MAKE YOUR OWN SMASH CAKE

Here is a simple way to make a small cake for whomever you'd like, but I find it particularly useful as a smash cake for toddlers and babies. This is super simple to do and very inexpensive but it yields very cute results. Ombre' is very trendy right now so that's the route I've taken for the frosting and because I'm a professional photographer, I use these for my smash cake portrait sessions. You can make this for less than $10 and it takes between an hour and 90 minutes to make depending on your frosting technique. This small cake is baked inside an aluminum can and usually ends up measuring about 5 inches in height.

Here's what you'll need:
1 box of cake mix (and the ingredients specified on the package)
Oil for greasing the can
Flour
1 empty aluminum can
2 containers of white frosting
1 color of your choice of food coloring

Preheat the oven to the temperature designated on your cake mix and prepare your mix as per the instructions on your box.

Take an empty aluminum can (I prefer the big wide ones like you find enchilada sauce in but any size will do.) Grease the inside of it with oil, wiping away the excess with a paper towel and then lightly flour the inside by sprinkling flour in the can and rotating it all around until the flour has coated the inside evenly, then tap out the excess.

Fill your can only half-way to two-thirds full, and place it on a baking sheet in the oven. I like to use the leftover batter in a cupcake pan and bake it at the same time as my cake so as not to be wasteful. Bake the cake for the amount of time specified on the box mix, but check it for readiness by sticking a skewer or knife into and making sure it comes out clean so that you know you've baked it completely.

Let the cake and can cool completely before turning it upside down and gently shaking it out on to your plate. If need be, you can gently run a knife around the inside edge to loosen it up. Once the cake is out, use a knife to level off the top.

The next step is optional, and that is to add a crumb coat layer to the outside before frosting. I did this with my first cake but skipped this step on subsequent cakes and found that it didn't make very much of a difference other than not being able to see a bit of the cake showing through when I used a tip for frosting. To crumb coat, simply crumble up the cake you shaved off the top and mix it with a few tablespoons of your frosting and use this to frost the entire outside of your cake, and then place it in the fridge to chill.

Now it's time to frost this thing! I split my frosting up into three bowls and added varying amounts of food coloring to each for a range of pink shades, being sure to reserve plenty of white for my white top layer. Using a frosting bag I made out of a plastic sandwich bag and frosting tip, I started with a very dark pink and piped two rows along the bottom. Then, I added some more white frosting to that bowl of darkest pink to make it a bit lighter and frosted two more rows. I did this until my pink frosting was getting light enough that it was close in shade to my next bowl of frosting, then I used that one, piped a couple rows, added more white frosting, and so on. I essentially kept mixing white frosting with my varying shades of pink so that I could pipe lighter, and lighter pink onto the cake until the pink was so pale near the top that I could pipe a white row and frost the white top. 

I ended up using around five shades of pink and also the white. Don't over think this-Just go with your gut and keep lightening the frosting until you get to the top, and if you find that you already reached the top without getting close enough to white, just frost the top with whatever shade you have; It doesn't have to have a white top necessarily-It will still be ombre'.

Another much more simple route you can go, is to mix 6 shades or so of frosting, and simply apply one layer at a time with a knife. Use your knife to smooth the frosting on, starting with your darkest shade, and use a lighter frosting each pass, frosting about 2 inches at a time, and overlapping the previous row by about an inch. Keep smoothing on lighter shade all the way around until you get to the top, and you'll end up with this:

After you're done, let the cake chill for a few more minutes, and then it's ready to enjoy! (By the way, I made the cake stand above by gluing together a small plate and candlestick holder from the dollar store. I used Gorilla Glue.) For more helpful tips, see the end of this post. 

HELPFUL TIPS AND HINTS:

*For extra savings, use cake mix and frosting from the dollar store.

*If you're using a frosting bag and tips to pipe frosting on, keep the frosting refrigerated between rows, and put the cake in the fridge for a bit between rows as well; This will help the shape of your piped frosting hold up instead of getting runny and gooey.

*Instead of using the excess batter for cupcakes, you could make two or more of these small cakes, that way if one breaks while you're taking it out, or you make any mistakes, you have a backup or two.

*If you'd like, you can also cut this cake into three pieces horizontally and add frosting in-between to make this a small layer cake with more flavor. But if you're using this purely for a smash cake for a baby or toddler, that's really not necessary.

*You don't have to do an ombre' frosting; You could totally keep it simple and frost this thing all in one color.

-No matter how you frost this, or what flavor cake you use, your kid will love it. It can be made very simply, quickly and at little cost and it is just the perfect size for kids and babies. 

-I like to frost my cake right on whatever cake I intend to serve it on, otherwise you end up with the arduous task of trying to transfer your cake onto another plate without dropping it or smudging your frosting. 

*I found instructions for how to turn a sandwich bag into a frosting bag as well as instructions for how to pipe frosting, by searching YouTube for tutorials.