I cannot believe Nico is one! It certainly does not feel like a year has past. Now, birthday = cake, right? I’ve been sharing quite a bit about Nico’s first foods via Instagram and the blog, and now that Nico has started to eat more food, I will be sharing more! As a cake maker, you can only imagine how difficult it was for me to chose a cake to make for my Nico boy. This is my classic vanilla cake recipe, with a bit less sweetener then normal. I’m including a nut-free version below if any of you know your babies may have a nut allergy.
Nico’s First Birthday Cake
Yields one 8” round cake or two 6” rounds
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted, plus extra for greasing
1/2 cup maple syrup (I cut the maple by a few tablespoons here and subbed some water)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare your 6-inch pans or 8-inch pan by cutting a circular round of parchment paper to fit the base of your pan. Place the circular parchment round inside the cake pan, then grease the sides of the pan with melted coconut oil.
Place eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract in a bowl. Whisk until well incorporated. Add almond flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix until batter is formed, then pour into prepared pan.
Bake about 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool, then flip cake(s) out of pan onto a cake plate.
To prepare coconut whipped cream:
Ingredients:
1 13.5 oz can coconut milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Place a can of coconut milk in refrigerator the night before you make your cake. Before you plan to serve your cake, open the can of refrigerated coconut milk and scoop out coconut milk solids into a mixing bowl. The fat will have risen to the top of the can and the remaining coconut milk will be at the base of the can. Add the solids only to your mixing bowl, then add the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk together, then set the whipped cream in the fridge.
Top cooled cakes with whip and berries!
Nut Free Cake Version
Ingredients:
3/4 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
6 eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare your 6-inch pans or 8-inch pan by cutting a circular round of parchment paper to fit the base of your pan. Place the circular parchment round inside the cake pan, then grease the sides of the pan with melted coconut oil.
In a large bowl, beat the 6 eggs with the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, coconut milk and vanilla extract. Once thoroughly mixed, add the coconut flour, baking soda, and Himalayan pink salt. Stir until batter forms.
Pour batter into prepared pans then bake for 25 minutes or until cakes are firm to the touch and golden brown.
This looks so dreamy 🙂 did you serve it right away? I notice when I make coconut cream frosting it comes out a little runny and there’s barely anything left in the middle between the layers. Yours looks perfect!
The coconut whipped cream is definitely best if the coconut milk is the coldest part of the fridge or 24 hours or longer before scrapping out the solid coconut cream and making the coconut whip. I actually keep cans of coconut milk in my fridge at all times so I can make coconut whipped cream whenever! Does this help?
Hi Laurel! I recently discovered your blog, and I already ordered your book, im so excited! It haven´t arrive yet, because I´m from Mexico, I guess a couple of weeks more! I just wanted to ask you if there is such a replacement for maple syrup that you would recommend (since is very expensive here in Mexico) Could honey be a good option? or Agave syrup? Thank you very much for your time!
Saludos!
Andrea
Honey works great! Agave is a bit too sweet to substitute.
Hi Laurel! The cake looks beautiful. Do you have any tips for turning these into cupcakes? Thank you!
Thank you!!! They work beautifully as cupcakes! This Nico’s cake would yield about 12-14 cupcakes. Just bake 25 minutes and watch them carefully as they might finish sooner. xo
Thank you! I’m very excited to try this recipe. 🙂
For the nut free version, the 1/4 c. coconut milk for the batter, should it be from a shaken, room temperature can?
I’m looking forward to making both versions of this cake!
Shaken, room temperature can will do! Happy Baking!!!
When you reference coconut milk are you talking about the full fat canned version or the stuff you can buy in he milk aisle cold? Like what you can mix into a smoothie?
Full fat! I love Trader Joes organic coconut cream in the baby blue can or Lets Do Organic coconut cream.
If I wanted to substitute ripe banana for the maple syrup how would you go about that…
Which cake would you attempt doing this in? The almond flour or coconut flour version?
Either? 🙂
It works very well for me
Either!
I’m not sure if a banana will work, but you can definitely try it! Out of the two cakes, you’d probably have better luck with the almond flour version. Are there other sweeteners you’re ok with using?
Just don’t want it to be sweet really for my little one! Trying to avoid as long as possible 😉
Totally understand! Dates or date sugar (dehydrated dates) could help a bit as well.
I like the idea of dates! Any idea of the ratio for that?
For date sugar the swap is 1 to 1, or slightly less. If you use whole dates, pit them, soak them in water the puree with other ingredients. The texture will be different, but it will still work. I would say 4 – 5 dates would suffice.
So excited to try this! Love your work!
If I frost and assemble the cake, how long will it keep? I’d like to assemble it in the morning and serve it after dinner. Would that work? Or could I even do it the night before?
Oh you can definitely assemble the night before! I do that all the time!
I enjoy your piece of work, appreciate it for all the informative content.
Hi Laurel,
Thanks so much for this recipe – I gave it a go yesterday and was v happy with the result BUT I think i may have got the measurements wrong as the texture was a bit off (I am based in the UK so dont work in cups – do you have the grams version of the recipe?)
Secondly – does it work with rice flour? If so, what would need to change?
This recipe was designed to be used with almond flour only. For grams, it’s 240 grams of almond flour. Enjoy!