- My boys are turning one on the 10th
and I cannot believe that a year has
flown by so quickly.
Today we're going to be making smash cakes
which, if you don't know, are cakes
that babies get to smash with their cute little hands
because they don't know how to use a fork and knife yet.
Let's get started.
Starting off by sifting our dry ingredients.
Three and a third cups of flour
half a teaspoon of baking soda
two teaspoons of baking powder
half a teaspoon of kosher salt
two cups of sugar although you can
cut back on the sugar if you want to.
Alright let's sift it out.
Quick whisk
and then we'll set aside.
And now for the wet ingredients
which includes butter, in case you're wondering,
one cup of milk
and you always want to use room temperature ingredients
you can even warm it up a bit.
One cup of delicious sour cream
which really adds a lot of moisture to the cake.
I should say two cakes
because this is like making two smash cakes
in case you're wondering oh my god
why is there so much butter and sour cream
in this cake.
It's two cakes.
One and a half cups of melted butter.
I'm only using the egg whites because
I want the color of the batter to be lighter.
If you don't care about that, or if you want a yellow cake,
feel free to cut back on the sour cream.
Cut it in half and then just use the whole egg
because the egg yokes are really creamy and delicious
and as always, clean hands are the best way
to separate egg whites and egg yokes.
Now we're going to give our mixture a quick whisk
and then we get to combine the wet and dry ingredients.
So easy.
Two tablespoons of vanilla extract
and because it's their birthday
I'm adding in just a little bit of vanilla bean paste.
I'm adding the wet into the dry
and will whisk to together.
This could totally be done in the standing mixer
but I've been washing so many dishes
I can't wash anymore!
Okay nice and smooth.
Before I add the batter into the pans,
I'm going to prep them by buttering them
and adding a tablespoon of flour
which I'm just going to shake around
to coat them and it'll be perfect.
No need for any papers or anything else.
Tap out the excess.
In to the first pan.
Before I pop these into the oven,
I'm adding in my cake strips
really important if you want nice flat layers
that don't dome which is what I want.
They cool the edges of the pan and then
they give you a nice even bake.
Otherwise the outside bakes first
sets lower and then the cake domes in the middle.
I only have three though,
and I will not have one domed layer
so I made my fourth one with
some tinfoil and paper towels.
It's a little jankey but it works totally fine
just wet the paper towel, fold it in some tinfoil
and then you're going to wrap it around the edge.
Into the oven at 350F for about forty minutes.
We'll see on the baking time
because this is much more batter than I normally use
but I'll let you know in the titles below
exactly how much time it was.
Mixing up a big batch of vanilla buttercream
right now so I have about
five sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
which I'm adding in to my standing mixer
which I'll fit with a paddle attachment.
I'm g oing to run the mixer on low for a few minutes
until butter is creamy, silky and all worked up.
Cake is out of the oven
and it's time to dump it out onto a wire rack.
Just want to show you how nice and flat
these layers are.
Really puffy, moist, delicious, and just perfect.
Not burnt at all, thanks to the cake strips.
Sifting in half of the sugar which is about a pound
I know it sounds like a lot,
but it's between two cakes.
So it's two pounds plus a little bit extra.
Paddle attachment back on,
cover it up and mix on low.
I'm going to sift in the second half
of my powdered sugar.
Before I mix this in, I'm adding in a healthy
pinch of kosher salt.
I'm going to add a splash of vanilla in.
And then give it a final mix.
I'm reserving some of my buttercream for the flowers
which I'll be piping on top.
I'm using some strawberry jam
to flavor and color my buttercream
which I just have to strain first
because I don't want the seeds.
This beautiful soft blush that's totally natural
just from the strawberries we added.
And now it's time to assemble the cakes.
We're starting off by piping buttercream
onto the first layer.
We add the second layer on top.
Pipe some more buttercream on the top
and a little bit on the sides too.
I'm using an offset spatula to smooth the top
and a bench scraper to smooth the sides.
You can leave more buttercream if you want
but I'm having like a semi naked cake look,
so I'm scraping away almost all of it.
To get a nice clean edge on top,
I'm using offset spatula and pulling in
while I turn the cake.
Make sure to clean the spatula off
between each swipe.
Now your cakes are ready to chill
in the fridge while you work on your
buttercream roses.
I added some confectioner's sugar to a bit of
my strawberry buttercream so it could be really thick.
Upon the space I'm going to build using my
one twenty and one twenty-two tips.
Start with a small arc and then
work your way out from there.
There's really no right or wrong way to build a flower.
It's however you want to do it.
(Upbeat Music)
Piping a thin ring of strawberry buttercream
onto the top of the cake, so that
my buttercream flowers will stick
and won't fall off.
(Upbeat Music)
I'm using some matcha powder to flavor
and color the buttercream I'm using
for the leaves.
I can't wait to see Locklyn and George
smash into these cakes with their little hands
and take a bite.
It'll be their first bite of cake they've ever had
and it's one I made which is really cool.
Thanks for watching
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