Monkey Smash Cake for Baby’s First Birthday {All Things Baby Blog Hop}
It’s hard to believe how many months have passed since we celebrated Baby’s first birthday! He is now a walking, talking, running, climbing toddler who regularly charms (and exhausts) us with his escapades. He is a source of endless amusement and frustration to his brother, as all younger siblings should be.
When his first birthday rolled around, I chose to make his smash cake in the form of – what else! – a monkey 🙂
In case you aren’t familiar with the term, a smash cake is made on a baby’s first birthday, separate from the cake that will be served to the rest of the family and other guests. It is just as you would imagine – a small cake that the baby can smash and enjoy all for himself!
So often, babies don’t really eat any of the cake on their first birthday, but they love being able to dig their hands into that tempting confection as, for once, no one fusses if they smear food everywhere, even on their nice birthday clothes!
To make this monkey smash cake is really quite simple:
1) Start with your favorite yellow cake recipe, enough for a 9″ cake. Instead, use a 6″ cake pan (I had to look at a party store to find one) and cupcake tins. (You only need two cupcakes, but depending on your recipe you may have one or two extra, which come in handy if there are any older brothers milling about while you are baking the evening before the party). The 6″ cake will serve as the head and the two cupcakes as the ears.
2) While they are baking, prepare your frosting. You will need two kinds: chocolate and vanilla (is anyone brave enough to try a banana flavored frosting?)
3) After the cakes cool, frost them, starting with the vanilla frosting for the face. Then frost around it with chocolate for the rest of the face and the “ears.”
4) Decorate with chocolate chips for the eyes, nose, and mouth.
As you can see, the cake didn’t last long at the hands of my monkeys!
How did you celebrate your baby’s first year?
I am so excited to be a part of the Ultimate Guide to Baby’s First Year. This amazing ten day event represents a massive effort from over 40 bloggers to provide the best advice on celebrating all of those firsts of a baby’s first year. Today we are talking about Celebrating with Baby.
For more great tips, visit our group Pinterest board: Follow Dayna :: Lemon Lime Adventures’s board Everything Baby on Pinterest.
As an additional surprise for you, The Colic Solution by a Mom, for a Mom is 70% off for the duration of this event. Click here to apply the code:ULTIMATEBABY. Here are all the great topics being covered today: Ultimate Guide to Taking Care of Baby ~ Lemon Lime Adventures
Topic: Celebrating with Baby
Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Baby’s First Year ~ Lemon Lime Adventures
Party Ideas
Baby’s 1st Birthday Party Activities ~ Makeovers & Motherhood
How to Use Pinterest to Plan Baby’s First Birthday Party ~ Trust Me, I’m a Mom
Big Brother/ Big Sister Party – getting siblings excited about the new baby ~ Mom Favorites
Simple 1st Birthday Party Ideas ~ Bare Feet on the Dashboard
Piper’s First Birthday Celebration ~ Conceiving Piper
Five ideas for an “original” first birthday – La Cité des Vents
Party Favors
Monkey Smash Cake for Baby’s First Birthday ~ All Done Monkey
Gifts
Five ideas for an “original” first birthday ~ La Cité des Vents
Remembering the First Year
Tips for Taking Better Baby Photos ~ Happily Ever Mom
Keeping Memories for Baby’s First Year ~ Powerful Mothering
Baby’s First Year Photo Album ~ BPhotoArt
Making Memories Into a Movie ~ Conceiving Piper
Finally, enter the giveaways! We have eight – yes, eight! – giveaways going on this week, so don’t miss out on your chance to win! a Rafflecopter giveaway
-3 Comments-
Looks like much fun was had during the cake smashing! 🙂
Baby’s First Year Photo Album
Absolutely! It was fun to see how much they enjoyed it.
[…] another cake idea, you can also see what I did for Baby’s smash cake! And yes, we did a combined party for the boys – we’ll see how many years we’re […]