Nicole Banuelos

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Banana Apple Cake Recipe: A Healthy Approach for Baby’s 1st Birthday Smash Cake!

in Food/Recipes, Kids, Lifestyle, Mom Life on

Giovanni’s birthday has come and gone but with all the festivities surrounding his birthday (his Uncle’s wedding and his Grandfather’s big birthday bash) we never got around to properly celebrating my little dude.  We are planning on having a joint birthday party for both Gio and Isabella next week, but I just couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that my poor guy got short handed for his 1st birthday and I just had to do something about it.

So what did I do?  I made my baby a super healthy smash cake from scratch… and it was terrible.  So I made another one that turned out even worse which left me feeling frustrated and defeated.  I use to be a pretty decent baker, what happened?

I finally decided that I was going to ditch my idea of making a smash cake from scratch and instead use an all natural box cake mix.  Not the most original, I know but it was the best I could do after 2 previous failed attempts.

I am happy to report that it was not only beautiful but also delicious!
Cake Ingredients:
1 Box of Immaculate Yellow Cake Scratch Baking Mix
3/4 Cup of Organic Milk
1 1/2 Sticks of Melted Organic Butter
4 Organic Eggs

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Add the Immaculate cake mix to a large mixing bowl and slowly add in your milk, melted butter and 4 eggs.  Mix on low speed for 30 seconds and medium/high for 2 minutes.  Add in the Gerber Lil’ Bites.  Pour mix into two 9 inch non stick baking pans and bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes.
Frosting Ingredients:
1 Carton of Organic Heavy Whipping Cream

Directions:

Pour the entire carton into a large mixing bowl and beat until it becomes light and fluffy. 
Once my cake was cooled I cut the cake to the size I found to fit my needs.  Smaller cake pans would have obviously been ideal but unfortunately mine have seemed found legs and disappeared!  I then began to frost the bottom layer of my cake.  I wanted to have a yummy filling between the first and second layer which is why I decided to use Gerber Lil’ Bites in the Apple Banana flavor.   

I used about a 1/3 of a cup but looking back now I realize I should have used much more because Gio really seemed to love it!  Once I had the filling complete I added the second cake layer and continued frosting the cake until it was completely covered.  I was hoping to add a fun little topper but realized I didn’t have anything I needed to get it done and instead chose to use blueberries… because who doesn’t love fresh blueberries?  
As you can see, Gio had no complaints!

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Comments

  17. Have you ever had anyone substitute half of the butter with a combination of applesauce or mashed bananas?

    Reply

    • Hi Sheryl! I have not, but I suspect that either would work out just fine! If you try it, I’d love to know the verdict!

      Reply

  18. Hi, I’m a bit confused about the Gerber Lil Bites, did you just use it for the filling, or did you also add it to the cake mix? And if so, how much for each, mix & filling?

    In the directions it says “Add in the Gerber Lil’ Bites. Pour mix into two 9 inch non stick baking pans and bake for 30 minutes.” Please let me know, and Thank You! This sounds like a tasty smash cake to make for my grandsons first Birthday! If the pics of your adorable baby Gio are any indication, it should be a real hit with my Jason! Thanks again for a great cake idea!

    Reply

  19. So you added the gerber lil bites Apple and banana to both the cake batter and frosting? How much puree did you add to the cake batter and how much did you add to the whipped up whipping cream?

    Reply

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