Smash Cake Recipe — Salt & Baker (2024)

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by Whitney //September 10, 2021

This moist vanilla cake makes for the perfect sprinkle smash cake recipe! This cake is perfect for any special occasion but is a classic first birthday cake. The cake has an ultra fine and velvety texture, with a soft and fluffy cream cheese buttercream frosting the produces an all-around tender and moist smash cake!

While smash cakes are the iconic cake for baby, cupcakes or cakesicles are also a desserts for your kids’ birthdays. My kids frequently request chocolate cupcakes, but it’s also fun to make German chocolate cupcakes for a bit of an elevated twist to the traditional chocolate cupcake.

Why This Recipe Works

• This vanilla cake uses the reverse creaming method. Traditional creaming method is to cream the butter and sugar together first, then the dry ingredients are added. Reverse mixes the dry ingredients with the butter before adding the liquid ingredients. Baking Sense explains why this is done, “Gluten won’t start to form until the flour comes in contact with water(in the egg whites). Coating the flour molecules with butterfat before the eggs are added creates a barrier which slows the formation of gluten. Reverse creaming should, in theory, make a cake with a more tender and velvety texture.” Long story short, we get a soft, tender, moist, delicious cake!
• And easy-to-make, stress-free cake. The beautiful thing about this cake is how simple and easy it is to make! with just 15 minutes of prep time, you can make this cake in a pinch or make it ahead of time. A smash cake recipe is birthday gold too because baby is just going to, well, smash, so you no longer have to stress about decoration perfection.

Ingredient Notes

• Sour Cream: This provides necessary fat for a very moist cake.
• Cake Flour: We’ll use a mix of cake flour and all purpose flour. Cake flour is much lighter and gives a lighter, softer crumb to the cake.
• Milk: Adding milk is going to help add additional moisture and provides a soft and light texture.
• Vanilla: This is a vanilla cake, so we’ll be using a much higher amount of vanilla than you’d see in a different flavored cake.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Sift the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. With the mixer on low, add the softened butter 2 tablespoons at a time. Mix until it resembles course sand.

2. In a large liquid measuring cup combine the eggs, vegetable oil (or canola oil), milk, and vanilla. Whisk until combined.

3. With the mixer on low, pour the liquid ingredients into the stand mixer. Mix on medium speed for 1.5-2 minutes.

4. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the sour cream. Mix on medium speed for an additional 20 seconds.

5. The batter will be fairly thick, but soft. (Sneak a small taste of the batter because it’s really good.) Then pour the batter into the greased and floured cake pans.

6. Grease and flour the pans OR spray the cake pans with cooking spray, place a circle of parchment paper on the bottom of each pan and spray the parchment paper with cooking spray again. Level the batter in each cake pan and then lightly tap the pans on the counter to remove any possible air bubbles.
7. Bake the cakes for 28-34 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
8. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and let them cool on a wire rack.

Make the Buttercream Frosting

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and heavy cream. Whip on medium speed for 4 minutes. The frosting will appear very light and fluffy.

2. To assemble the cake, place a cake layer on a cake plate or cake stand, add frosting between each cake layer and then frost the top and perimeter of the cake. Decorate as desired.

Recipe Tips

If you’re looking for other 6-inch cake recipes, I have a collection of amazing flavor combinations!

Frosting: I went with a cream cheese buttercream frosting. However, I didn’t want a super noticeable cream cheese flavor, so I upped the amount of powdered sugar I used. If you want to keep the cream cheese flavor strong, you can either add more cream cheese or less powdered sugar. Make sure cake is cooled completely before frosting. Have the frosting and cake the same temp, otherwise you’ll pull crumbs as you’re frosting.

Freezing: You can make the smash cake in advance for a hassle-free birthday. Wrap the cooled cakes in a double layer of plastic wrap and store them in the freezer. Remove the frozen cake layers from the freezer and let them thaw in the fridge overnight. You can also freeze a fully decorated cake by flash freezing it for about 20 minutes or until the frosting is frozen. Then tightly wrap the entire cake in two layers of plastic wrap and store in the freezer. Let thaw before serving.

Baking: This cake was baked at sea level. You may have to make slight adjustments if baking at a high altitude (You may want to reduce baking powder to only 1 teaspoon) and your cake might bake more quickly. Just a few things to keep in mind.

Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing

For information on storing and freezing cakes, check out my How to Store and Freeze Cakes guide!

Recipe FAQs

More Cake Recipes

• Biscoff Caramel Cake
• 7-Layer Bar Cake
• Moist Chocolate Cake
• Funfetti Cake

This recipe was originally published on Aug. 9, 2019. It was republished on Sept. 10, 2021, to include additional information and photos.

published on September 10, 2021 // 15 Comments

Posted in: Cakes, Desserts