Nala's Smash Cake

So to mark the occasion for our little 1 year old I made her her own cake, to do as she pleased – to throw and smash and play and eat. I love the idea of a smash cake, because it is the perfect way to involve a 1 year old in their birthday cake (and, of course the photos!). Otherwise let’s be honest, the first birthday cake is for the guests, not the birthday girl/boy.

We did it at home, when it was just my husband and I, which was much easier and made for much better photos than trying to snap a few pics during her party. Something I have learnt about photos is that to get good photos you have to be intentional about it – set aside time, set up the space, do it when there is good light etc. Otherwise I find we end up with blurry or dark photos with messy backgrounds.   

The cake:

I looked for a sugar free cake option, because I haven’t introduced my daughter to sugary foods yet. I had a few people make comments about me being mean or not even letting my daughter eat cake on her birthday. But my daughter has a lifetime of sugar ahead of her, I’m just trying to delay is as long as I can. And though some foods might seem bland to us, for her new foods, tastes and textures bring plenty of excitement.

I tested two sugar free cake recipes, though one tasted much better than the other, so I’ll only share that one. I was actually very impressed by how tasty this cake was.

I found this recipe for ‘Little Punkins’ in ‘What to Expect, the Toddler Years’. It’s a muffin recipe, but I made it into a cake. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, so here is what I did:

¼ cup coconut oil

2 whole eggs

1 egg white

1 cup raisins

1 ¾ cup apple juice concentrate

1 cup mashed pumpkin

1 ½ cups self raising flour

½ cup wheat germ

• Preheat over to 180 degrees. Grease cake tin.
• Beat oil and eggs in bowl.
• Chop raisins with apple juice in blender. Add pumpkin and blend. Fold pumpkin mixture into the egg and oil mixture
• Add flour and wheat germ
• Pour into cake tin and cook until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean (I cooked the mixture in two halves to make thin cakes which I stacked on top of each other).

For the icing I used cream cheese and a little apple juice, whipped for a few minutes with an electric beater.

The photos:

This was the difficult bit. I’ve made many a cake in my life, but I’m not much of a photographer at all, so photographing a toddler and a cake was a challenge to me. I needed to think about lighting and the set up and nap times.

We wanted to start straight after nap time. I iced the cake and got it ready while Nala was asleep. But first Nala had to have lunch (no point trying to photograph a hungry toddler), then a bath and hair wash, then we decided we needed a white sheet on the floor to create a good background, so off I headed to the shops. We borrowed a friend’s camera that we’d never used before and at first we couldn’t get the photos to come out clearly, so we played around with the settings a bit and the next thing I know we’ve got a tired, grumpy toddler on our hands. I actually wanted to push on, put the cake in front of her and see what she does. It was already 3pm on a wintery day and the natural light I was relying on was not far from fading.

But, tired toddlers progress to very quickly into ‘hold-on-to-mummy’s-leg’ toddlers, so it was off to bed for little Nala, dressed in her tutu. We restarted around five, with Nala as her best, happiest self, and we used the flash on the camera to make up for the lack of natural light.

Did she like the cake?

Well at first she was most interested in pulling the bunting and princess decorations off. And then she slowly and cautiously started dipping into the icing with her fingers. She didn’t dive in like I’ve seen other babies do online, instead she seemed curious as to what it was. I think it’s fair to say she was a run away birthday girl though – while she was interested in tasting the cake, she was more interested in running towards us and trying to grab us and the camera. She was very intrigued by the fact that our living room had turned into a set, the camera and the decorations on the wall. But persist we did and for a few moments here and there we had her sitting behind the cake. And snap away we did. She actually loved the squishy texture of the icing and ended up with it all over her hands, feet, clothes and mouth. She barely tasted the cake underneath, so turns out I could have packed it full of sugar anyway!
The verdict – it was lots of fun and super cute and I’m really happy with how it all turned out. Welcome to the world of cakes, birthday girl!

What a year it has been for all of us. You can read about her first year here.

Food, Glorious Food

Meal time at my house is long, messy and delicious. From my daughter I have learnt that food is funny, great fun and makes excellent hair gel and skin lotion. My absolute essential products for introducing solids have been a high chair, a mop and google.

We started solids by accident. I had no intention of giving her solids until at least six months (because the WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months, because I believed that breast milk was all my daughter needed and because I knew she had the rest of her life to eat solid food). But one day I was sitting in the car in a car park eating a banana. Nala was sitting on my lap and I gave her some just for fun. And I discovered it was fun! Nala squished it in her hand, sucked it and had a great time. It was wonderful to watch her discover something completely new. It made me look forward to the food stage.

We ended up starting solids at 4.5 months because a few people had suggested that it might help my daughter sleep through the night again (it didn’t). But despite originally not wanting to start solids until 6 months, I’m glad we started earlier. It meant we got to introduce them very, very slowly. And we started in a very relaxed way. At first she didn’t even eat something every day. If we were out or she was tired or it got busy we didn’t worry. And she would eat the tiniest, tiniest bit, so she was still almost exclusively breastfed anyway. Most of the reading I have done shows babies on three meals a day, with most food groups by 6 or 7 months. If the baby was only to start solids at 6 months I’m not sure how they could be having so many foods and so often in such a short space of time. We’ve followed the three day rule – ie. Introduce one new food for three days before trying something new. Doing this means it takes a long time to introduce things. I’ve got a whole long list of foods that I can’t wait for her to try, but it takes such a long time to get to them all!

She started with the normal foods – pumpkin, avocado, potato and lots of other veggies mashed up with a fork and fed to her with plastic baby spoons. She liked everything we gave her and didn’t spit it out, but never ate very much.

Then one day, just after six months, she decided she would no longer let us feed her. She shut her mouth and ignored us. Not interested. At all. I didn’t worry, I knew that all she really needed was milk, so she didn’t eat for about three days. We persisted, everyday, with the most delicious pureed food I could think of. But she wouldn’t open her mouth. Then my husband suggested we give her finger food. We put a few different cooked veggies on her highchair tray and within seconds she was picking them up with both hands and putting them in her mouth, with great skill and incredible enthusiasm.

At first I was quite nervous about giving her big pieces of food and terrified of her choking. I would sit opposite her and watch every mouthful she took. I also thought at first that we might be limiting her food options by giving her finger food, I had to rack my brain to think beyond banana and avo. But then the food possibilities started to open up for me – cucumber, mango, watermelon, zucchini, asparagus, apple, pear, carrot, potato, broccoli, dried fruit, oats, chicken, mince, chickpeas, cheese, bread, pasta, meat, tomato etc.

And I quickly realised that for my daughter finger food was way more enticing and way more fun. You can squish it, and suck it, and smudge it and throw it, and sometimes even eat it. And she started to love meal time, absolutely love meal time. The moment the food was on her high chair she’d dive in, often grabbing multiple pieces of food and trying to get it all in her mouth. I often watch her eating and think how much her eating style reflects her personality – determined, strong willed, excited by new things and fiercely independent. And then I realise how much I see myself in her and how much her personality is a reflection of mine.

As I googled I started to realise there’s a whole philosophy behind introducing solids in this way. It’s called ‘baby led weaning.’ I’d prefer to call it ‘baby led feeding’ though, because introducing solids is not about weaning for us. And I always give her a milk feed before food to make sure that milk is still her main food source.

I’m excited she’s 7 months now because it means I can start introducing lots of foods and combinations (ie foods with multiple ingredients). So far  a few of my favourites are:

• Chickpea patties:

I got the idea from here, but I made a much simpler version. I simply mashed together chickpeas (from a can, drained and rinsed), sweet potato and carrots, rolled them into patties and cooked them in a frying pan.

• Chicken, apple and carrot hotpot:

This was a meal I made up. I cooked chicken breast, apple (cut into thin wedges) and carrot sticks with a can of tomatoes and then let my little one pick up the pieces and eat them.

• Blueberry oat slice:

My inspiration for this came from here. Except I substituted raspberries for blueberries and I skipped the almonds. It's been a big hit for breakfast. At first I wasn’t sure how to serve cereal, oats or yogurt given that we can’t feed her with a spoon. So I’ve been making oats and rolling them into balls for her to pick up and feed herself. But this slice is a much less messy alternative (it's still messy though, everything is messy...).

• Broccoli and cauliflower covered in grated, melted cheese:

This was a hit today. It was her first time trying cheese.

And I can't wait to make these 3 ingredient berry and banana muffins as soon as she has tried egg whites.

Our food journey is just getting started, but I feel we’re off to a good start. It’s likely I wont be able to update you on all the foods we try, because as a working mumma it’s getting harder and harder to find the time to sit down and write this blog. In truth it’s even a challenge to find time to cook for my husband and myself. Recently I’ve been cooking meals for our daughter, (which she mostly throws on the floor), and we’ve been eating eggs on toast. It’s pretty reflective of life for us really….

Anyway I’d love to hear your ideas below. What’s your baby’s / child’s favourite finger food?