first birthday cake?

[WelshCat]

DS's 1st birthday coming up, im a mean parent so he has never had chocolate, sweets, crisps or anything like that at all. He is allowed jam and fruit etc. But obvs on his birthday I am gonna let him have cake.
I am pretty good at making cakes, I usually make a sponge with buttercream in the middle, then dirty ice it with buttercream and cover it with royal icing. However, I dont know if thats a bit too intense on the sugar for DS, especially as he has never had anything like that before!
Don't know if I should go for a simpler cake, but most of me wants it to look awesome for pics/memories sake. I guess what im asking is, cake is cake, so does it really matter if its full of sugar and crap, or should i not give that to a one year old??

[thestringcheeseincident]

Give it to him. It's his birthday.

[Unlurked]

You could always make the cake then scrape the top bit of icing off for him? A bit of cake on his birthday will do him no harm

Fwiw my dc1 only got a bit of sponge on her 1st birthday having never had anything like that before. Dc2 will be 1 on Friday (im making her a carrot cake, healthy non?) and she's had all manner of crap from a very young age as dc1 is very good at sharing

[PeppaKew]

Personally I would make an awesome sugar filled cake and just let him have a little bit. Although my DD has guilt free Petits Filous most days . I have yet to understand why sugar is bad for kids (tooth decay excepted) asking as they are active.

[WelshCat]

yeah mostly i dont give it to him coz he is so young and i dont want it to affect what he will eat and wont IYKWIM. i figure if i can hold out then he wont be begging me for sweeties before he can even reach the shelf theyre on...

but yeah, just go the whole hog then? im expecting super excitable sugar rush and much puking either way!

[Again]

I made a cake in the shape of a fish. It was a simple sponge and then completely covered in all different kinds of fruit (I only let DS have the fruit!). The tail was slices of melon on the outside and then thin slices of apple. The scales in the centre were mainly halved green grapes and slices of strawberry. The eye was a slice of kiwi, the fin at the top was raspberries. I used a few slices of star fruit and the mouth was one of those orange things with it's leaves opened up that you sometimes get on the side of desserts (sorry can't remember the name). It was very impressive looking. I found it in Green and Black's Chocolate book, but I used plain sponge instead of chocolate.

[AndiMac]

I made a healthy version of carrot cake (low sugar, applesauce instead of oil) for the first birthday and cream cheese icing again with low sugar. But just make a normal sponge if you prefer and just give a small piece. Because it won't be long until DS is invited to other's birthdays and the cake embargo will be lifted sooner or later. May as well be by you on his 1st birthday.

[WelshCat]

yeah thats a good point, i can hardly send him to other kids parties and not let him have cake there.

i think ill just give him a little bit of cake, he'll be so chuffed he wont notice its not much!

[whimsicalname]

If he's anything like my boys, he'll squish the cake between his fingers and then go back to eating fluff off the floor. Still, fluff doesn't have much sugar in. Cake at 1st birthdays is really for the grown ups. Make what you want and just give him a bit.

[WelshCat]

hehe thanks.