For someone’s big one year birthday!

mini sprinkle smash cake I howsweeteats.com

GUYS.

How am I here? What is my life? What was this year?

Today is Max’s first birthday and I am 100% absolutely convinced that the universe is chugging out days more quickly than ever before.

mini sprinkle smash cake I howsweeteats.com

So here’s the thing about a blog. It gives you the ability to look back on every single day and see what you were rambling about. I don’t ever do this because, hello – it’s horrifying. It’s either right in line with or worse than listening to the sound of your own voice on a recording of some sort. I loathe going back and revisiting my work of any kind. I don’t think I’ve read one single thing aside from recipe instructions in my cookbook since turning in the edits to my manuscript. Read my old blog posts? Oh wait, let me go sit on a bed of nails first because that would be more enjoyable.

I just CAN’T.

Do you get me? I know you get me.

mini sprinkle smash cake I howsweeteats.com

BUT. Now I’m a mom and there are all these major life firsts, it’s like living life over again in a weird way. Which is so awesome because seeing all these things for the first time, through Max’s eyes, is wild and crazy and hilarious and adorable. The amount of times my heart wants to explode in a day tops at least twenty, and it’s not because of pizza or bacon.

So. I can go back and read over these last twelve months, especially since I don’t remember one single thing and have mombrain 24/7 now. And yes, I’ve heard all of these reports in the last year saying that mombrain is not a thing, but guess what? THEY’RE WRONG.

I don’t care who they are. But they are wrong.

Shhhhhh.

mini sprinkle smash cake I howsweeteats.com

I have tried insanely hard to keep this place as authentically me over the last 365 days, without running it straight into baby town. It hasn’t been too difficult; in fact, it’s quite similar to how I’ve felt in my every day life. So passionate and obsessed with my baby, so in love with this little chunk, but still so passionate and obsessed with my work too. I didn’t just stop loving what I do or stop caring about it once Max was born. I like a little separation between the two. And I’m constantly trying to figure out how to do both, 500+% as I want to, without missing a beat. Obviously, not wanting to miss a moment of Max, as those are much more special and can’t be repeated. And trying to fit everything into my head which feels like it’s overflowing all the time.

The short of it is, it’s been the best and most wonderful and also most exhausting and craziest year ever.

If you’re into the baby stuff, there is so much more on the baby page itself, and I’ll be sharing over there about his birthday and our yearly favorites and what not. And his party! Which is tomorrow, by the way, and in true psychotic first-time mom fashion, I’ve probably gone way overboard.

Nooooo. Not me.

mini sprinkle smash cake I howsweeteats.com

And that brings me to his smash cake. Eddie and I have been talking about Max’s first birthday for, well… a year. Like since he was born, probably. And we tossed the idea of a theme back and forth, settling on a jungle theme for a few weeks (Max loves giraffes but, um, are giraffes in the jungle?) and then scratching it, never finding something we thought… fit. So we decided on lots of bright colors – red, blue, green, yellow and orange – tons of balloons, party hats and clearly – sprinkles!

This recipe is disguised as a smash cake but it’s actually… the confetti cake recipe from my cookbook, aka, the updated version of my funfetti cupcakes and quite possibly one of the most requested recipes here. The recipe makes twelve cupcakes, which fits perfectly into two small cake pans for a layered smash cake. And that was my plan all along, but then once I saw it, I decided to make even SMALLER mini cakes and do a triple layer version, like this.

Today, Eddie and I are going to sing to Max and have our own little special birthday party on the day he was born, just the three of us. He’ll be all sugared up, just in time for his party tomorrow, where I have the slightly bigger smash cake, the recipe in the two can pans, not cut into tiny circles. Ridiculously excited doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Totally calls for sprinkles, right?!

mini sprinkle smash cake I howsweeteats.com

Mini Sprinkle Smash Cake

5 from 4 votes
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Ingredients

vanilla cream frosting

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two mini cake pans – mine were 4 1/2 x 2 inches.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set it aside.
  • Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat it until creamy. Add the sugar and beat with the butter on high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the egg and egg white, mixing well on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Add in the oil and vanilla extract, beating on medium speed for another minute. With the mixer on low speed, add in half of the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk. Add in the other half of the dry ingredients and mix them on medium speed until the batter is combined. Use a large spatula to gently stir in the sprinkles.
  • Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans. Bake until the tops are set, about 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely, then gently turn the cakes out on a piece of parchment paper, using a knife to release the edges if needed. Let cool completely before frosting. To make this little cake like I did, use a 2-inch biscuit cutter to cut rounds (you can definitely get 2 rounds, MAYBE 3 if you line it up just right) out of each cake. Use the leftover cake crumbs for sprinkling!

vanilla cream frosting

  • Add the butter and cream cheese to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high speed until creamy and combined. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the sugar. Beat until the sugar is incorporated and add vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Beat the frosting on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy and creamy. If the frosting seems too thick, beat in the tablespoon of milk for 1 to 2 minutes until combined. Frost the cakes and top them with additional sprinkles.
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mini sprinkle smash cake I howsweeteats.com

oh and P.S. I’ll be drowning in puddle of tears since now I have a toddler. What?