Can a birthday cake refined sugar-free, no flour, and made with vegetables, be delicious? Can a birthday cake like that be similar to the one you can get at the store? Can it be instantly beloved by a demanding adult and an even more demanding child? Yes, to all! And this can be verified by the about 30 different palates that tried this in the 6 times I’ve made it! It’s time for this birthday cake we made for his 2nd birthday to become the birthday cake for your own 1st, 3rd, 30th, 50th, or 100th birthday—it doesn’t matter, just make it, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting the comments with your impressions! Take a look at the recipe for our sweet potato birthday cake, but don’t forget to read everything you’ll need before you make it.
What we are going to need for the sweet potato birthday cake
For the cake
- Sweet potatoes. The secret protagonist of this recipe. Why secret? Because no one will realize it, and when you reveal it, no one will believe you. I used orange sweet potatoes, and I suggest you do the same. You’ll need to bake them in the oven, steam them, or boil them. I suggest, however, baking them in the oven, and I’ll write the way below.
- Eggs. Necessary and irreplaceable.
- Coconut oil. I use cold-pressed coconut oil. If you attempt to make this birthday cake in the winter, you’ll need to melt the coconut oil first, so that it’s liquid and usable.
- Coconut sugar. It has the lowest glycaemic index of any other sweetener, and it’s suitable for babies over the age of 6 months.
- Cocoa. Choose good quality cocoa, always with no sugar.
- Coconut flour. You can find it in all big grocery stores, as well as stores with organic products, or delicatessen stores. As I’ve written here, coconut flour can’t be replaced by any other, and the quantity must be exactly as I mention it, and in no way more.
For the cream
- Mascarpone cheese. Always check the ingredients before buying something that your kids will eat. Remove from the fridge sometime earlier to avoid getting the chocolate frozen.
- Chocolate without sugar or additives. The chocolate I used had 3 ingredients: cocoa mass, cocoa butter, and coconut sugar, in this order. So, there’s sugar that’s good for our little ones, and you can seek it in stores with organic products or make it yourself.
- Coconut milk. Canned coconut milk, which should be frozen the night before, though that’s not necessary. I’ve also made the cream with water (in less quantity) and the result had a good texture.
For the icing
- Cream cheese. I suggest checking the ingredients here, too.
- Coconut cream. You’ll find it in most grocery stores, canned, and you must keep it in the fridge from the day before because we’ll need only the solid part. However, one of the times I made this birthday cake, I used canned coconut milk instead of cream, and it was equally successful.
- Vanilla extract. Necessary to balance taste and smell.
- Maple syrup. You can skip it if you want, but I wanted to give the white icing a sweet note. If you decide you want to make the icing sweeter, I don’t suggest substituting it with something else.
For the decoration
I decorated his sweet potato birthday cake with melted sugar-free chocolate. To make the “dotted” decoration, I dripped a pastry brush in the chocolate and “brushed” it on a spatula, right over the cake. To make the “cow” decoration, I transferred the chocolate with a spoon to a non-stick surface, then I created the shapes I wanted, and froze it in the fridge. I used gloved hands to transfer the pieces to the cake, to avoid melting the chocolate with the heat of my hands.
Preparation
How to bake the sweet potatoes
To bake the sweet potatoes in the oven, you’ll just need a baking sheet and a fork. Wash the sweet potatoes well and dry them. Then, poke them with the fork and bake them for a little over an hour (depending on their size) in an oven preheated at 180°C, set to fan. When you can poke them with your finger easily, they’re ready. Cut the sweet potatoes lengthwise and remove their skin with a fork or a spoon and let them cool.
Everything in its time
It’s good to start preparing one or two days earlier. For example, if the birthday is on Sunday, get the sweet potatoes ready on Friday, make the cake layers on Saturday, and finish up the birthday cake on Sunday.
Tips for a successful birthday cake
- Be patient and loving in every stages of making it. Cakes are more complex than what we usually cook, but it’s for just one time a year, and the result will make everything worth it. Do everything with gentle motions throughout the process, especially the assembly.
- Make sure to prepare well, meaning to schedule things well.
- If you have three identical cake tins (22 centimeters wide or smaller), or at least two, then take advantage of them to bake all layers at the same time, saving time. I personally used one adjustable cake tin.
- Follow the steps and the instructions for the letter. Sweet things are more complex than normal food and every gram is important. Don’t change quantities, and mainly, don’t substitute ingredients, because the result may be wildly different.
- You’ll need about 2 to 3 large sweet potatoes. Better to have more than less. If you have leftover sweet potatoes, you can use them to make sweet potato pancakes, or you can store them in the fridge for 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Let the cake layers cool down completely before you remove them from the cake tin because if you remove it while it’s still hot, it might break apart.
- If one of the layers breaks apart, don’t get disappointed. Remove the rest from their tins with care and after you’ve made sure they’ve cooled down, use the broken one as the middle “floor” of your cake.
- Make sure to freeze the layers before assembly. This will help the assembly greatly since it will be more stable when moving and assembling.
- Assemble the cake in your cake display or the tray you’ll use to present it, to avoid unnecessary movements.
Nutritional value
By Mary Panteri, Dietician – Nutritionist (Mary’s Diet)
“When hearing the words ‘birthday cake,’ we immediately think of laughter, having fun with friends, and birthday parties! At every party, the main protagonist on the table is an appetizing cake. One is so good that both kids and adults are looking forward to the time the birthday boy or girl will blow out the candles so that we can all have a taste.
“So, what’s better than a cake that is both tasty and nutritious? For the nutritional analysis and comparison of the ‘chocolate birthday cake with a sweet potato base and mascarpone cream,’ I found a similar cake and came to the conclusions outlined below.
“As you can see in the pictures with the nutritional analysis of both birthday cakes, a piece of the homemade birthday cake No. 2 is better in these regards:
- It has about half the calories as cake No. 1,
- Both give about the same amount of protein,
- It has about 1/3 of the carbohydrates of cake No. 1,
- It has about double the fibre,
- It has almost no sugars,
- It has half the amount of fat,
- Of which, very little is saturated fat compared to cake No. 1 which has quite the quantity,
- It has monosaturated fats, which are useful fats for our organism,
- It has more calcium,
- And the only thing where cake No. 1 excels is that it has more Vitamin A when compared to our homemade cake.
“We’ll analyze the above data more because we often hear that something is nutritious, but we don’t can’t understand what that means. Nutritious means that it gives us good nutrients that our body needs to function and develop well, something incredibly important for our kids, but for us as well. And as Eleni says, in this cake, every bite counts.”
Reactions
The birthday cake is the grand finale of every birthday party. It’s the taste that our guests will remember, what everyone is waiting for, and as such, it has to be worthy of their expectations. It’s the protagonist of the day—after the birthday boy or girl, of course! Smiles and positive comments are the biggest rewards we can receive from our guests, and that will make us forget our tiredness if any.
“The cake was better than I expected. I thought that it wouldn’t be close to the tastes we’ve grown used to, but it was so tasty and delicious that I’d gladly have a second piece,” Grandma said.
“I honestly really liked the cake. It was tasty and much sweeter than I expected. The cake was soft, the filling fluffy, with a delicious icing that contrasted with the cake’s sweetness, bringing balance. All in all, a birthday cake I’d certainly make for my child because it felt like a normal piece of sweet, but without the guilt,” said Evi, a mother of a guest and a guest herself.
The most important thing, though, is that it’s good for all ages. Our little friends won’t complain, and they’ll certainly love it. And, most importantly, every bite counts! If you want to see the birthday cake we made for his first birthday, click here.
Tasty but healthy, a simply dreamy birthday cake for their first birthday.
Preheat the oven at 180°C.
Process the sweet potato, the coconut oil, and a small quantity of coconut milk (8 gr) through the food processor.
Process them until smooth.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs.
Add the pureed sweet potato to the eggs and mix until homogenous.
Add the coconut milk and sugar in the mixture and mix well.
Add the baking powder, the cocoa, and the coconut flour, and mix well.
When the mixture is homogenous, divide it in 3 cake tins 22 centimetres wide, walls oiled with coconut oil.
Bake each layer for 20 minutes at 180°C.
After removing from the oven, let each layer cool down completely before removing from the cake tin.
Place them in the fridge and prepare the cream and the icing.
Break the chocolate in small pieces and melt it in a water bath.
Mix continuously and gently with a silicone spatula.
When the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat, and add milk.
Mix gently.
Add the mascarpone, which you removed from the fridge earlier.
Mix gently but quickly until thick.
In a mixer bowl, add the cream cheese with the solid part of the coconut cream (you won’t use the liquid part here), and mix them in low speed for 1 minute.
Add the vanilla extract and the maple syrup and mix for a few seconds at medium speed, until you have a thick cream.
Assemble the birthday cake on the tray you’ll use to move it.
Place the first layer carefully and add the cream filling with a spatula, from the middle outwards.
Spread with gentle movements and flatten.
Do the same for the second layer.
Cover with the third layer, and then carry on with the icing. You can refrigerate the cake now and add the icing later.
Spread the icing over the cake with a spatula and flatten well.
Decorate it to your liking and enjoy.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven at 180°C.
Process the sweet potato, the coconut oil, and a small quantity of coconut milk (8 gr) through the food processor.
Process them until smooth.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs.
Add the pureed sweet potato to the eggs and mix until homogenous.
Add the coconut milk and sugar in the mixture and mix well.
Add the baking powder, the cocoa, and the coconut flour, and mix well.
When the mixture is homogenous, divide it in 3 cake tins 22 centimetres wide, walls oiled with coconut oil.
Bake each layer for 20 minutes at 180°C.
After removing from the oven, let each layer cool down completely before removing from the cake tin.
Place them in the fridge and prepare the cream and the icing.
Break the chocolate in small pieces and melt it in a water bath.
Mix continuously and gently with a silicone spatula.
When the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat, and add milk.
Mix gently.
Add the mascarpone, which you removed from the fridge earlier.
Mix gently but quickly until thick.
In a mixer bowl, add the cream cheese with the solid part of the coconut cream (you won’t use the liquid part here), and mix them in low speed for 1 minute.
Add the vanilla extract and the maple syrup and mix for a few seconds at medium speed, until you have a thick cream.
Assemble the birthday cake on the tray you’ll use to move it.
Place the first layer carefully and add the cream filling with a spatula, from the middle outwards.
Spread with gentle movements and flatten.
Do the same for the second layer.
Cover with the third layer, and then carry on with the icing. You can refrigerate the cake now and add the icing later.
Spread the icing over the cake with a spatula and flatten well.
Decorate it to your liking and enjoy.
Notes
Αυτό το περιεχόμενο χορηγείται με άδεια Creative Commons Αναφορά Δημιουργού-Μη Εμπορική Χρήση-Όχι Παράγωγα Έργα 4.0 Διεθνές .
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