Baby's 1-year old Smash Cake
The day has come, your baby is 1 year old! For most families this is a pretty big deal and requires a large celebration. For my family, we decided to just have a fun little photo shoot at home because well, COVID! Since we live in NY we are pretty careful and cautious when it comes to being out and around people. Fortunately the baby is only 1 years old and had no expectations for her bday so I think we did well.
One thing that I know I needed for baby girl was a smash cake. I wanted to make it at home so it could be semi-healthy and again because it was literally just us three at home, there was no need to get a big cake. With that being said, continue reading below for the recipe and pics of our baby girl’s smash cake!
Ingredients:
A box of organic cake mix (around this time I didn’t want the hassle of making a batter from scratch);
Food coloring; red to make a pink cake, blue to make a blue cake. Pro Tip: put tiny drops of the food coloring and gently swirl it around with a toothpick for a softer color. These colors only work if you have a vanilla batter since the color will blend nicely with the white. If you have another flavor of cake or your batter is not white, then reconsider whether you will be using food coloring at all;
Cake stand, I got mine here;
Icing decorating bag or piping bag, found here;
Flower icing tip, found here. If you want a different design then you have several other options for icing tips; and
Two small (1 quart), round, glass pyrex bowls for your two layer cake.
Instructions:
Bake the cake to specification on the cake batter box in the two quart pyrex bowls. Pro Tip: Butter the sides so it comes out smoothly;
Let the cake cool before taking it out the bowls;
Gently remove the cakes and cut the tops of the cake so the top is straight and not slightly rounded. Be very careful and meticulous here so you don’t have a leaning cake.
Spread a thin layer of icing on the whole cake first;
Start creating your flower design or whatever other design you choose by gently piping the cake with the icing tip until the desired look is achieved.
I am not a baker much less a cake decorator, but surprisingly the little flower design was pretty easy to do.
I’ve seen some moms have the smash cake on the highchair and decorate the highchair which is cute as well. There are several ways to get creative with how you want your child positioned for the smash cake. Since we had a little photo shoot and balloons in the background, we wanted her on the floor for her smash cake.
Pro Tip: try to have the cake at room temperature before giving it to your baby to smash. I put the cake in the fridge to preserve the flower design but then it was a little hard for baby girl to get into the icing/cake. She however, was not interested in taking chunks of the cake, instead she just knocked the whole cake stand over LOL! Check out the pics below.
Whether you make your own smash cake, buy one, have the baby in a high chair or on the floor, it will be a memorable experience and one to cherish. Make sure you are recording and taking pictures!
Let me know if you try making this smash cake and how it turned out in the comment below.
With LOVE,
KayaDejure
