DIY Vanilla Smash Cake - Crazy Life with Littles

Woodland Theme Party | Dump Truck Cake (below)

Typically for first birthdays you will have a photo session and a party on different days. While it would be nice to have two separate, store bought smash cakes it’s more cost effective to make one of those yourself. And it’s pretty easy too! I love the way my son’s DIY smash cake turned out for his party!

I love baking special treats for my kid’s birthday parties and decided to take a stab at the smash cake. My son had a fox and friends woodland themed party planned so I opted for a simple white cake served on a piece of wood for a rustic feel. The icing design is an easy technique for beginners. You can certainly use boxed cake and icing, but I went all out (LOL) and made homemade!

Basic Vanilla Cake Recipe

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pans
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pans
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole milk (or 3/4 cup heavy cream mixed with 1/2 cup water)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Butter two 8-inch-round cake pans and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.

3. Whisk flour, the baking powder and salt in a bowl until combined.

4. Beat 2 sticks butter and the sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to medium; beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. (The mixture may look separated at this point.)

6. Slowly add in the flour mixture alternating with the milk.

7. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until the cakes are lightly golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Transfer to racks and let cool 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the pans and turn the cakes out onto the racks to cool completely. Trim the tops of the cakes with a long serrated knife to make them level, if desired. If making a smaller cake in diameter, trim around to desired size.

Easy Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Ingredients

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. In medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with electric mixer on low speed.

2. Add in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk.

3. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable.

Tip: If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.

Decorating the Cake

For this cake we used the Wilton 190 star tip.

Add your tip to your piping bag.

Fill piping bag with Buttercream Frosting.

Squeeze frosting onto cake, pressing towards the cake before pulling out and releasing. For a quick how-to video on using this tip checkout this video. Continue to do this all the way around the cake until all cake is covered.

it tasted good, I promise!! 😉

For an adorable Fox party themed party check out this post!

Dump Truck Cake

For Gabriel’s 2nd birthday Isabella made him a vanilla birthday cake with peanut butter icing! Check out her adorable video! (The butter struggle is real!)

For the icing:

I mixed the vanilla icing with maybe a half a cup of peanut butter. Topped with his favorite truck and crushed up Oreo cookies for the dirt.