Wild One Smash Cake

Wild One Smash cake - dark green, light green, and white layered frosting with 'Wild One' cake topper

It's been One Wild year! 

Have you ever been on a roller coaster that really got to you? I'm not talking the 'just got my stomach a bit,' I'm talking 'whole body shakes when I got off.' That's a little bit how this year has felt to me - and the thought behind the theme and the Wild One smash cake that I picked out for my son's birthday! 

Postpartum after baby 1 for me progressed as predicted. I had the normal amount of healing to do, and felt the usual 'baby blues' for about a week. But other than that, everything went back to normal after her delivery. I felt like myself again after a couple of weeks. 

Postpartum after baby 2 was a completely different story. I suspect the fact that little man just straight up didn't want to sleep - ever - probably had something to do with that. But postpartum depression hit me like a train when our son was about a month old. Relentless anxiety plagued every day and insomnia plagued every night. I'll spare you the drama of the details, but suffice to say I had a rough time with ALL of life for a few months. 

As I slowly emerged from the cloud of PPD over the next several months, life seemed to go insanely fast and super slow at the same time. Just as I began feeling like I had my feet under me again, my two two littles' (0 and 2 years old)  birthdays were coming up! 

The good news? 

PRAISE Jesus we MADE IT! I've never been more proud of myself for getting through a year with my sanity intact. (Though I suspect this may be the first of several years I'll be saying that as my kids get older.) Celebrating baby's birthday felt like a sort of finish line or at least a mile marker in returning to manageable life after the havoc of postpartum and the 1-to-2-kid transition. 

NOW...THE LESS GOOD NEWS 😉

Unfortunately...our kiddo's actual birthdates are less than a week apart. Nope, we for sure didn't plan it that way! Stuff happens, lol. 

I'm not a twin, but I do have younger twin sisters that hated sharing birthday parties growing up. That just stuck in my memory. So in their little years I really wanted my kids to have separate birthday parties.

Unfortunately, that meant prepping cakes and decorations for two parties about a week apart.

Mother. Of. Pearl. And I thought normal life was busy. :/ I know I did it to myself, but holy cow. Planning 2 back to back parties is rough. 

So I pretty quickly realized that for both cakes, I was really going to need a decorating plan that would come together quickly and easy! (Especially given that my decorating hours are currently limited to nap times - and those are SO incredibly unpredictable right now. But I digress.) 

I saw plenty of adorable jungle animal-topped cakes on Pinterest...but I don't trust myself to make anything cute out of fondant. And I quickly discovered that pre-assembled decorations were all on the expensive side (or just on the ugly side, tbh). 

So I went super super simple with this one. I chose two shades of green that matched the balloon decorations and the cake topper I'd purchased, and bought some wafer paper leaves to finish out the look of the decorations. 

WHY MAKE THIS 'Wild One' smash cake? 

  • Choose your own cake layers - I went with chocolate since that's the only type of cake I've gotten little buddy to try so far! That's the recipe in the card below since that's what I used, but this vanilla cake recipe or a customizable cake mix recipe are good options too! 
  • Super easy decorating! The look of the frosting around the outside has a unfinished / uneven look on purpose. (Which fits the theme well, IMHO.) Toss on a cake topper and some leaves (optional), and you're done!
  • Obviously, setting up to film took a little bit of extra time, but I don’t think the actual decorating of the smash cake took me more than an hour. 
    And I wouldn't rank my own decorator skills much past 'advanced beginner,' so if I can hack it - so can you!

"What if I want to make a full-size Wild One cake?" 

You absolutely can! (I did this for my son's party since there were so many people coming.) Double the cake + frosting recipes (there's a '2x' recipe button below to make that super easy)! Bake in 3 8-inch cake pans, and follow the rest of the instructions as written below! 

(Disclosure: As an Amazon associate I may earn from qualifying purchases, and my posts often contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you!) 

Wild One cake with dark green, light green, and white frosting - full size 8-inch cake
8-inch Wild One birthday cake

(I added a bit of gold leaf just as an extra touch on the large cake, but left it off the smash cake.  Whether you use it is up to you!) 

ONE LAST QUICK TIP BEFORE WE GET TO THE RECIPE!

I may be the only one to ever give you this particular advice. It's a little odd, and honestly I'm the only one I know that frosts cakes this way. But I'll put it out there anyway because it was helpful to me. 

Frosting actually went really quickly - because my cake layers were partially frozen. I had prepped and frozen the cake layers ahead of time - and they were still super cold while I was frosting the cake. Frosting always goes WAY faster for me with really cold layers!

You may want to skip this tip if you're in a hot or humid area, because you're likely to have trouble with condensation on the outside of your cake as it warms up. But if you're newer to frosting cakes and get frustrated with the smoothing process I put that out there in case it's helpful. 🙂 Just let the cake thaw the rest of the way in the fridge so it doesn't get wet from condensation. 

RECIPES, INSTRUCTIONS, AND SUPPLY LINKS ARE BELOW - HAPPY BAKING!!

Don't forget to pin this recipe for later! 

Wild One Smash Cake

Have a wild little one getting ready to turn one? This 'Wild One' Smash cake is sure to be a smash hit for their party!
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Decorating time1 hour
Total Time2 hours 20 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: 1st birthday cake, One Wild Year smash cake, Wild One cake, Wild One smash cake
Servings: 1 smash cake
Calories: 4500kcal

Equipment

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake layers

  • 1 ⅛ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 ⅛ cups granulated sugar
  • cup cocoa powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick; softened)
  • 2 large eggs (at room temperature)
  • ¾ cups buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

  • 4 ounces cream cheese (softened)
  • 4 ounces butter (softened)
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp milk
  • 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
  • 2-4 drops electric green gel food coloring (save & add later)
  • 2-4 drops green gel food coloring (save & add later)

Decorations

  • cake topper
  • wafer paper leaves (optional)

Instructions

Chocolate cake layers

  • Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (180C). Prepare three 6-inch round pans with baker's floured spray (or grease and line with parchment rounds).
  • Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle (or hand mixer or whisk) until well combined. Add in bits of softened butter, mixing until no lumps of butter are visible and the mixture looks crumbly.
  • Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and beat for another 20 seconds. Fill the three pans evenly - I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part.
  • Bake for 28-35 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans, and cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired. (This is a great time to make your frosting!)

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

  • Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt if needed and beat until well combined. (Don't add the gel color yet - see below!)

Assembly

  • Once your cakes are cool, level them - this can be done with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife and a ruler.
  • Place a smear of frosting on your cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle. Spread the layer with frosting, and add the next layer on top. Repeat the process with your remaining layers – I like to flip the top layer upside down to make smoothing the top edge easier.
  • Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like – spreading a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake tiers to keep crumbs out of your final layer. Place in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to set.

Decorating

  • Add a final layer of frosting to the outside of the cake - I didn't worry about making it thick enough or perfectly smooth at the base of the cake, since I knew I'd be covering that part with other frosting colors.
  • Add 2-4 drops of electric green gel color to about 2/3 cup of your remaining frosting, and add a layer of bright green frosting around the bottom two thirds of the cake. Smooth with your bench scraper.
  • Add 2-4 drops of deep green gel color to about 2/3 cup of remaining frosting. Repeat the above process around the bottom third of the cake.
  • Transfer your remaining deep green frosting to a piping bag fitted with a leaf tip, and add 'vines' of leaves up the cake as far as you'd like - I went about halfway up.
  • Add your cake topper on top! The wafer paper leaves are optional, but I thought they added a really cute touch to the cake. And with that...you’re done! Enjoy!

Video

Notes

(Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate. Counts will be lower in all fields if not all frosting is used to decorate.) 

Nutrition

Serving: 1cake | Calories: 4500kcal | Carbohydrates: 623g | Protein: 64g | Fat: 242g

Did you make this Wild One Smash cake?

Help other people find it by leaving a rating or comment below! 

 

Other recipes you may love - 

(Click / tap the photos below to be taken to the recipe pages!) 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating