Hi All, My little one will be celebrating his first birthday in a few weeks' time -- I can't believe it's come around so quickly! I would like to make him a birthday cake rather than buying a sugar-laden monstrosity from the supermarket, and I wondered if anybody had any nice recipes? There will be other babies at the party and so I'd really like to make something suitable, e.g. perhaps a banana cake with not too much sugar. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated :) Thanks, Jessica

Added to below that was chopped Pears not Bears!!

This one os great because it is low sugar and low fat so also great for getting off the baby weight.
Take an individual yoghurt, vanilla, or greek.
Empty into bowl then use the Yoghurt pot as your measure and add the following:
3 x self rasing flour
1.5 x reduced calorie sugar
half sunflower oil
Add two eggs and then whatever yo want to flavour, I do chopped bears and almond essence or fresh vanilla.
Cook on 180 until the knife runs clean depending on over 25-40 mins.
Its so quick and easy which is great for a busy Mum.
Enjoy - Amie!

Thanks for the input, everybody :) I like the sound of using the low-sugar jam and whipped cream as the icing! I haven't thought of looking at Annabel Karmel's books, either; I have her Baby Puree book but nothing beyond that. Charlie is past purees now anyway so I might invest in her next-stage cook book and see what's in there.

I don't know if there's enough space to post this whole recipe, but I just made it and it's yummy! Put 250g chopped dates & 300ml water in a saucepan, bring to boil then turn off heat. Combine 85g plain white flour, 85g plain wholemeal flour, 1tsp mixed spice, 500g mixed chopped dried fruit (eg sultanas, cherries, apricots) & 50g ground almonds. Mix in dates & water & 80ml orange juice. Mix well & spoon into greased or lined 2lb loaf tin. Bake for 45-50 minutes, cool on a wire rack. The cake comes out very moist & very sweet so seems to be popular with children, but it has no added sugar & no dairy products. On the other hand, for my daughter's first birthday we just baked a regular sponge, filled it with low-sugar jam (eg St Dalfour) & iced it with double cream whisked with a small amount of icing sugar. That looked just like a normal cake but was pretty low sugar and went down really well. Happy birthday to your little boy!

You could try the kids annabel karmel books, they have some good recepies in them that are designed for kids. One of the books has small cakes in them but you could always adapt it to make a big birthday cake. Try your local library too as they usually have a section on cooking/kids cooking, it might help to give you a few ideas.

Hi Jessica, My little boy's just gone 8 months - I'm not sure where the time's gone either! Have a look at the Wholesome Baby Food website: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipFirstBDay.htm They've got some great recipes for cakes suitable for little people - as well as catering for those with special diets (no eggs, diabetic etc). Hope you find it helpful! Inna

Hi Jessica, My little boy's just gone 8 months - I'm not sure where the time's gone either! Have a look at the Wholesome Baby Food website: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipFirstBDay.htm They've got some great recipes for cakes suitable for little people - as well as catering for those with special diets (no eggs, diabetic etc). Hope you find it helpful! Inna