Today was baby L’s first birthday! I can’t believe that a year has already gone by since our little princess has joined the family. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I made a bunch of food (recipes to come), invited a bunch of her brother’s and sister’s friends over, and we celebrated American-Croatian style.

I will post more about the birthday later but first the cake! Because I LOVE fondant cakes (see my first fondant cake here), of course I decided to make one for her first birthday. However, this cake I wanted to be different than other cakes I’ve made in the sense that my one requirement was that baby L could eat it – in other words, it had to be eggless.

I found 2 recipes for the “cake” part online (cakes/kolaches made without eggs), made the filling with pudding, and the fondant out of marshmellows. It was delish! Here’s the full recipe:

Ingredients:

Eggless Chocolate Layers
Note: This is the same recipe as The Ultimate Chocolate Dessert that I posted a couple months ago.
2 and 1/5 cups of full fat plain yogurt
2 and 2/5 cups of flour
1 and 1/4 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1/5 cup of cocoa powder
2 tsp. of baking soda

Eggless White Walnut Layers
Note: I’m not quite sure if all babies are allowed to eat walnuts, but I let mine.
1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
2 and 1/4 cups of flour
a handful of grated walnuts
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 and 1/2 cups of milk

The Pudding Filling
2 packets of vanilla pudding
a few tablespoons of butter
*optional: some cherry juice or red food coloring to get a pink color

The Buttercream Frosting (goes on the outside of the cake before you put the fondant on top of everything)
powdered sugar
a few tbsp. of milk
vanilla flavoring

The Outer Fondant Layer
1-2 bags of of marshmallows
1-2 large bags of confectioner’s sugar
red food coloring or beet juice

1) The chocolate layers: Mix all the ingredients for the chocolate layer with a mixer for 2-3 minutes, and pour into a greased round pan. Bake at 390F/200C until done.

2) The white walnut layers: Combine all the dry ingredients with a whisk, and then whisk in the remaining ingredients until combined well (no mixer needed). Pour into the same greased round pan as above, and bake at 390F/200C until done.

3) When the white cake is almost done, make the pudding. Once done, add in the room temperature butter. Set aside to cool (but don’t let it cool completely or else you won’t be able to spread it onto the cake later – I learned this the hard way, which is why my filling isn’t perfectly evenly spread out in the picture above).

3) When the chocolate cake and white cake have cooled down, slice them both in half using a long knife (thick thread will work too) to create 2 large circular layers. You should know have 4 large circular layers – 2 chocolate circular layers and 2 white circular layers.

4) Put one layer of the chocolate cake on the bottom of where you want to build your cake, and spread a little more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the pudding on top. Next, put one layer of the white cake on top of that.

4) Now, find a circular object that is slightly smaller than the circles of your cake. Put it on top of your remaining two layers, and cut around them with a knife to create 2 smaller circles.

5) Spread half of the remaining pudding filling on top of one of the small chocolate layer, and flip it upside down so that the pudding part is touching the larger white layer of your cake. Looking at the cake from bottom up, you should see a large circular chocolate layer, a layer of pudding, a large circular white layer, a layer of pudding, and a smaller circular chocolate layer.

6) Spread the remaining pudding filling on top of the remaining small white layer, and flip it upside down so that the pudding touches the small circular chocolate layer of your cake.

7) Whisk together all ingredients for the buttercream, and spread all over the outside of the cake. Place your cake in the fridge.

8) Now, you’re going to make the fondant (the pretty stuff on the outside). Melt mini marshmallows in a microwave (or if you don’t use a microwave, then melt the marshmallows by steaming them on the stove). Once all melted, pour into a large pile of confectioner’s sugar. Combine the melted marshmallows and confectioner’s sugar with your hands until the mass in your hands isn’t sticky anymore. The consistency should be similar to bread/pizza dough when you’re done.

8) Using a rolling pin, roll out a large piece (enough to cover your cake), and place on top of your cake.

9) The last things left to make are any decorations/figurines you want on the cake. I chose to make a pink “ribbon” on the bottom, several pink stars that “fell” along the sides, and I wrote baby L’s name in cursive in the middle. To make the pink color, add some red gel coloring or a few drops of red food coloring or a few drops of beet juice / cherry juice, and knead until well combined**. Find some cutouts (I used a star toy that my kids had for the stars) and use your imagination, and have fun creating!

**It is not recommended to use liquid food coloring – it’s optimal to use gel coloring. Since I can’t find gel coloring here in Croatia, I used liquid to get my colors. However, please note that if you use any liquid coloring your “creation” will be sticky again and you will have to roll it in some powdered sugar again. It’s not that big of a deal, but it’s worth mentioning.