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Healthy eating in our family includes birthday cake. It’s a birthday, we’re going to eat cake and this Clean eating birthday cake is the one I make.
When we started eating Clean I was a little stressed about sugar. Not any more. Once I realized that the important thing was to use real ingredients – including sugar – my life got a lot easier. So yes, we eat sugar in our family. Raw, organic cane sugar.
We don’t eat sugar everyday but when it comes to cakes, it’s my first choice as a sweetener. I know Quitting Sugar is a ‘thing’ right now, but before you do, read this post I have written on Why we Didn’t Quit Sugar.
Clean Eating Birthday Cake
We’ve all seen the amazing works of art that birthday cakes have become in the last decade or or so. They’re mind bogglingly beautiful, crafted into every shape imaginable in every size and color known to man. And while I admire the creativity and skill these cakes must take to create, my Clean eating birthday cake is an altogether simpler affair.
We have the ancient Greeks to thanks for giving us Birthday cake. Ancient Greeks baked moon shaped offerings to the moon goddess Artemis on their birthdays as a tribute, and added burning candles to make these moon shaped cakes shine like the moon.
While my cake would be unrecognisable in everything but shape to those the ancient Greeks made, it’s round, it’s got candles and it’s simple and easy. It’s the perfect Birthday cake!
More Birthday Posts
- FREE printable party planner
- Healthy party food ideas
- How to host a cheap but awesome birthday party!
Classic Vanilla Sponge Cake
Over the years, I’ve noticed it’s not always the type of cake the kids get excited for: It’s more that they’re excited for a cake.
One of mine doesn’t even like cake, but the thought of not having one on his birthday appalls him. It’s the ritual, the candle lighting, the singing and the blowing-the-candles-out part that’s the best bit. And that’s why this cake works so well. It’s a simple, moist, soft sponge cake that can be decorated however you like (see below) and only use 7 Real food ingredients.
Sponge cakes are pretty versatile which is why they’re used as a base for so many cakes and although they’re soft and spongy, they’re able to hold frosting and decorations without losing their shape.
I’ve used a very basic Vanilla cream cheese frosting on this cake. It adds another texture and gives the cake some interest. Plus it acts as a great base layer for piling your birthday cake decorations onto and sticking your candles into!
Clean Eating Frosting
The frosting I use on this cake is a very simple cream cheese one. I add vanilla to this to complement the cake, I out it between the layers of sponge as well as on the top of the cake. I try to keep the frosting as Clean as possible and so use Maple syrup as the sweetener for this.
- 1 Cup Cream cheese – Full fat. Check the labels to make sure it’s Clean
- 2 tsp Vanilla paste
- 2 tbsp Maple syrup
- 1-2 tsp Arrowroot powder. Add this one tsp at a time depending on the consistency you’re looking for
Beat all your ingredients together and refrigerate for an hour to allow the frosting to harden up. You can then use it as you normally would, and are even able to pipe this if you wanted to.
Clean Eating Birthday Cake Variations
This Clean eating birthday cake is flavored with Vanilla. You could replace the Vanilla paste with 2 tbsp of cocoa mixed with 3 tbsp of boiling water for a chocolate cake, or sub 2 tsp of Orange extract for an Orange blossom cake.
You can make this cake in one cake pan and then slice it across and sandwich it with frosting, but I prefer to bake 3 thinner cakes with the same batter amount and then sandwich them all together. Doing it this way means they cook (and cool) faster, and I like the look of the 3 layered cake.
You can also use this batter to make cupcakes, just adjust the cooking time to allow for a smaller quantity of cake batter.
Healthy Birthday Cake Decorations
I used to really struggle to know how to decorate the kids birthday cakes when we first started eating Clean. And then I had a lightbulb moment – I remembered the decorations didn’t have to be edible! So these days, while fruit (as the picture) is the decoration of choice, purely because everyone loves the bright colors and the frosting paired with the fruit is simply delicious, when the kids were smaller, I used a whole variety of toys and decorations to bring the cake to life:
- Miniture dinosaurs – These are so cool on the top of a cake, roaming around the frosting!
- Flower fairies – Turn the cake top in a mini flower fairy garden
- Safari – Create a mini safari park right on top of your cake
- Themed character cakes – Using movie or comic book mini toys to decorate your cake gives the kids the latest ‘in’ cake they’re after while not forcing you to visit the shops and buy one off the shelf!
Storing Sponge Cake
Once you’ve made your cake and it’s cooled down, the sponge itself unfrosted will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight cake tin, in a cupboard. If you’re making the cake ahead, I’d recommend wrapping it up well and then frosting it right before you need it.
If you’ve already frosted the cake and want to store it, you’ll need to keep it in the fridge as the frosting had cream cheese in it and needs to be kept chilled. In the fridge, a frosted cake will last for up to 48 hours.
More Clean Eating Cakes and Muffins
How To Make A Birthday Cake Sponge
Ingredients
- 2 ½ Cups Organic Plain Flour
- 1 ½ tsp Baking powder
- 1 Cup Organic Raw Sugar
- 250 g Butter Softened
- 4 Eggs
- 1 ½ Cups Whole Milk or Almond Milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 325F / 160C
- Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer for about 1 min until all combined.
- Spoon into a greased and lined cake tray. I use an 18cm round tin with the bottom that comes away
- Bake for 1hr 15 min
- Cool in tin for a few minutes and then turn onto a wire wrack for cooling
- Decorate as needed (Cream and strawberries are always a hit at our place :)
Clean Eating Birthday Cake Recipe
Clean Eating Birthday Cake
Ingredients
- 2 ½ Cups Organic Plain Flour
- 1 ½ tsp Baking powder
- 1 Cup Organic Raw Sugar
- 250 g Butter Softened
- 4 Eggs
- 1 ½ Cups Whole Milk or Almond Milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 325c / 160f
- Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer for about 1 min until all combined.
- Spoon into a greased and lined cake tray. I use an 18cm round tin with the bottom that comes away.
- Bake for 1hr 15 min.
- Cool in tin for a few minutes and then turn onto a wire wrack for cooling.
- Decorate as needed (Cream and strawberries are always a hit at our place)
