Would you like a simple blue smash cake for your baby’s first birthday, but you don’t want to pay someone to make it for you? The good news is you can make an easy blue smash cake at home! These days, it’s a fun first birthday party tradition to make a small layer cake or other sweet treats like cupcakes and watch as your birthday boy or girl digs-in with their hands. You can have a fun little smash cake photo session or use a smash cake as part of your party entertainment as the grand finale. You might also like this blue Cookie Monster smash cake tutorial.
Even if you are a beginner like me, you can make this little blue cake at home. It’s also free from any choking hazards you might find in recipes for older kids and adults. At the end of this page you’ll find a full printable recipe sheet with ingredients.
Check out this free printable baby’s 1st birthday checklist for more party ideas!
- Ingredients
- 2 cups Butter
- 8.5 cups Powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1.5 cups Flour
- 1.75 tsp Baking powder
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 2 Eggs
- 1 cup Sugar
- Blue food coloring
- Black food coloring
- Materials
- Bowls
- Spoons
- Piping bags x 3
- Star piping tip
- Plastic wrap
- Parchment paper
- 5 inch round cake pans x2
- Large baking sheet
- Cake spatula
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- Cake board
How to make an easy blue smash cake
Bake cake
Preheat oven to 350 (175 celsius). Cream together 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup unsalted butter. Add in two eggs, and mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour and 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. Add milk and stir until the cake batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into three greased cake pans. You could also line the bottom of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides; I find this helps the cake to ‘release’ more easily. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool cake completely then wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it. If you’d prefer not to work with frozen cake you can put it in the fridge for 10 minutes to make it nice and cold, but not frozen.
Trim cake
Make sure you trim the top of the cakes so they are flat and level. Trim the outer ring of the cakes so the size of each cake layer is the same (so it’s not lop-sided). An uneven cake is much harder to frost later.
Make icing
Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of butter and about 4 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla and 2 tsp of cream or milk. (I doubled the frosting recipe for this blue smash cake to make sure I had lots to work with.) Blend it with a hand mixer or stand mixer until it’s fully mixed and no sugar crystals remain.
Color frosting
Separate your frosting into three bowls for your blue smash cake. The first bowl should have slightly more frosting in it so you have enough to put in the layers between your cakes. The second and third bowls should have similar amounts of frosting in them.
Start with your lightest blue color of frosting first. Generally speaking, it’s easier to start lighter and go darker (not the other way around). I used one drop of blue food coloring. You could also try one drop of blue and half a drop of black.
In the second bowl of icing, add more blue food coloring than the last one. I used 4 drops of blue and no black.
In the third bowl of icing, add even more blue than last time. I used 6 drops of blue and half a drop of black so it would be my darkest color.
Frost cake
Put your lightest color of frosting in a piping bag and put a layer of frosting in between the layers of your vanilla cake.
Use this same light blue bag of frosting to add a layer of frosting on the top of the cake and upper edge.
Put the medium blue in a frosting bag and add a layer of medium blue to the middle of the cake and repeat the steps for the darkest blue color that goes on the bottom of your cake.
Now you should have a striped blue ombre smash cake! Time to get out an offset metal spatula and smooth things out. Start with the top of your cake because it’s the lightest color. Then smooth the sides of your cake.
When smoothing out the sides of my cake, I started with gentle pressure and moved from bottom to top to sweep the color upwards.
If you’re feeling discouraged and things aren’t working out, what I’ve done in the past is removed most of my icing, mixed it together to make one solid blue color and start again. You’ll still end up with a nice blue smash cake even if it’s not an ombre-style cake.
Decorate cake
To decorate your 1st birthday blue smash cake, you may want to add a border of frosting at the bottom. I find this can help make the cake look more ‘tidy’ if your bottom edge isn’t perfectly smooth. Do not use anything that could be a choking hazard for your birthday boy or girl.
Dots of blue frosting with a piping tip like a star tip are a great simple option. You can practice piping your stars on parchment paper first if it’s your first time. Then scrape the icing off the paper back into your piping bag once you’re happy with how it’s looking.
Blue smash cake tips
- Do a test with your food coloring brand to ensure it washes off your skin with gentle soap and water. You don’t want to stain your baby’s skin. I used Wilton Food Coloring and although it did dye my hands, it washed off easily after a soak in warm water.
- Do not put a lit candle or sparkler near your baby for their first birthday; they may reach for it and be burned.
- Take away the cake after you’ve got a few great photos. A bit of sugar on this special day is totally fine for most kids, but you don’t want to let them consume the entire cake.
- Have a second outfit handy and a plan for how you’d like to clean your baby after their cake-smash session.
- If you decide to use a cake topper for your cake smash, be sure that it has no sharp edges or points that will end up in your baby’s mouth.
Other common smash cake questions
How many layers are in a smash cake?
Having two layers can be an excellent idea in order to give the cake some height. If your cake pans are too large for a nice small smash cake, consider using circle cutters or even circular tupperware as a guide to cut a larger cake down to size.
Can a smash cake have sprinkles?
Sprinkles can be gritty for babies and large sprinkles can be choking hazards. If you’re looking to include sprinkles in your smash cake decorations, take a look at something like jimmies that are a small size.
What type of cake is best for a smash cake?
A light, airy cake like a white sponge cake is a good choice for a smash cake. You don’t want it to be too heavy or your child won’t be able to tear into it easily. Vanilla-flavored cake is best for a smash cake since it’s a mild flavor most babies like. Chocolate can sometimes contain caffeine and isn’t recommended for infants.
Smash cake or presents first?
You will likely want to do presents before the smash cake. If you have a special cake smash outfit or party clothes for your baby, they will definitely get messy during the cake smash. Save the smash cake for the end of the party.
Are smash cakes only for 1st birthdays?
Smash cakes are most common for 1st birthday parties. You may see them at the occasional 2nd birthday party but not usually after the baby/toddler years.
Final Blue Smash Cake Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this easy blue smash cake tutorial! Congratulations on surviving your first year of parenthood. If you’re serving your guests ice cream, I highly recommend checking out this recipe for plum compote to top it off. Was your baby’s first year as exhausting as mine was? You might also be interested in this buttermilk coffee cake to put some pep back in your step!
Save this recipe to your Pinterest for later, or send it to a friend who’s planning their baby’s 1st birthday. Your one year old is just going to love digging into this fun cake made just for them.
Easy Blue Smash Cake
Equipment
- bowls
- spoons
- 3 piping bags
- Star piping tip
- Plastic wrap
- Parchment paper
- 2 5 inch round cake pans
- Large baking sheet
- Cake spatula
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- cake board
Ingredients
- 2 cups Butter
- 8.5 cups Powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1.5 cups Flour
- 1.75 tsp Baking powder
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 2 Eggs
- 1 cup Sugar
- Blue food coloring
- Black food coloring
Instructions
Bake cake
- Preheat oven to 350 (175 celsius). Cream together 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup unsalted butter. Add in two eggs, and mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour and 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. Add milk and stir until the cake batter is smooth.
- Pour the batter into three greased cake pans. You could also line the bottom of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides; I find this helps the cake to ‘release’ more easily. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool cake completely then wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it. If you’d prefer not to work with frozen cake you can put it in the fridge for 10 minutes to make it nice and cold, but not frozen.
Trim cake
- Make sure you trim the top of the cakes so they are flat and level. Trim the outer ring of the cakes so the size of each cake layer is the same (so it’s not lop-sided). An uneven cake is much harder to frost later.
Make frosting
- Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of butter and about 4 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla and 2 tsp of cream or milk. (I doubled the frosting recipe for this blue smash cake to make sure I had lots to work with.) Blend it with a hand mixer or stand mixer until it’s fully mixed and no sugar crystals remain.
Color frosting
- Separate your frosting into three bowls for your blue smash cake. The first bowl should have slightly more frosting in it so you have enough to put in the layers between your cakes. The second and third bowls should have similar amounts of frosting in them.
- Start with your lightest blue color of frosting first. Generally speaking, it’s easier to start lighter and go darker (not the other way around). I used one drop of blue food coloring. You could also try one drop of blue and half a drop of black.
- In the second bowl of icing, add more blue food coloring than the last one. I used 4 drops of blue and no black.
- In the third bowl of icing, add even more blue than last time. I used 6 drops of blue and half a drop of black so it would be my darkest color.
Frost cake
- Put your lightest color of frosting in a piping bag and put a layer of frosting in between the layers of your vanilla cake.
- Use this same light blue bag of frosting to add a layer of frosting on the top of the cake and upper edge.
- Put the medium blue in a frosting bag and add a layer of medium blue to the middle of the cake and repeat the steps for the darkest blue color that goes on the bottom of your cake.
- Now you should have a striped blue ombre smash cake! Time to get out an offset metal spatula and smooth things out. Start with the top of your cake because it’s the lightest color. Then smooth the sides of your cake.
- When smoothing out the sides of my cake, I started with gentle pressure and moved from bottom to top to sweep the color upwards.
- If you’re feeling discouraged and things aren’t working out, what I’ve done in the past is removed most of my icing, mixed it together to make one solid blue color and start again. You’ll still end up with a nice blue smash cake even if it’s not an ombre-style cake.
Decorate cake
- To decorate your 1st birthday blue smash cake, you may want to add a border of frosting at the bottom. I find this can help make the cake look more ‘tidy’ if your bottom edge isn’t perfectly smooth. Do not use anything that could be a choking hazard for your birthday boy or girl.
- Dots of blue frosting with a piping tip like a star tip are a great simple option. You can practice piping your stars on parchment paper first if it’s your first time. Then scrape the icing off the paper back into your piping bag once you’re happy with how it’s looking.
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