How to Make Your Kid a Birthday Smash Cake
May 20, 2011, By Brian Bowen 0 comments
A popular addition to a child's first or second birthday is the smash cake—a name that refers primarily to how a one-year-old will eat it rather than to a special type or flavor of cake. They'll smash it all over their faces, making for priceless memories.
In this video we've gone to certified cake decorator Cami Smith, better known as "The Mayor of Cake Town" at Busken Bakery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cami walks you step by step through the process of decorating a smash cake, and then young Austin demonstrates how to eat it.
The simplest way to make the smash cake is to whip up a tin of cupcakes using a box cake mix. Put enough icing on it and your tike won't complain that it's not made from scratch. But if prefer to make the cake that way, here's a quick and easy recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Insert paper liners in cupcake pans.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add shortening, milk, and vanilla. Stir vigorously (or use medium speed on blender) for one minute.
- Add eggs and resume stirring (on medium speed) for another minute.
- Scrape sides of bowl, then stir (on high speed) for another minute or until mixture in thoroughly mixed.
- Spoon batter into paper liners, filling them approximately halfway.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
- To check if they’re baked completely, insert a toothpick in the center and note if it comes out clean. If the center still sticks to the toothpick, bake for another minute or two and test again.
- Let cool for five minutes in pans then remove the cupcakes and let them stand for another five minutes.
- When cupcakes are cooled completely, they’re ready for frosting.
Follow Mayor Cami's instructions for frosting the smash cake and get your camera ready.
Transcript: Today we are at Cake Town by Busken Bakery in Cincinnati, OH making smash cakes for a child’s birthday. Although these are most common for a first birthday they can be used for any age so the child can have a fun individual cake to eat on their birthday. What we are going to do is start out with a cake board, a doily and a large cupcake. With a bag of butter cream icing. This one has a star tip on it although if you are at home you can just use a plastic bag, cut to fit, you can cut a straight line or you can cut little zigzags to create the star tip. You make a little dap of icing to go ahead and stick your doily to the board. Add a blob of icing, remove the liner and smash it down a little bit. I’m going to ice this one white with the star tip, just going back and forth along the sides to go along and to create the look of a little miniature cake. Although it is a cupcake, no one would ever know. We are going to go ahead and make this one appropriate for a young boy’s party. I have primary color icings and confetti and I’m just going to and add a big swirl of icing, the more icing the better. And a red border, a blue border and a great way to add fun and color to this is just take a little bit of the sprinkles and go ahead and swirl them on, and then add a candle and you are good to go. A smash cake for your son’s birthday.
Jeff: Thank you very much; are you ready to eat some cake?
