This homemade healthy smash cake recipe is the perfect treat for baby’s first birthday and is so easy to make! Made with no added sugar and sweetened naturally with banana and applesauce, it’s packed with moisture and a delicious way to celebrate this family milestone! {Gluten-free & paleo}
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Baby Smash Cake Recipe
If you’re looking for the perfect cake for baby’s first birthday, you’ll definitely want to try out this healthy smash cake. Our little guy just turned one and for his birthday, I wanted to make him a special cake that the rest of the family could enjoy too.
We opted for a banana cake with no added sugar and a light and creamy frosting. It was a major hit, not only for baby, but everyone else loved it too (especially his older brother)!
This cake recipe is naturally sweetened with banana, packed with moisture and nutrients, and has a soft and fluffy texture that’s perfectly smash-able!
For more naturally sweetened treats, be sure to try my refined Sugar Free Birthday Cake and No-Sugar Added Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes too!
Why We Love This Recipe
- No added sugar: This cake is naturally sweetened with bananas and applesauce. With only 5 grams of sugar per serving, it’s ideal for those looking for a lower sugar cake option.
- Nutrient-packed: This cake is made with almond flour, bananas and applesauce so it’s packed with healthy fats, in addition to fibre, potassium and vitamin C! Hard to go wrong with this healthy birthday cake!
- Simple to make: This cake only takes around 10 minutes to prep before it get baked in the oven. No high maintenance cake here!
- Easily adaptable: This cake can easily be made with different flavours, like chocolate, coconut and blueberries, so you can switch it up depending on your personal preferences!
Ingredient Notes
- Almond flour: To incorporate more nutrients, we use almond flour rather than all-purpose. Use blanched almond flour for best results.
- Cinnamon and vanilla: To add flavour and sweetness to the smash cake.
- Baking soda and salt: So that the cake rises in the oven when it’s baked for a light and fluffy texture.
- Bananas: Use overripe bananas for this recipe. They will be easier to combine with the other ingredients and will be naturally sweeter compared to unripe ones.
- Eggs: Used to bind the ingredients together and incorporate protein into the recipe.
- Applesauce: Used to naturally sweeten the cake and add moisture.
How To Make a Smash Cake for 1 Year Old: Step by Step Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray two 6-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pans with a piece of parchment paper cut so that they they fit the bottom of the pans.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together almond flour, cinnamon and baking soda (and salt, if using).
- In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, eggs, applesauce and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined (do not over mix).
- Divide mixture evenly between the two baking pans.
- Bake in oven for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow cake to cool before removing from the cake pan.
- Meanwhile, prepare frosting of choice. We chose to to frost the cake with homemade unsweetened whipped cream. Using a knife, spread a thin layer of frosting on the bottom layer of the cake. Place the top layer on and continue to apply frosting until the entire cake is covered. Top with desired toppings.
Recipe Notes:
- Use overripe bananas (the brown spotty kind) which will be naturally sweeter. It’s best if the bananas are as sweet as possible since there is no added sugar in this recipe.
- I highly recommend that you line the bottom of the cake pan with parchment paper to prevent the cake from sticking to the bottom of the pan and for easier removal.
- For this recipe, we whipped some 35% heavy cream and used that as the icing for the cake for our baby’s first birthday. We spread the whipped cream in between the two layers, on the top and sides, but you can also just spread some over the top. If you prefer, you can add some icing sugar to the whipped cream, use coconut whipped cream or make a yogurt or cream cheese icing as well.
Recipe FAQs
You can store this cake covered in the fridge for up to three days. Beyond that, I recommend storing it in the freezer.
Yes, it freezes really well! Freeze the unfrosted cake layers in a freezer safe bag or container for up to three months. Place in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for several hours to thaw before frosting and serving.
A smash cake is basically a small birthday cake that’s served on baby’s first birthday. As we know, one year olds can be pretty messy when it comes to meal times, so this cake is specifically designed for them to eat, smoosh and play with! It also works well for those cute cake smashing photo shoots!
The flavour that you decide upon for baby’s cake is totally a personal preference, but we went with banana flavour since it’s a great way to sweeten the cake naturally without using any added sugar. Plus, most babies love bananas so it’s tough to go wrong with a banana cake!
Smash cakes are traditionally made for 1st birthdays, but there’s no reason why you can’t make it for a 2nd or 3rd birthday (or another occasion) if you like. They are great for those special photos!
I used two 6-inch cake pans and found they worked perfectly for this cake. I haven’t tried making this cake in another size cake pan, so if you plan to use another size, you may need to adjust the baking time depending on the size of the pan. If you’d like a taller cake, simply double the recipe and add two extra layers.
Ideas for Serving Baby’s Cake
We used homemade whipped cream with no added sugar as the icing to keep the sugar content lower. We finished it by topping the cake with fresh mixed berries.
You can also top it with any or all of the following:
- Chocolate frosting without powdered sugar
- Coconut whipped cream
- Homemade cream cheese frosting (try this peanut butter cream cheese frosting)
- Chocolate sweet potato frosting
- Nutella or other nut butter
- Yogurt
- Flaked coconut
- Banana slices (or other fresh fruit)
- Sprinkles
- Shaved chocolate or mini chocolate chips
Other Smash Cake Flavour Variations
- Chocolate: Add cocoa powder and chocolate chips for a chocolate banana cake.
- Blueberry: Add blueberries to the cake mix for blueberry banana cake.
- Coconut: Add unsweetened coconut flakes for banana coconut cake.
What Readers Are Saying
“I made this exactly as the recipe recommends for my baby’s 1st birthday. It came out great!! I made cupcakes and stacked two on top of each other + cream cheese frosting to make a mini “cake” for her. Then I stored the remaining ones and she ate the leftover cupcakes for breakfast! Great recipe, really flavorful and good texture.” – Vanessa
This turned out great. I made it for my niece’s first birthday and even grownups couldn’t stop eating them (made mini-muffins). – Alexa
More Healthy Treats
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
- Healthy Banana Cookies
- Spinach Banana Muffins
- Banana Egg Pancakes
- Banana Blueberry Mini Muffins
- Vegan Pumpkin Cake
Did you make this recipe? Scroll down to leave a rating and review!
Healthy Smash Cake Recipe {No Added Sugar}
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 large over ripe bananas
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting (optional):
- 35% heavy whipping cream whipped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray two 6 inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pans with a piece of parchment paper cut so that they they fit the bottom of the pans.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together almond flour, cinnamon and baking soda (and salt, if using).
- In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, eggs, applesauce and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined (do not over mix).
- Divide mixture evenly between the two baking pans.
- Bake in oven for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from the cake pan.
- Meanwhile, prepare frosting of choice. We chose to to frost the cake with homemade unsweetened whipped cream. Using a knife, spread a thin layer of frosting on the bottom layer of the cake. Place the top layer on the bottom layer and continue to apply frosting until the entire cake is covered. Top with desired toppings.
Video
Notes
- Use overripe bananas (the brown spotty kind) which will be naturally sweeter. It’s best if the bananas are as sweet as possible since there is no added sugar in this recipe.
- I highly recommend that you line the bottom of the cake pan with parchment paper to prevent the cake from sticking to the bottom of the pan and for easier removal.
- For this recipe, we whipped some 35% heavy cream and used that as the icing for the cake for our baby’s first birthday. We spread the whipped cream in between the two layers, on the top and sides, but you can also just spread some over the top. If you prefer you can add some icing sugar to the whipped cream, use coconut whipped cream or make a yogurt or cream cheese icing.
Nutrition
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Would I be able to use all purpose flour for this recipe?
I haven’t personally tried it with all purpose flour so I can’t comment on the outcome, but some other readers have had success using it instead of the almond flour. Keep me posted on how it goes if you try it out!
Hello, can I leave out the eggs? What do I substitute them with? She’s allergic to eggs :(
Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to test this recipe with an egg substitute so I’m not entirely sure if it would work out. You could try using chia or flax eggs instead of the regular eggs if you wanted to experiment, but once again, I can’t guarantee that it would turn out. To make 3 chia eggs, you would need to mix 3 tablespoons of chia seeds with 9 tablespoons of water. Leave the mixture to rest for 5-10 minutes or until it thickens and resembles raw egg. Then proceed with the rest of the recipe. Keep me posted if you decide to test it out!
Mine didnt rise properly it’s very small
Cakes made with almond flour don’t tend to rise the same way that cakes made with regular all purpose flour would rise since there is no gluten present. If you want the cake to rise more, you could try adding a bit of xanthan gum to the recipe. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet with this recipe, but hope to experiment with it soon. This cake is also smaller than your traditional cake since it’s made in a 6-inch pan. If you want a taller cake, you can always double the recipe and make it 4 layers instead of 2. Hope that helps!
Hi, i made this cake today in 2 5inch by 2 pans and I followed the recipe step by step but once cooling the center of my cake fell in then when I proceeded to cut into layers it was still doughy. Is there a step I missed or what caused this to happen? Thank you
It’s hard to know exactly what may have gone wrong without being there to see each step, but it sounds like the cake may have been undercooked? Since you used slightly smaller cake pans, the cakes were probably a bit thicker and therefore may have required some extra cooking time. The only other thing I can think of is that perhaps your oven runs hot and the outside of the cake cooked faster than the inside of the cake. In that case, I would reduce your oven temperature slightly next time and bake it a bit longer than the recommended time. Hope that helps!
Hi there! Making this for my daughter’s first birthday party and doubling to make 4 tiers. About how much heavy cream would you suggest for whipping for the icing? Thanks!
I think I used about 1 cup of heavy whipping cream for the 2 tiered cake so I would try about 2 cups cream for the 4 tiered? I apologize — that’s just a rough estimate. I should have recorded the exact amount I used. If you have some left over, you can always serve it on the side or dip some fruit into it. Keep me posted on how it turns out and hope your baby enjoys the cake!
Thank you so much! We ended up sticking with the 2 tier and 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. It was perfect, and my daughter loved it!
That’s amazing, thanks so much for reporting back! So happy your daughter loved the cake :)
Hi! I’m gonna try this for my daughter’s first and want to try making the homemade cream too :) I’m wondering if I can make this cake and frosting the day before… do you know how well the cream holds? If I make it the day before, will it melt? Or if I keep it in the fridge, do you think it would be fine?
I’ve made the whipped cream in advance before and it tends to solidify in the fridge a bit and lose some of its creamy texture. You should be able to whip up a batch ahead of time, but right before you’re about to spread it on, I recommend leaving it at room temperature for a few minutes and then whipping it up again with a hand mixer (or stand mixer) to get it fluffy again. The cake can definitely be made the day before. Hope your daughter enjoys the cake!
Hi! I love your recipe and will definitely make it for my daughter 1st birthday. I would like to make enough batter to fill 3 cake pan instead of 2. What changes would you suggest?
Hi Julia, sorry for the delay! I would recommend multiplying each of the ingredient quantities by 1.5 and then evenly dividing the batter between the 3 cake pans. The cooking time should remain roughly the same, although I would check it after the recommended cooking time is up to see if all of the cakes have cooked through. Hope your baby enjoys the cake! :)
Hello! I love your recipe and will definitely make it for my daughter 1st birthday. I would like to make enough batter to fill 3 cake pan instead of 2. What changes would you suggest?
Hi, is it possible to sub in coconut flour? I suspect my baby might have a mild but allergy. She reacted to cashew but I don’t think I want to try almond for her birthday.
Unfortunately, coconut flour cannot be used as a direct replacement for almond flour since it’s highly absorbent and typically requires more liquid. I haven’t tested this recipe with coconut flour, so I’m not able to provide any exact proportions. Sorry about that! If you do decide to modify the recipe and make it with coconut flour, please keep me posted on the outcome. Hope your baby has a great birthday!
I Trippled the recipe and got a double layer 6 inch cake and 18 cupcakes for a baby boy done recipe exactly as said and used plain heavy whipping cream for icing turned out very cute 😊
I love this idea!! That’s so smart tripling the recipe to make cupcakes to go along with the cake! So happy it turned out well for you :)
Would this recipe work for 4″ round pans? Not sure if I need to alter ingredients or baking times in any way?
I haven’t tried this recipe with 4″ pans but I’m sure it would work. If you’re using two 4″ pans, I would keep the ingredients the same, but possibly adapt the cooking time. I would start with the cooking time listed and then check the cakes after that time is up. You may need to cook them a bit longer since the cakes would smaller, but thicker. Keep me posted if you try it out!
HI Stephanie I also want to use 4″ pans – did you alter the cooking time?
Can you add mini chocolate chips to this recipe?? Thank you
Definitely! I’m sure it would be really good! Let me know how it goes if you try it out :)
Thank you for this great recipe! Made it with homemade whipping cream as you suggested with fresh raspberries on top for my son’s first birthday. He loved it!! I also have tried your blueberry muffin recipe and my son loves that one too! (As well as me and my husband too :) ) Can’t wait to try more of your recipes out!
It’s my pleasure! I’m so happy that your baby loved the cake and that you’ve all been enjoying the blueberry muffins too! My baby always does a happy dance when he eats those muffins haha. Thanks so much for providing feedback on the recipes :)
Can I use pears sauce instead of apples? I’m so excited to try this recipe, my little one turns one soon and I want to make him a delicious smash cake and I love all the ingredients in this recipe. Thank you for sharing this.
I haven’t personally tried it, but I think pear sauce would work just fine! Hope your little one enjoys the cake if you guys decide to try it out! It was definitely a hit with my little guys :)
Can you use all purpose flour?
Generally all purpose flour can be used as a 1:1 substitute for almond flour, but I haven’t tested it so I can’t guarantee that it would work out. Almond flour typically requires more eggs to bind the flour, so you may want to eliminate an egg if you try the all purpose flour. Please keep me posted if you try it out!
Hello! Curious to see if you/anybody else has tried this recipe using all-purpose flour? If so, would love to know how it went!
Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to test this cake out with all-purpose flour. Sorry! If you do try it out, I would recommend possibly eliminating an egg since almond flour typically requires more eggs to bind the flour. Keep me posted if you try it out with the regular flour!
Do you think this would work using Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour? I have that on hand. Excited to try this!
Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to try this recipe out with gluten-free flour so I can’t say 100% if it would work out. Typically almond flour can’t be replaced 1:1 with gluten-free or wheat flour without making some modifications to the recipe. If you do try it out, you may need to increase the amount of gluten-flour. 1 cup flour is equivalent to about 3/4 cup almond flour. Also with the gluten-free flour, you may need to increase the cooking time. Hope that helps if you decide to try it out!
Hello! Just wondering if you or anybody else has tested the recipe using all purpose flour? Please let me know how it went and if you made any changes! Excited to try out this recipe for my LO turning 1 soon!
I tried this recipe using all purpose flour and reduced to two eggs as recommended – it turned out VERY dense. I didn’t remake it with three eggs because it was still edible and I didn’t think my baby would mind, but I would suggest attempting it with the original three eggs and not reducing. Outside of the density the flavor of the cake was great!
Thanks so much for the recommendation! I haven’t personally tried making this cake with all purpose flour so it’s good to know that 3 eggs would probably work better than 2. Glad you enjoyed the flavour!
We served this cake to our baby for his first birthday and he loved it!! It was so much fun watching him stuff it into his mouth! I love how there’s no added sugar…and it was so easy to make too. Thanks so much for the great recipe!
Yay!! I’m so happy your baby enjoyed the cake! It’s always fun watching them take that first bite (or mouthful) :) Thanks so much for returning to leave a rating and review!