low/no sugar first birthday cake

[amtstevens]

Hello,

DS's 1st birthday is coming up and I'd like to bake him a cake but he doesn't normally have much or any sugar in his food.

Does anyone have any recipes for low or no-sugar cakes? Maybe something sweetened with fruit juice rather than sugar? Have googled but not been able to find anything so far.

Thanks

I don't have a recipe to hand, but I made a carrot cake for DDs 1st birthday. Had no added sugar, but grated carrot, apple and sultanas made it plenty sweet enough.

In terms of the amount of sugar he'll ingest, if you sweeten with fruit juice it will be much the same in the end, tbh. You'll get A LOT of "don't be silly" comments, I warn you. However, can recommend this for low sugar decoration on top of ordinary chocolate cake.

just give him cake - it's about time! I wouldn't be so precious about sugar, a little won't kill him.

Surely on one day of the year he could have a treat!!!!!!!

it's a good time to start sugar. seriously, one bit of cake with sugar in it isn't going to do him any harm or even turn him into a sugar addict.

Do a banana loaf

But - hey - it's his first birthday - don't sweat it too much...just have a really nice normal cake, give him a small bit and he can be back on the straight and narrow the next day.

may i be the first to say...

ffs just make a cake

he is one you don't even have to give him any.

Thanks both. Habbibu - I didn't know that about the fruit sugar. In that case I might as well give in and make choc cake that I will enjoy too

dam too slow

He has had sugar, he just doesn't usually have a lot and actually doesn't seem to like really sweet things all that much, hence the question.

I think at that age, the cake is more for the other guests anyway

Well, that's not a scientist's opinion, amt! But fruit juice is pretty sugary, although it's fructose rather than sucrose, but I think the effect is much the same. The cake I posted was great for 1 year olds, as they picked off all the fruit, and we ate all the cake. Odds are he won't eat much, but if you make a proper cake you'll get nice pictures.

How much cake are you expecting him to eat?

OP, thanks heaven for your on Wed 23-Sep-09 11:34:39 post, I was about to write this:

"Has the world gone that mad that you cannot have a bit of sugar on your own birthday?"

But you seem to reasonable for me to have a go at you!

Habbibu and Twirlymum, you're right he probably won't eat much but he's never had cake so wanted to make something he could try.

To those of you who have been less helpful, just a reminder that I didn't for ask your opinion on what I should feed my child, I asked if anyone had a recipe they could share.

Gorionine - yes, I am very reasonable so no need for anyone to have a go at me

I knew it!

I use xylitol instead of sugar - it apparently doesn't give as much of a sugar high as sugar and doesn't rot teeth.

You can in theory change the sugar content of any recipe to xylitol, but I find that it only works well with recipes that are relatively low sugar anyway, otherwise the texture goes funny.

My most successful is a date and walnut loaf (can skip the walnuts if you're not giving nuts to your baby). I can give you the recipe if you're interested.

ib - thanks for the offer but unfortunately I'm not a big fan of dates