1st Birthday Smash Cake Tutorial + Simple Vanilla Cake recipe
Celebrate your little one’s first birthday by making a fun and yummy smash cake! It’s easier than you might think to make one at home, especially with this simple vanilla cake recipe.
My precious girl turned one last weekend! I seriously cannot believe how fast the past year has gone by. It seems like it was just the other day that we were bringing her home from the hospital, and making a pit stop along the way to pick up a big box of hot malasadas to celebrate. 😉
Have you ever had a malasada before? I’d never had one until we moved out here to Hawaii. They are basically fried pieces of delicious sugary dough. Uh-mazing! But I digress…
We decided to keep her actual birthday pretty low key and just stayed at home to let her play with her new toys, which my son and I were SO excited about. Probably more than her. 😉
He was excited to have presents around to open and play with, and I was excited about GIRL presents! She got her first Cabbage Patch Doll, which I couldn’t wait to get for her since I loved mine when I was little.
Plus, Babyland General Hospital (where the Cabbage Patch Dolls are born) is just a little ways up the road from my hometown in Cleveland, Georgia. I’m SO looking forward to taking my kiddos there one day!
We are having a birthday party for her in a couple of weeks with a luau theme, since she’s our little Hawaiian-born baby.
I decided that I still wanted to do a little something special for her actual birthday, and I really wanted to try my hand at making her a smash cake. I had never made one before, and I had never really decorated a cake before either, aside from slapping on some icing with a spatula and going shake crazy with some sprinkles. 😉
I was ready to give it my best shot, though, and I ended up being pretty proud of my work! It actually isn’t that hard at all, and while my cake certainly isn’t anywhere near the quality of a professional’s, I was still very happy with it, and so was our little birthday girl.
How to make a Smash Cake
1. If you want to make a two layer smash cake (like I did), search your cabinets for two small, round, glass pyrex bowls. The ones I used were one quart each. You can use two small casserole dishes or other kinds of bowls as well, just so long as they are oven-safe! Grease and flour them both well.2. Prepare the Simple Vanilla Cake batter according to directions below. Fill each of the glass bowls about 3/4 the way full with batter. I used the remaining batter to make a dozen cupcakes as well. Bake and allow to cool completely. Once cool, loosen the cakes gently from the sides of the bowls by carefully running a knife around the outside edges. You will want to flatten out the tops of your cakes, which you can do by cutting a very thin layer off the top of each with a knife.
3. Prepare your frosting. I used my Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
recipe and added a little pink gel food coloring. Spread a thin layer on the top of one of your cakes, then turn the other cake upside down and place on top.
5. I covered mine in roses, which were DEFINITELY NOT perfect, but I was still really happy with it! Especially since it was my first attempt, I was okay with it not being perfect. Your baby is going to LOVE digging into their cake, and they are not going to care one little bit how fancy it’s decorated, so just HAVE FUN with it! If you want to make roses, take the tip of your icing bag, squirt and move in a circular motion, swirling around in a circle from the center. I covered the top of the cake in these swirls first before attempting the sides.
6. Continue covering the cake by with the same pattern down the sides. The sides were definitely more challenging for me! Just take your time, and remember how much your sweet baby is going to love it. 🙂 For any open spaces, I just gave a simple squirt of frosting to fill.
7. For the the little topper, I tied some baker’s twine around two paper straws (that came in a pack I bought from Target). I LOVE fun straws, and I was so excited that I had some turquoise ones since I decided to do her cake in a pink and turquoises theme. Next, cut out some small triangle shapes from scrapbook paper and tape them to the string, like I’ve shown below. I used three little triangles to spell out the word “one” but you could also make your baby’s name! My little girl’s name is pretty long, so I decided to stick with the word “one” instead. 🙂 I simply wrote the letters on the opposite side with a black sharpie, but you could also use letter stickers!
8. Carefully stick the two straws into your cake, pushing down until both are level and to your liking. Then stand back and admire your finished product!
And now you’re ready to snap some photos of your little one enjoying their special cake! Here’s one of our little princess:
I hope this helps you a bit if you’re interested in making a smash cake for a special little one in your life! It’s really not hard at all, and is actually a lot of fun! Like I said, mine is not perfect. My icing decorating skills could probably use some improvement, but overall I was happy with it.
If I can make one that looks somewhat decent, then I know y’all can, too!
Oh, and here’s the recipe for the simple vanilla cake! Enjoy. 🙂
Recipe: 1st Birthday Smash Cake Tutorial + Simple Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter,, softened
- 4 eggs
- 2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, (could also be made with cake flour)
- 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups milk, (I used whole milk)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour baking pans, or line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter together over medium speed for 5-8 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
- Combine the flour and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
- Alternate adding the dry mixture and the milk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Beat until just combined.
- Pour mixture into prepared baking pans. See notes below for baking times.
- Once baking time is complete, transfer baking dishes to a wire rack to cool. Once completely cool, remove cakes from baking dishes and frost with Easy Buttercream Frosting and enjoy!
Notes
If you like this 1st Birthday Smash Cake Tutorial, then you might also like:
Pineapple Sunshine Cake
This is in the oven now, but as I was putting the batter in the pans and taking a little taste, I realized the recipe was missing salt. The batter tastes good, but a little salt might make it better.
I love the recipe & the Pyrex dishes work well but mine took a way longer time to cook through. I flipped over one onto a rack before realizing it didn’t cook through 🤦♀️…
Super easy to make and it turned out perfect! My 2 older kids who are picky about dessert loved the cake. My baby wasn’t into the smashing part but was happy to see the cake. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks for the recipe. My daughter’s birthday is Sat, could I make this the day before and will it be okay the following day?
Yes that will work!
I’ll start by admitting I used another recipe I have, but I wanted to say THANK YOU for sharing your instructions on making the frosting flowers! I have never baked a cake in my life, and wanted to do a trial run for my daughter’s 1st birthday smash cake. I had no idea how I’d go about decorating it, but I found your post and am so happy I did! I had no idea it could be so easy. I don’t think I can share pics here or I would. I DID use a whipping cream/cream cheese icing for my trial, which I don’t think will hold the shape so I may need to opt for the more sugary buttercream icing just because it looks so darn good. Thank you you for this, and showing me that baking can be fun! 🙂
I was about to go out to buy small cake pans. The pyrex dishes are BRILLIANT! Thank you!!
I’m just giving 4 stars for accuracy – says this makes 12 cupcakes, I just filled 21 cupcakes about 3/4 full and these are overflowing in my oven! Glad I didn’t double the recipe!
If you read carefully she says it makes 2×1 quart cakes PLUS 12 cupcakes
I want to make this for my daughters first birthday! Sounds so good! Would I be able to use coconut milk instead of milk?
I just made it – smells amazing. My daughters birthday is tomorrow, so I’m planning on decorating it in the am. Does it keep well if covered and left at room temp or should I put it in the fridge? 🙂
Yes you can cover and leave at room temp! Happy birthday to your daughter!
Can you use 1% milk?
I used 1 cup of 2% and 1/2cup of half and half because the store was out of whole milk. It still turned out great!
Such a beautiful cake!I was thinking of trying this recipe for my daughter’s birthday, but it’s just us…would it work to half the recipe? I’m using two 5’ round cake pans. Thanks so much!!!
Sure, you can half it! Happy birthday to your daughter!
This cake looks amazing! I so love this idea! I love seeing great smash cakes!
Same cake as Prince Harry and Megan Markles one year old had.
I totally googled malasadas before realizing you explained the deliciousness in the next paragraph! I’m due in 10 weeks and am already dreaming of what to eat that day! So silly, but alas!! This smash cake looks amazing. I’m impressed with your piping skills. Mine won’t look so good when I do it!
What an adorable cake and adorable little girl! Your daughter looks like she really enjoyed that cake! Lovely recipe!
Oh she is just too cute!! And that cake!! Your roses look pretty perfect to me!
Made this tonight for my sons first birthday tomorrow! I tried a bit tonight after I made it as I trimmed some off the top of the cake and it was so , so good!! Great recipe!
My hubby asked for a cake all to himself for his birthday tomorrow…I think this one might do the trick, haha! It’s gorgeous and a perfect “personal” size.
I love the rosettes on this cute cake! My younger daughter is almost 5 months old, so I’m saving this recipe for her 1st birthday. Thanks for the great recipe 🙂