A Healthy First

I'm not a super health nut type of person, but when it comes to Kate I am a little bit on the persnicky side. I guess it stems from dealing with weight issues my whole life, and I don't want to instill those same issues in my daughter so I want her to grow up making healthier choices than I made. For her first birthday, neither Nick or myself were too keen on giving her a tiny sugar and fat filled cake to make a mess of and then crash from the sugar high. I have instead been searching for alternatives.

I came across a recipe on Wholesomebabyfood.com for an Apple Crisp Cake that I think is the one I am going to use. I will post the recipe at the bottom of the blog. Yesterday I decided to go for a trial run to make sure that it was something Kate would actually eat. I learned from watching others that its a good idea to let your little one try cake before you set it in front of them and an audience. They just might not like it.

The recipe is for an 8x8 cake, but for the purpose of my experiment I wanted to make mini muffins. That way if Kate really liked them I could spread them out of several meals easier. The batter was a little bit different than regular cake batter; thicker it seems. I also had to make a couple of adjustments. The recipe called for 1 teaspoon of ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of cloves, neither of which I had in my pantry. I used 1.5 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice instead, because I did have that in my pantry and I figured it was close enough.

Here are the muffins before putting them in the oven. The batter is dark; that's due to the molasses. I was hoping that it would be lighter so I could use gel colors to make her cake a funky color, but I think if I tried to add coloring to this batter it would just look gross. I don't know if there are lighter varieties of molasses or not; I only have the kind that Walmart carries in my pantry so I will have to do some investigating.Here are the muffins just out of the oven. The recipe says to bake an 8x8 cake for 30 minutes, so I halfed it and did 15 for muffins. They were not burnt, but I think 12 minutes might have been better.Now for the important part: the taste test.She likes it! I don't know why I am surprised. This kid pretty much loves anything bread related. I still want to keep searching to see if I can find another recipe to use. This one will work, however the cake is a little bit dense so I worry about Kate eating to with her hands and actually being able to break it apart. I pulled the muffin apart for her because of its density. Of course that could also be due to over-cooking slightly. Here's the recipe:
1/2 C molasses
1 C applesauce (may add more if batter seems dry or thick)
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves *
1 t ginger *
1 3/4 C unbleached flour (I used bleached. It's what I had, ok?)
(*I subbed with pumpkin pie spice)
For chocolate, add 2 T cocoa

Mix and bake at 350 in greased 8x8 cake pan for 30-40 minutes.