One of the top trends for first birthday parties is a smash cake. A smash cake is a small cake made especially for the birthday baby to smash. Those classic messy cake photos have been revamped. Now you can save your gorgeous cake for the the guests and have your messy shot, too! What I like most about smash cakes is that you can make one all by yourself. I like the thought of knowing exactly what is in the littlest cake, which means less dyes and no preservatives necessary. The small size of this cake means decorating is a cinch. If you are a perfectionist like me, you can have a handmade cake for her, and still get the pretty full size cake from your bakery.
You will need:
4″ cake pans (similar to shown)
pastry bag and star tip (I used Ateco #849)
bread knife
cake recipe of your choice (our recipe below)
Smash Vanilla Cake:
I made this recipe from a variety of cake recipes for inspiration and cut down the portion size. This recipe makes exactly enough for two four inch pans.
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter softened (half a stick)
1 large egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup cake flour
pinch of salt
1/3 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and blend well. Add vanilla. Mix. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Pour half into egg mixture. Mix. Pour in milk. Mix. Add remaining dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Pour evenly into two greased four inch pans. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool 5 mins in the pan. Remove from pan and let cool completely on a rack. Make your icing, I used my favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting here.
Once your cake is cool, pick the one with the prettiest dome for the top. Using a bread knife held horizontally, cut the dome off the second piece. Use the extra to bribe small ones congregating around your feet — does this happen to you? Put your tip in your pastry bag and add frosting. Tighten and smoosh frosting down to the tip. Twist and frost a swirl on top of the cut portion of the bottom layer. Smooth as needed with a spatula. Top with second layer. Cover the sides and top with stars. If you do this neatly you can leave as is. I used it to cover the surface evenly, making it easier for frosting. For this cake, I just smoothed out the sides and left the stars on top. Sprinkle with edible glitter if desired; it always adds a bit of something special to simple white cakes. Top with a candle or our cupcake topper.
How do you make a simple number cake topper? Try this: print out a 3 inch number on your computer. Trace the number on a piece of cardstock with a ball point pen. This will leave a light embossing on the cardstock to cut out. Tape a lollipop stick to the back and stick in the cake! These would be equally adorable as cupcake toppers, or you can use letters too.
There is only one first birthday, and making something yourself for this occasion is easier than you think. Remember, you can always use cake mix and a can of frosting. The key to a tiny cake is a tiny cake pan. Of course, if you really don’t bake, you can always request a smash cake at your bakery. Most will provide you with a matching cake just for this special occasion.
Parties part 1 of 16
1. DIY Smash Cake by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt2. DIY Felt Crown by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
3. DIY Personalized Crowns by Brittany @ The House That Lars Built
4. DIY Chalkboard Crown by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
5. DIY Magic Wand by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
6. DIY Wand by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
7. DIY Mini Party Tent by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
8. DIY Felt Birthday Bunting by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
9. DIY crepe paper fringe chandeliers by Caroline @ Armelle Blog
10. party tassel garland by Caroline @ Armelle Blog
11. Balloon Birthday Invitation by DIY
12. DIY Watercolor Invitations by Caroline @ Armelle Blog
13. DIY Animal Favor Boxes by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
14. Custom Print on Paper Bags by Caroline @ Armelle Blog
15. DIY Clown Cupcake Toppers by Jenny @ Hank+Hunt
16. Lollipop Balloons by Brittany @ The House That Lars Built
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
SO CUTE!!!!
cherry / 226 posts
Very cool…I’m gonna try it!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
Cute!
bananas / 9227 posts
I love this! Thanks!
nectarine / 2530 posts
Adorable! saving this :3
pomelo / 5331 posts
OK, now THAT is beautiful (and looks delicious!)
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
Looks beautiful!
guest
What a charming, classy little cake!
guest
Hi! I love this!
If I want to do a chocolate cake or strawberry and I use my own recipe.. How full do I need to fill the 4 inch cake pans with batter?
Thank you!
Lauren
guest
This is beautiful! Which font did you use to make the number 1?
guest
Very cool
guest
Wow! I love this! I love the animated gif too, so cool.
persimmon / 1171 posts
I love how simple you made this look, I have eleven months to prepare but I am definitely trying this. Maybe I’ll practice on my niece who is turning one in six months (:
guest
Is it possible to substitute the cow’s milk for something non dairy or will that screw up the end result?
guest
Thank you for sharing! Made this for my niece’s 1st birthday. Just pulled them out of the oven, and they are perfect! I am at 7500 feet and converting recipes are a headache for me. So, I just decided to go for it, as is, and it turned out really well, even with the altitude. Can’t wait to watch my little niece dig in!
guest
I tried your recipe, but tripled everything as I wanted to make cupcakes for a party. The flavor is really delicious, but my cupcakes came out super dry. I’m wondering if the proportions were not suitable for tripling, but these things were like biting into powder!! My son did not eat it, unfortunately, but he’s not big on texture yet anyway… I hope the exact version of the recipe is more moist as posted. Thanks anyways for sharing.
apple seed / 1 posts
I agree with Shelly, these cakes turned out perfect at high elevation! It is such a easy recipe. Can’t wait to watch my birthday girl tear into her smash cake. Thanks for such a cute idea!
guest
How deep are the cake pans? There seem to be several different options. Thanks!
guest
This is exactly what I was looking for! My son turns one in a couple of weeks, but I will be trying (and sampling, obviously) this recipe in advance. Thanks so much!
@Christine, the link to the website selling the pans says that they are 2″ deep. Hope that helps.
guest
I wish I had read this before I bought my daughter her own regular sized cake! I basically wasted an entire cake. My advice to those who want to have a smash cake would be to opt for a tiny cake like this, a cupcake or a slice of the cake for guests. More on that here: http://hintmama.com/2013/10/10/todays-hint-skip-a-big-1st-birthday-smash-cake/
guest
I made this for my daughter’s first birthday yesterday, and it turned out perfect. The proportions were spot on. I needed something dairy and soy free, so I subbed earth balance dairy and soy free butter for the butter and used coconut milk (the kind from a can with only 3 ingredients) diluted with a little water for the milk. The texture seemed slightly dense, but it was sooo tasty. Thank you so much!
guest
Hi there! I was wondering if you used a 4×2 or 4×3 pan? The cake *looks* like it’s taller than 4 inches and I just wanted to make sure since the link you have on the article is 4×2, but you did say that they were “similar” not the same.
guest
Found your site while cruising for 2 yo bday party ideas. Made this cake immediately! Seriously.
It was a test run and the result was excellent. Did not bother to frost it. Couldn’t wait. Made one small alteration by upping the vanilla to 1 tbsp. Thanks and yum!!! Great site, I subscribed.
guest
Oops, make that 1 tsp. of vanilla, not a full tbsp. Also, I used a small double heart pan that is about 4 in. across and the height looked perfect for stacking.