I would like to start this post by saying I am not a baker. And I mean REALLY not a baker. I hate following recipes and love to improvise in the kitchen, which translates to lots of baking disasters. My sister got the baking gene and makes these amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Somehow, without fail, every time I try to make them the cookies merge into one giant flat sheet of burnt cookies. Which means “baking” at the Geoffrion residence usually consists of throwing premade break and bake cookies in the oven. If I can do this, anyone can…

We celebrated BB’s first birthday this weekend with a purple jungle themed party. And no first birthday is complete without a smash cake! We have tried really hard to avoid refined sugars this first year with BB’s diet, so when I started to think about the smash cake, I realized she had never had any dessert or really anything sweeter than a sweet potato. While I wanted to be sure to give her that smash cake right of passage, I did not want to give her a sugar high or stomach ache. So I researched healthier smash cake recipes.

There were a lot of contenders, but I went with THIS recipe and it was a big hit. The rest of the party, not so much. During BB’s first year on this earth, we got really lucky and she was only sick (knock on wood) one time. She had a fever for 8 hours and was back to her happy and healthy self the next day. As luck would have it, her second time being sick happened to fall on her first birthday party. On top of being sick, BB started having stranger anxiety with men a couple weeks ago. So, she was TERRIFIED of all the men at her party. Literally, hysterical tears whenever a man (besides Blake or my dad) came anywhere near her. But, the tears stopped for a few minutes while she devoured her smash cake, which made this mama very happy. If you are looking to make a healthier option for your baby’s first birthday, I would highly recommend trying this recipe!

To go with her purple jungle theme, I wanted to try a DIY ombre frosting. I could not find a great frosting recipe that didn’t include a ton of sugar or butter, so I made up one of my own. While it tasted pretty gross to me, BB loved it.

WHAT YOU NEED

1 stick cream cheese

1/4 cup milk

1 drizzle of organic maple syrup

Food coloring of your choice (I tried to make my own by combining blueberries and strawberries into a puree, and that was an epic fail…so I got some “natural” prepackaged food coloring)

3-4 plastic baggies

1 flat edged spatula

Combine cream cheese and maple syrup and then slowly mix in milk until smooth and creamy. If the frosting still seems too thick, add a little more milk. You want the frosting thin enough to easily apply to the cake. Like I said, I am not a big baker, so I do not have all the fancy baking equipment. So, I used a plastic baggy and flat edged metal spatula to apply the frosting.

HOW TO FROST THE CAKE

First, cut the top off of the layers of your cake, so they rest flat on top of eachother as you stack them. Then, stack your layers by adding a thin layer of white frosting between them. The “top” of the cake layers should meet in the middle, so you have a flat base and top. You can add as many layers as you like, but I did three for the baby’s cake. Depending on how many layers you do, you may need to double the frosting recipe. I doubled the recipe.

Before you begin the ombre application, you want to start with a thin base layer of white frosting between each layer and covering the outside. This will allow the colored layer to go on smooth and easily blend together. Then, separate the remaining frosting into 3 or 4 containers, depending on how drastic you want your ombre to be. Add your food coloring to each container, using gradually more and more. This will give you a variety of the same color. Apply the frosting in rings around the cake until it is entirely covered. Then, use the flat edge of the metal spatula to smooth it out. This is when the colors will gradually blend together to get that ombre look.

I made the cake a week before the baby’s party and froze it. When it defrosted, the frosting split a little in certain places, but I topped it with a succulent and that covered most of the cracks. I loved the ombre look so much, that I decided to make a larger version made out of carrot cake with a buttercream frosting for the rest of the guests. The larger cake turned out to be a little more challenging and I wound up with a slightly tilted cake, but it was delicious!