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Please Help - with Recipes for my Baby's First Birthday Cake

Hi everyone

My baby is turning 12 months ( a year) in a month, and since I still haven't trasitioned into raw, so unfortunately I have 0% experience with raw recipes,

(but atleast my son is on 100% raw vegetable/fruit/grain purees, besides breastmilk) so since his first birthday is in one month, can you help me with some recipes for his first Raw Birthday Cake? (cause I' totally clueless when it comes to raw recipes, and I don't have dehyrator, so the recipes can't call for dehydratr use)

Thanks!

Comments

  • This cake is AWESOME! I have made it 3 times now and everyone loves it.

    Grezzo Chocolate Fudge Cake - Alissa Coehn

    For the base:

    1 C. Walnuts

    1 C. Pecans

    1 C. Dates, pitted

    1/4 C. Raw Cacao Powder

    For the topping:

    1/2 C. Cacao Powder

    1/4 C. Coconut Oil

    1/4 C. Agave Nectar

    Prepare the base: Grind walnuts and pecans in a food processor until fine. Add the dates and cacao powder and blend until smooth and chocolatey. Remove from the food processor and, with your hands, form into four squares.

    To assemble: Mix topping ingredients by hand in a small bowl. When smooth, pour the sauce on top of the base.

    Refrigerate the cakes until firm.

  • Be careful with nuts and young children, they don't always agree well with them. You may want to consider some sort of carrot cake? Just a thought.

  • Nuts

    http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/startingsolids/feedbabywhatwhen/#6

    It's true that you shouldn't give whole nuts to children who are under five years old, because of the risk of choking. But nut butters and ground nuts are fine for babies over six months old and children who do not have a family history of allergies.

    Serious allergies to nuts and nut products and some seeds affect less than one per cent of the population. Your baby may be at higher risk if you, your baby's father, brothers or sisters have certain allergic conditions such as hayfever, asthma and/or eczema.

    If your baby is in this higher-risk group, avoid eating peanuts and peanut products while pregnant, during breastfeeding and during the introduction of solid foods. Until your child is at least three years old, peanuts and peanut products should be avoided.

    If you think your child might be allergic to peanuts, contact your GP who can arrange for your baby to see an allergy specialist.

    If you do not have a history of allergy in the family, you can give your baby ground nuts and nut spreads, including peanut butter, from six months.

    I'm not so sure six months - it came from a reliable source but I am searching still...

  • i'd be reallyyy wary about feeding a baby raw chocolate. i think raw cupcakes would be a good idea, because you could do a few different flavours.

    i have a few recipes (for cakes and cupcakes) if you want them. just let me know what flavours you'd like :)

  • vegan2rawvegan2raw Raw Newbie

    I am a mamma to ttwo toddlers and would advise seeds chopped or ground instead of nuts. Even without a family history you need to test nuts one by one (meaning one one week and a diff variety another week) to make sure there is no reaction. Also if your babe has yet to try nuts I would opt out of doing it on your 1 year celebration it could ruin the fun. I will think on of what you could make.. . raw chocolate might be a little much it is verrry stimiulating. I think an ice cream cake where you layered frozen fruits (puree frozen banana blueberries mango whatever your babe like and do it all separate so the colors stay separate and layer in a baking dish and refreeze and top with young coconut cream coconut is safe for babes) I think I will have to make and post this recipe so its understandable.. .

    Peace Yall

  • When Andrew turned a year old (he's 19 months now), I just served fruit! He enjoyed watermelon wedges as well as pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries and grapes. Even now he prefers simply eating fruit to gourmet recipes. There's plenty of time to introduce nuts, seeds and gourmet food. Keep it simple. Good luck! :)

  • Everybody thank you so much for your help, recipes and advices

    Rawlinda Sue, thank you for the recipe

    My baby does have ezcema (on his back, and also has zits and his pores opened on the cheeks when he was about 6 months, so he looks like a baby-teenager)

    And so far I held back on giving him peanuts, walnuts, cause of a potential for allergies but so far I had been giving him almond milk, and sprouted grains (buckwheat and quinoa) and sprouted sunflower, but his skin issues (the opening of the pores on cheeks, and zits) came to surface even before I introduced solids besides breastfeeding) so I guess, well it seems not to be connected with foods, but who knows...

    But I'm gona do what you all sugested, and try introducing other nuts, as a trial base for a week and see if they agree with him, so I'l know what specific foods to avoid for making his first Raw cake

    Kathrinintheraw can you post me your recipes for some cakes and cupcakes you think are good

    and Vegan2Raw can you post me if it's not too much trouble recipe for frosen layered fruit you mentioned

    Thanks again to everyone!

  • This is the cake I made for my son's first birthday:

    Raw Apple Cake

    Baby Greens by Michaela Linn and Michael Chrisemer, N.C.

    2 cups fresh apple, shredded

    1 1/2 cups dried apple, minced

    3/4 cups ground flax meal*

    3/4 cups shredded coconut*

    1/4 cup raisins

    1 cup raisins or dates, soaked 2-4 hours and blended to a paste**

    2 Tbs mequite powder***

    1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

    Nutmeg to taste

    1/4 tsp Celtic salt

    Place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and hand mix gently, yet thoroughly; set aside. Using a 6 inch spring-form pan, line the bottom with plastic wrap. Press "cake" firmly. Frost with coconut creme and decorate with fruit (I used blackberries and kiwi, it was a beautiful color combination!). Chill before serving. Note with extra cake, form into bars and dehydrate 10-12 hours for a great snack on the trail.

    Notes

    * I replaced 1 1/2 cups pecans (soaked, dehydrated, and ground into flour) with ground flax meal and shredded coconut; I used store bought shredded coconut and then minced it in the food processor with the dried apple to unlock the flavor. Fresh coconut would be even tastier.

    ** The raisins I used were fresh and very moist so I skipped the soaking and just blended with a little water.

    *** I left out the mequite powder because I didn't have it.

    Coconut Creme

    1 young fresh coconut

    1 handful of blackberries****

    vanilla

    Tap open the top of the coconut, pour the water into a large measuring cup, and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Put all of the coconut flesh into the blender with a little bit of the coconut water and vanilla. Blend until smooth adding wee bits of coconut water as necessary to acheive a silky custard consistency and adding berries to taste.

    Notes

    **** You can also use dates or some other fruit for sweetness. I introduced berries to my son the week before so that he could have them on his birthday.

    This cake is SOOOO yummy! Everyone who has tried it has truly enjoyed it. I hope you like it too!

    Btw, If you are interested in more ideas about feeding your baby raw foods, check out Baby Greens and Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine.

  • I agree with waiting on the nuts. You have plenty of time to introduce them later.

    Your son may be having an allergic reaction to foods you are eating by way of your breastmilk. Have you tried an elimination diet of any sort? The biggest problem foods are soy, dairy, and gluten grains (wheat).

  • My Grandson also has eczema and was told to avoid pumpkin. My daughter didn't agree with the age on the nuts either, but we couldn't find anything saying different. I would go with the apple cake that tumblebeee posted, and save the chocolate cake for your birthday!

    Does anyone else have any websites that talk about when it's safe to start giving nuts? (I work in Child Care and would like to have this info handy.)

  • Tumblebee thanks for your recipe, and Rawlinda Sue thanks for your advice

    And Tumblebee, you could be right that he is, allergic to something he's been getting through my milk all this time, and not from his solids, but mine (honestly untill just now, the thought hadn't crossed my mind)

    So his symtoms (exzema's and zits) are then probably beeing caused by something I've been eating cause I hadn't been giving him any gluten foods (like wheat) but gluten free grains like sprouted buckwheat and quinoa, but I had been giving him pumpikin juice and Rawlinda Sue mentioned that pumpkins can be a potential problem, even though my nutricionist recomended pumpikins as one of first foods when I started introducing solids

    Now I'm gona try to recall all the foods I have been eating that could potentially be the cause)

  • I too would assume that it's something he's reacting to through the milk. You could try eating primarily fruit and non-bitter greens for a week or two and see if it clears up. I've also read that buckwheat can cause photo-sensitivity? Good luck =)

  • I kept finding conflicting information about the safety of nuts with children.

    The most common information I found was that nuts are highly allergenic, especially if your family has a history of nut allergies. Also, introducing them too early might trigger an allergy that might have been avoidable by waiting. Then I heard that waiting doesn't make a difference -- if they are allergic, they are allergic regardless of when they are introduced to nuts.

    The confusing part for me is that many of the raw, vegan, and natural baby food books that I read provided some sort of Almond milk recipe for infants. This gave me the message that giving almonds to infants is fine.

    I finally decided that since I had questions about the safety of nuts, I should probably just wait. I felt if my son did have a reaction, it would be easier to deal with when he was old enough to communicate and I could explain what was happening.

    When I was researching food introduction, I gleaned most of my information from the following resources:

    Raw Resources

    Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine

    Baby Greens

    Other Resources

    Wholesome Baby Food

    Simply Natural Baby Food

    Super Baby Food

    Vive Le Vegan

  • vegan2rawvegan2raw Raw Newbie

    Hi again Arijel5,

    I will post it Sunday morning I am having a vegan dinner for some sad eating relatives tomorrow and am trying to prepare (some raw all vegan meal they would never accept all raw so its all about transitioning) anyhow I wanted to share with you that my daughter who is 21 months old now was ahaving exzema and rashes and diarrhea thru my milk as a newborn we quit dairy alltogether and a few other allergens and the exzema etc went away and we have all stayed vegan. We were vegetarian before. So my advice to you would be to do the same as annoying as it is take out all allergens and introduce one by one. byt the way we do not have a big history of allergies I blame it on GM crops and all the fun new chemicals we come in contact with daily) We found out thru milk as follows

    Oriana is intollerant of

    Corn

    Milk-dairy

    eggs

    peanuts

    cashews

    must be kept at low grain-gluten also

    and our older daughter Linnea

    dairy

    gluten eggs

    I myself am allergic to dairy and thats it and my hubby has none so go figure. It was a struggle to figure all this out and cut out some things I love (corn on the cob!) but soooo worth it no rashes (if we follow protocol) and happy children (which as you know equals happy adults) So try the elimination diet thru your milk that way as your babe eats solids you will already know what to avoid and it will help him immune system to keep the undigestable out.

    Peace

  • carrie6292carrie6292 Raw Newbie

    For my friend birthday this year, i bought a watermelon and cut it in half (not lenthwise). I then took two good sized slices from each side. I then took a knife and just went around the perimeter of the rine. I removed the rine. This left me with 2 nice pink circles - just the size of a cake :) I put one slice on top of a plate. Then, i sliced strawberries and layered these on top. Then, i placed the other round on top of that. This looked like a layered cake. I frost it with "cream cheese frosting" but you could omit this part completely! Why not blend up a bunch of strawberries with some agave and drizzle overtop the cake? That would probably make a really pretty "frosting". Maybe even blend a little coconut with it to make it even thicker... endless possibilies :) You can cut grapes or cherries or blueberries and decorate the top with them... spell something out??

  • The watermelon cake sounds wonderful!

    Here is another recipe:

    Eli's first birthday cake

  • Raw CurlsRaw Curls Raw Newbie

    How about a banana ice cream cake? You can slice and freeze banana pieces, then process it and press it into a spring form pan and freeze. If you want, you can layer it with frozen processed strawberries with banana for a different layer of flavor.

  • Tumbleebee it was the same for me too (and everyone who has kisd) and not just when it comes to allergies and nuts information discrepances, but any food topic or any baby related questions I would have, and searched into, I would always find like you said a lot of conflicting information, and at the end, you just don't know which informaion or advice to follow, it all so confusing......

    And Vegan2Raw I am using eggs and dairy products and gluten foods(cause unfortunately I still haven't begun to transition into raw, I still eat junk foods) so I'm gona cut those foods out for a trial and see if my baby will lose his exczema.

    And watermellons sound like a great idea for a cake, but unfortunatelly they're out of sezone so I can't find them anywhere

  • I forgot to ask, can pecans, that is when some recipe calls for their use, and I can't find pecans in my country, so can I substitute them for something else, maybe walnuts (cause there are no pecans in my country, just macademia, walnuts and other nuts)

  • From 1MusicalMango (post #12): "I've also read that buckwheat can cause photo-sensitivity?"

    Right, but that's buckwheat greens rather than the grain. They say that the greens contain a substance called fagopyrin that causes the symptoms (here's a very readable but very detailled article on the subject: http://www.gillesarbour.com/buckwheatArticle.php).

    The only question in my mind is this -- when does a sprouted buckwheat groat stop being a grain and start being a plant? I emailed the author of the above article, and he believes that slightly-sprouted groats should pose no problem as long as they are sprouted (and stored) in total darkness. Once my symptoms clear up, I will try that! No more buckwheat-green smoothies for me -- but I sure do miss my sprouted buckwheat crackers!

  • Hi all... i'm trying so hard to give raw food for my 17 months old son, but sometimes i'm confused about the menu. I give him most green smoothies but lately he seemed bored with it.

    And also people around me, they asked about my son's weight, about 8 kg. He looked like smaller than the other toddler at his age. He's healthy, and i'm so happy about that. But what about his weight? Is that ok? We are the only vegan famiily among meat eaters...

    @karmygirl: hallo, would you mind share about your son's weight?

    Thank you all.

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