A special delivery for my toddler twins on their birthday!

Hello everyone! Happy New Year to all! May 2022 be a year filled with blessings to all. Today I want to talk to you about a new challenge for a special occasion.

My twins just turned 3 years old! Time flies, especially when you have toddler kids!

For this very special occasion, deciding to bake the cake myself did not come easy. I have only made a few cakes in my life and for family, not for friends and not for big groups.

However, after a couple of inquiries at some local bakeries, no one could commit to changing their recipes for a non-sugar, toddler-friendly cake…I was not really surprised. I have found this with commercial infant and toddler food (sometimes the least friendly of all for little ones).

So, again, the reason for embarking on this journey of learning professional bakery is to deliver delicious but, most importantly, nutritious food for kids.

I have to admit I have also taken pleasure in preparing creative shapes of muffins, quiches, and tarts, using fruits and vegetables that in their combination create delicious snacks, and which content provides the nutrition kids need for their healthy development

So….for this new milestone in my kid’s life, I took on the challenge of making the cake. I found this recipe online from the Super Healthy Kids Blog. I like the substitutions they have made in a standard cake recipe using whole wheat flour and bananas for the batter.

I used apples instead of peaches for two reasons. First, peaches are not in season. Second, apples also provide good sugar content complementing the bananas, so the cake is tasty without adding unnecessary sugars, especially processed ones.

Due to the size of the cake, I also made double the recipe. I wanted to have it shaped like a “3,” and I bought a Wilton pan kit that includes both letters and numbers shapes. I highly recommend it.

For the frosting, I used a cream cheese recipe that I had done last year when the twins turned 2, and I made vanilla cupcakes for their birthday. However, this time it did not work. The cream cheese flavor did not boost the taste of the cake itself, as it should, and the whole combination seemed dull in taste. So I decided to make the Chantilly cream instead, with a significant variation. I used maple syrup instead of sugar and still lowered the amount to make it toddler-friendly. I made three times the Chantilly recipe but only added the maple syrup amount equivalent to one time the recipe.

I finished the decoration with unsweet coconut flakes, strawberries, blueberries, and icing’ forest animal decorations that fit the party’s theme.

The result left me quite happy. I liked the final result. The cake had a nice and delicate banana flavor, and combined with the Chantilly cream, it was delicious! The children and parents enjoyed it. Some parents thought I had bought the cake and wanted to know where! (I had a big smile on my face, as you may imagine). But, in the end, the most important thing for me was to see the happy faces of my twins enjoying their birthday cake (this was actually the first time they had cake) and knowing it was not only delicious but also nutritious!!