What to Know
I am all for making a first birthday cake healthy for the toddler, but I draw a line at bone barrow. Yes, bone barrow. But one mom, Bridget Levine, was apparently determined to give her little one a sugar-free birthday cake using watermelon and bone marrow. The result is something that looks edible. Until you realize the frosting is made primarily with the scraped innards of bones from cows or other animals.
Bridget posted a video on Instagram of her husband preparing bone marrow frosting for her to pipe onto the large chunk of watermelon that doubles as their daughter’s cake for her first birthday. I get it. No one wants to stuff their newly minted toddler full of sugar and butter on their first birthday. Save it for their third or fourth, maybe. But this is a little much, at least according to the dozens of comments under Bridget’s video.
The mom really wanted to make sure the cake was sugar-free.
Bridget uses a frosting piping bag to make a cute design on the rind-free hunk of watermelon before she and her husband give it to their daughter. And their daughter really goes to town on it. Something tells me that prepared bone marrow is something this family has had before, so it might be something that Bridget’s daughter is plenty familiar with.
Be that as it may, people couldn’t resist sharing their snarky comments under the video on Instagram.
“For my daughter’s 1st birthday I gave her a raccoon carcass,” one joked. Another commented, “She’s gonna remember this cake in therapy in fifteen years.” “If you’re looking for attention, you got it,” someone else added.
Others joked about feeding their dog something similar. Some also commented to speculate on what else Bridget might feed her daughter. “Her two favorite foods are roadkill and swamp juice but we skipped the swamp juice,” one of Bridget’s critics wrote.
It turns out, parents can and do use bone marrow to make a healthy alternative to frosting or to smash cakes in general. One bone marrow recipe includes honey to help sweeten it. But, per the recipe, bone marrow, when prepared properly, is a perfect nutrient-rich option for babies and adults. Well, maybe perfect isn’t the right word. It’s still a wild concept to many.
But it’s definitely a thing.
“I made this recipe but I replaced the watermelon for cake and the bone marrow frosting for chocolate frosting and it turned out pretty good,” someone wrote under Bridget’s video, clearly as a cheeky joke. “Thanks for the recipe!”
Bone marrow reportedly tastes savory and even nutty. If parents are adding honey to naturally sweeten it, then maybe Bridget is onto something, especially for parents who try to steer clear of sugar any way they can.
However, another user added in the comment section, “Just because we can… doesn’t mean we should.”
