
Cake ingredients
- 2 cups flour (I used all-purpose; didn't find cake flour made any difference)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups mashed bananas (3-4 bananas; I recommend overripe bananas)
- ½ cup crushed freeze-dried strawberries
- ⅓ cup oil
- ½ cup applesauce
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream frosting + Decorations
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)
- 1-2 drops pink food color (optional)
- 8-10 small fresh strawberries (to decorate - apparently strawberry flowers are also edible if you want to use those too!)
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 6-inch pans with baker's floured cooking spray or grease and line with parchment paper.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a mixing bowl and stir until well mixed. Set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, mash bananas and stir in remaining ingredients (strawberries, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla).
- Add flour mixture to wet ingredients; stir until combined. Transfer batter to prepared pans (I had about 11 ounces/300g per pan).
- Bake 18-22 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
- Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans. Cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.Once cooled, the cake layers can be leveled by trimming down any 'domed' spots on the tops of the cake layers until they're flat.
Whipped cream frosting
- Pour heavy whipping cream into a mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer). Add sugar and food coloring if using. Beat until stiff peaks form. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat about 30 seconds more.
Assembly + Decorating
- Place a smear of whipped cream on a plate or cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle. Spread the layer with whipped cream, and add the next layer on top. Repeat with your remaining layers.
- To get smooth whipped cream, I use a sheet of acetate and a cake ring - the video gives a quick overview of the process, and this post gives more details. Otherwise (if you'd rather not bother with all that) - an offset spatula will suffice to smooth whipped cream over the sides and top of the cake. :)
- Decorate with halved fresh strawberries and flowers if desired - and add the topper! (In the video, you'll see I used buttercream strawberries and marshmallow flowers - I was too late in the season to find fresh berries/flowers. Backup option if you're baking in the late fall like I was!)
Video
Notes
Nutrition
