Colourful kids birthday cake that is actually healthy? This is absolutely possible! This Coconut Date Cake is made of unrefined ingredients and just the decoration is made of fondant.
In this post you will find the cake recipe and also instructions how to create a homemade Spiderman-themed cake decoration, the easy way, without experience!
How did I come up with such cake
What do you do when you have a plan to make a healthy sugar free cake for your kid's third birthday and he insists to have a Spiderman cake? Tough decision which in my case ended up with a hybrid cake: Healthy Coconut Date cake with totally unhealthy Spiderman Decoration.
Like many other mothers, I wanted to bake my son's birthday cake on my own. Like many other mothers this year again I did not have enough time for baking, let alone for elaborated designs. I literally baked and decorated the whole cake in 1 day. Knowing in advance that I would have a very limited time, one week before the day I ordered Spidermen prints on edible fondant paper.
How did I make the decoration
If you want to make a pretty cake at home without much experience, choose edible prints on fondant paper. They are always the easiest solution for impressively looking cakes and cookies, with almost no possibility for a fail.
You can order fondant paper prints from specialised cake decoration shops. Some of them offer even the designs but there are plenty of them around Internet.
In order to make the cake more impressive and my life even easier, I also bought a plastic Spiderman figure (which costed unbelievable amount of money for its size). I also decorated some of the Christmas cookies with superhero comic prints.
About the cake
About the cakeAs I mentioned already, the cake base and the frosting between the layers are all healthy. No refined sugar or flour, only good ingredients. I also used ricotta in the frosting. However if you want to bake a vegan cake, you can use only the recipe for the first cake base and prepare a frosting based on avocado.
Is this cake healthy
The colourful decoration normally is made of fondant or sugar paste. And in order to cover the cake with fondant you need to put first a tone of buttercream frosting. Both are quite unhealthy products which are in absolute contrast with the otherwise healthy cake.
However the hybrid status of the cake did not create any drama for us: I simply removed the fondant coating out of each piece given to my son. The buttercream frosting was stuck to the fondant so it was easily removed as well. At the end it was a win-win situation: we ate the healthy cake and enjoyed the beautiful designs without eating them. Still, if you love the taste of fondant, feel free to eat the whole thing - every piece of the cake slice is edible.
And that's how we organised a fantastic Spiderman themed party without much elaborations and decorations - just with a cake, cookies, a bunch of balloons and some nice presents! My son was really happy and at the end that was all that mattered on that day!
If you are looking for more inspiration for children's cakes, check out also the following:
- Puzzle Cake
- Healthy apple date cake for kid's birthday
- Blueberry cake for a half birthday
- Funfetti cake with two kinds of buttercream frosting
📝 Recipe
Healthy Coconut Date Cake
Ingredients
For Cake Base 1:
- 2 cups/ 350 g medjool dates, pitted
- ¼ cup / 50 ml hot water, if needed
- 1 cup + 2 tbs/ 130 g whole grain spelt flour
- 1 cup/ 100 g shredded coconut
- 14 oz/ 400 g coconut milk, 1 can (or ⅞ cup milk + ⅞ cup plain yogurt)
- 4 tbs / 60 g coconut oil, melted
- 1,5 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For Cake Base 2
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup / 200 g medjool dates, pitted
- ¼ cup / 50 ml hot water, if needed
- ¾ cup/ 180 ml plain yogurt
- ½ cup / 50 g shredded coconut
- 1 ⅔ cups / 200 g whole grain spelt flour
- 1,5 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 tbs / 50 ml olive oil
For the frosting:
- ¼ cup /55 g butter, softened
- 1 cup/ 250 g fresh ricotta
- ¼ cup + 1 tbs / 100 g liquid honey
- 1-2 tbs greek yogurt or heavy cream
Instructions
Cake Base 1:
- Preheat oven to 360° F/ 180° C. Line the bottom of a 17-18 cm (7 inch) cake pan with a circle of baking paper. Grease well the pan inside.
- In a bowl combine spelt flour and baking powder and set aside.
- In a food processor puree dates with the hot water (if you need it) until almost smooth. Add the shredded coconut and the coconut milk (or the milk and the yogurt) and process for 1-2 minutes. Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Add coconut oil and vanilla extract and mix with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula until homogeneous. Carefully fold in the flour and baking powder until absorbed.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with just a few crumbs.
- Let the cake base cool to room temperature before assembling.
Cake Base 2:
- While the first cake base is in the oven, prepare the batter for the second one. Line another same sized cake pan with parchment paper and grease it afterwards.
- In a bowl combine spelt flour and baking powder.
- Puree the dates with the hot water (if needed) in the food processor. Add the shredded coconut and the yogurt and blend for 1 more minute.
- With an electric mixer beat the eggs for 5-10 minutes, until thick and pale. Add olive oil and beat for one more minute, until absorbed. Add vanilla extract and the date mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are combined. Add the dry ingredients, folding gently until absorbed.
- Bake the second cake base for another 40-45 minutes or until almost no crumbs are found on the wooden tester. Let cool until room temperature.
Frosting:
- In a large bowl beat the butter until fluffy. Add honey and beat for 2-3 minutes, until combined. Gradually add ricotta and beat until smooth. At the end add the greek yogurt and beat until the consistency becomes fluffier.
To assemble the cake:
- Using a long serrated knife cut horizontally the 2 cake bases in 3 layers each. Place 1 layer on a serving plate and cover it with frosting. Place another layer on top. Continue the process until finishing all layers.
- Decorate the cake as desired.
Notes
- If you want to cover the top and the sides of the cake with the same frosting, you need to double the ingredients. Otherwise you can cover the cake with buttercream frosting and fondant, as I did.
- To make Spidermen themed decoration the easy way:
- Order edible Spiderman themes prints on fondant paper (I downloaded mine from different free printable sites in Internet). I advise you to order different ones and then try out on the cake how they would fit best.
- Before placing the prints, cover the cake all around with buttercream frosting. Plain buttercream, no fruits and other additions which might melt the fondant.
- Place the prints on top: no moisturising is required as they would stick on top of the buttercream. Make sure you try out how the cake would look before placing the prints.
- If you can't find an edible Spidermen figurine, buy a small plastic toy as I did. Position it on top of the cake as you like.
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