Fresh Fruit Birthday "Cake"

Fruit Birthday Cake

We kept E's first birthday really simple and low-key. All our friends and relatives came out for Chou's big party, and E won't remember this one anyway. We had my parents and grandparents over for food and gifts.

At one year old, E has never had refined sugar or grains and we're hoping to keep that up for the next year as well. Standard birthday cake wasn't going to happen, so we had to get creative. We were originally planning on a bowl of whipped cream and fruit, but Chou had the genius idea to make a cake out of fruit! I loved the idea and the execution!

Chou carved a pineapple into a 3 tiered "cake", and then decorated it with cut up blackberries, strawberries, kiwi, grapes, pears, and a little freshly whipped cream. Not only was it adorable and free of any refined sugar and flour, but E loved it! She adores fruit, so she didn't miss having a real cake one bit. We cut up some extra fruit into a fruit salad for the rest of us.

Playing with grandma and her balloons

We put her highchair in the living room so that we could all comfortably observe :) You'll have to excuse my lovely TV in the background of most of the following pictures.

Here you go!

E tried a little bit of everything, including the whipped cream. Her favorite fruit was the blackberries (obviously, since she was on my light carpet) :)

She ate what she liked and literally set the rest aside (notice the nice little pile of pears next to her plate below).

And then the best part: she put everything back on her plate and pushed it aside when she was done. Love it! I'm a proud mama!

All done! (This is unfortunately the only picture of the pineapple base)

Then we got changed and opened presents! She really loved playing with her new toys and, of course, the boxes and paper as well.

I'm kinda loving these Chinese blocks.

 And within a few minutes of everyone leaving, she caught a little nap :)

this post has been entered in Real Food Wednesdays