One year ago today, my bittiest boy came on the scene, and my life has been something of a blur ever since.

In honor of Theodore’s big day, I made him a little chocolate smash cake decorated to look like a teddy bear with the help of bananas, chocolate chips and two kinds of homemade chocolate cookies; for the rest of us there were pawprint cupcakes. The whole confection is grain-free: the cake itself was plantain-based and maple-sweetened, and one type of cookie is a coconut-based crunchy wafer while the other is almond-based and chewy (based on this recipe, but adding an egg, reducing the oil, and subbing in maple syrup and molasses for the agave). I frosted the cake with a stabilized whipped cream frosting composed of 2 C heavy cream beaten with 8oz cream cheese, and sweetened with a touch of stevia. I was reasonably happy with the decorations considering the limited amount of time I could devote to its preparation, and my desire to make the cake grain-free, low in sugar, and primarily composed of ingredients that he had been exposed to before.

Theo dug in right away, but he focused almost entirely on the toppings instead of the cake itself. In the photo above, he was sucking on a mouthful of cookie.

Eventually, he sampled some cake and poked at it with his fork, but by that point he was already full of cookies and bananas. Still, a very successful first birthday desserts, by all accounts! The cake was very moist and fudgy, almost brownie-like, and the frosting was incredibly easy to make with a subtle flavor. I should also note that Theo is now a mini-chocoholic who begs for chocolate chips every time he sees Jeremy snacking on them–it didn’t take him long to figure out that association!

As for presents, Theo loved his little wooden drum–he is very big on using tools and beating on things, so we had a strong suspicion this would be a hit. I haven’t gotten a photo yet, but he also got a “lawnmower” push toy to help him practice walking, and he has already been traveling back and forth across the room with it. 🙂

Finally, a photo of big brother Nolan with his current favorite person, my mom. This was taken at the baby dedication at church last Saturday during a snuggle session.