Smash Cake Recipe and Tutorial is a step by step guide to show you how to make a Smash Cake that is simple and easy! This Smash Cake is great for a first birthday and photos! Easily customizable, this Smash Cake is one cake fits all!
What is a Smash Cake?
Having a small cake specifically for smashing on a baby’s first birthday has become quite popular over the past few years.
My baby is turning 1 in just over a week. Honestly, where has time gone?
Last year at this time, I was a large, emotional mess. And that is putting it lightly! ?
I am happy to report that this year I am much more emotionally stable. Although, my good friend is having her baby TOMORROW and I am 100% totally and completely jealous. Newborns are the best. #allthehearteyes
For all of my baby’s first birthday’s we have done a cake smash. I have to say, Marlee’s was the best so far I think. Brielle was hilarious though, she just kept staring at me and nodding like ‘oh yeah, this is real good!’.
I love letting my babies go a little crazy on something sweet, because most of the time it is their first experience with something like that. It is so fun to capture their reactions on camera.
How to Make a Smash Cake- Recipe
Yes, you could totally use boxed cake and store bought frosting.
In case you would rather make your own, here is how the cake and frosting came together.
For the cake, Mix together melted butter and sugar. The sugar should cool the melted butter down a bit, double check that it is cool and then add in the eggs.
It is important that the butter has cooled or else the eggs will cook when they come in contact with the hot butter!
Once the eggs have been whisked in, add in the vanilla, flour, baking powder and milk. The batter will be slightly thick.
Pour into a either small round cake pans, or if you don’t own any/don’t want to go buy some, be like me and bake it in a 9×13 pan.
It is important to really grease and flour the pan you will be using.
I baked at 350° for 15 minutes. You’ll know the cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool completely to room temperature and then toss un the freezer for 20 minutes.
Once chilled in the freezer, leave the cake in the pan and cut out large circles using a cookie cutter. My cookie cutter is 4 inches wide.
Cut the circles out of the cake and then carefully remove the excess cake around the edges.
Pop the cake back into the freezer while the frosting is prepared. Chilled cakes are much easier to frost and are extremely less crumby.
The frosting is super simple, just butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk whipped together using an electric mixer.
How to Assemble the Smash Cake
The first thing I like to do is to put a little frosting onto the serving plate before putting the bottom layer down. This just helps to keep everything where it is supposed to be. ?
Put the frosting in either a piping bag or a ziplock bag and clip the corner off.
Pipe the frosting around in a swirl covering the entire top of the cake.
Stack the next layer on top of the frosting and repeat until all layers have been used up.
You can leave the sides as is, or I took an off-set spatula and spread the frosting that was spilling over the edge a bit to get the ‘naked’ cake look.
Melt the remaining frosting in the microwave. Only microwave for about 10 seconds. You want it thin enough that it is pourable but thick enough that it won’t just run off the side of the cake.
Pour the warm, thick frosting on top of the cake and quickly push the frosting to the edge of the cake so it drips down the sides.
Top the cake with lots an lots of sprinkles. This is really good at covering up some not so appealing frosting if need be. ?
Place a candle on top and you are done!!
This cake is so easy to customize to anything you can imagine. Use chocolate cake, chocolate frosting with crushed Oreos on top! Add some food coloring to the pourable frosting to give the cake another pop of color! Really, the possibilities are endless (and delicious)!
Small Batch Vanilla Cake for Smash Cake
This recipe is perfect for when you only need a little cake! This vanilla cake is full of vanilla flavor and uses simple, everyday ingredients. This recipe yields 12 cupcakes, one 8×8 cake, or 1 round cake.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Stir the sugar into the melted butter. The sugar should cool the butter down to room temperature.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla. Whisk well.
- Whisk in the flour, baking powder and milk. Whisk until no lumps remain.
- Bake in a well greased pan at 350° for 15-20 minutes, depending on the pan. Pull out of the oven when a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool completely before removing from pan or frosting.
- For Smash Cake assembly instructions, see post above.
Vanilla Buttercream Icing
- 1/4cup butter room temperature
- 1 1/2cup powdered sugar
- 1tsp vanilla I like to use clear vanilla
- 1 1/2-2tbsp milk
Instructions
- To make the Vanilla Buttercream Icing, toss butter, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla into the stand mixer and mix on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.
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Thanks for stopping by my website! Did you make one of my recipes? I’d love to see!! Tag @cookingwithkarli!
Small Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Stir the sugar into the melted butter. The sugar should cool the butter down to room temperature.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla. Whisk well.
- Whisk in the flour, baking powder and milk. Whisk until no lumps remain.
- Bake in a well greased pan at 350° for 15-20 minutes, depending on the pan. Pull out of the oven when a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool completely before removing from pan or frosting.
- For Smash Cake assembly instructions, see post above.
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Phaedra N says
Loved the vanilla cake. Delicious and easy to make. The frosting turned out well too, but a bit too sweet for my personal tastes. Was wondering if you any suggestions for toning down the sweetness?
karlibitner says
Yes! Next time you’ll just want to add less powdered sugar and less milk. (Less powdered sugar will mean that you won’t need to thin the frosting as much with milk.) I would start taste testing when you’ve added about half the powdered sugar and then just add more until it is to your liking. ?
Phaedra says
Thank you!
Katie says
This is so cute! Is there any way to substitute something instead of milk if my son has a dairy allergy? Thank you!!!
karlibitner says
Hi Katie! You could substitute water if needed!
Haley says
I can’t wait to do this to my kids. It’s super cute.
karlibitner says
Thank you!
Kelly says
Can I use little 4 inch round pans? The pans are originally 4 making a little cake with rainbow colored cake layers.
Karli Bitner says
Sure!
Alexis says
I’m concerned about all of that sugar for my twins! Is it really okay to give babies things like oreos, sprinkles, and granulated sugar? I would personally omit all of that. I’d rather them not get a taste for junk food, you know? Other than that very helpful, thank you! Maybe I can use fruit or another naturally sweet thing to replace the sugar in the recipes. I don’t mean to say this to be mean or judgemental I love this article but it was just my first thought! I know everything is a personal choice at the end of the day :).
karlibitner says
Hi Alexis- do whatever you feel most comfortable with for you cute babes! It comes down to personal preference. 😊 happy birthday to your babies!
Chet says
This is super cute & definitely what I wanted for my nieces birthday!
Instead of making my owning frosting, I wanted to use store bought frosting.
How would you recommend I go about that?
karlibitner says
You could definitely use store bought frosting! That should work just fine. I would just follow the directions as written. 🙂
Chantelle says
I’m assuming this would be all purpose flour since you are asking baking powder?
karlibitner says
Yes, this all purpose flour is used in this recipe.
Kelsey says
Can I make this the night before? What is the best way to store it? Or should I only do the baking the night before?
Karli Bitner says
Hi Kelsey- Yes, you could make this the night before. I would store it in the fridge and then let it sit at room temperature for about an hour before having your little one go after it!
Jennifer Zippay says
I’m a little confused by the recipe. Did you double it when you put it in the 9×13 pan?
Karli Bitner says
No, I didn’t double the recipe for the 9×13 pan. The cake is thinner, which makes the perfect size layers on this mini cake. 🙂
Erin says
I made this cake and the Cale itself turned out wonderful and yummy. The frosting turned out runny however. I tried a second batch with butter from the fridge and less milk and it still was not thick. This was my practice run for my daughter’s smash cake. Any suggestions??
Karli Bitner says
Hi Erin- The frosting is very forgiving, so if it is too thin, you can just add more powdered sugar until you get the right consistency. Humidity and elevation all effect how much powdered sugar needs to be added into frosting to get the correct consistency. I hope this helps!
Denise Windsor says
I love your recipe.! Super easy, I added 2 drops of orange essential oil to the batter. It came out with a delicious subtle flavor of vanilla and orange. Thank you, Denise
Karli Bitner says
Thanks for the comment Denise! I am so glad that you have enjoyed my recipes. 🙂
Shelby says
Would this work with cupcakes?
Karli Bitner says
Yes, this recipe would work well for cupcakes.
Iris says
It is okay to use self rising flour instead of all purpose flour and baking powder?
Karli Bitner says
I haven’t done that myself so I am not sure what the outcome would be. For guaranteed success, I would stick with the recipe as written.
Laura says
Hello,
Would I be able to use cake flour instead?
Karli Bitner says
I haven’t eve used cake flour, but I imagine you’d have okay results when using it.
Nimmi Pandey says
Hi we dont eat eggs, what can i use to replace eggs in this recipe and how much?
Karli Bitner says
Hi Nimmi, I don’t usually substitute eggs so I am not super familiar with egg substitutes. Sorry I am not more of a help this time!
Alisha says
I’m trying this out a week ahead of my little one’s first birthday (just doing one layer to see what the taste would be), and found that the 15-20 min bake time was not long enough. How long do you suggest I bake it with a 8 inch round pan?
Karli Bitner says
I haven’t tested this with an 8 inch round pan so I can’t say for sure. I would bake for 20 minutes and then begin checking every 5 minutes or so and pull it out when it passes the toothpick test.
Jill says
Hi! This is so cute! Two Questions! #1- what size cake stand did you use for the mini cake in the photos? it’s so cute! Can you share where you got it? #2- How many layers did you do for this mini cake? I was debating buying 4 inch cake pans or just using the cookie cutter method like you did! Thanks so much!
Karli Bitner says
I did three layers and my cake stand I actually just a plate standing on top of a candle holder. 😉
Angela says
Hi may I know how big of your cake pan to bake 3 layers cake like your photo?
Cooking with Karli says
Hey Angela, it is a 5 inch pan.
Kara says
Thank you so much for this recipe! It turned out great! I added sprinkles to the cake batter and made the frosting pink. Perfect for my daughter’s first birthday 🥳
Brittany Schroeder says
This cake is going to be perfect for my babe’s smash cake at his party tomorrow! The cake and frosting are both so yummy! Thank you for sharing. 🥰