It is hard to know how to handle birthday and holiday celebrations when you are striving to eat a whole food diet. I know that some families have to be extra careful due to food allergies/sensitivities, but in our house we tend to stick to the 80/20 rule. We aim to eat healthy, wholesome food 80% of the time and allow ourselves to have reasonable treats for special occasions (dates, birthdays, holidays, or the occasional “just because” splurge). But since several of our close family members have recently started to eat more whole foods, I decided to try to create a reasonable menu for a birthday celebration for my son’s first birthday party.
We had each child do their handprint on the same paper because all of the attendees were cousins, and we thought it would be a neat keepsake. You could do the same, or have each child make their own caterpillar.
All of the fruit the caterpillar eats and our cupcake caterpillar. Notice the natural food dye is quite pale.
Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Author/Source: Kim @ Once a Month Mom
Cupcake Ingredients
- 4.5 cups white wheat flour
- 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
- .5 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 6 ripe bananas, mashed
- .5 cups plain yogurt
- .5 cups honey
- 4 eggs
- .66 cups applesauce (unsweetened)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Icing Ingredients
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, chilled
- 1 stick of butter, slightly softened
- 3.25 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- natural food coloring (optional)
Directions:
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another large bowl, mash bananas. Mix in yogurt, honey, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla. Combine well. Fold wet ingredients into the flour mixture until just combined. Fill one greased 6 inch cake pan (I found mine at Walmart) two-thirds full. Use remainder to fill lined cupcake pan using about 1/4 cup batter for each cupcake. Bake at 350 degrees. The cake will take about 20-25 minutes and the cupcakes will take 18-20 minutes. Cook cake and cupcakes completely. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar and vanilla until combined. Divide and add food coloring if desired. I used about 3/4 to one cup of icing for the caterpillar head.
Freezing Directions:
Cool cake and cupcakes completely and freeze in ziploc bags. To serve, thaw and ice as directed above. Do not freeze icing.