So I Smashed My Daughters Smash Cake ||Tips for Making a Smash Cake||

I've never been the type of person you'd find in the kitchen... Unless I'm sneaking the last piece of dessert right out of the fridge. Cooking has just never been a

great strength (and believe me, I've done my share of burnt and over salted cuisine). Thank goodness my husband is a fan of macaroni and frozen pizza dinner nights.

However, Little Miss turned ONE this week and I was determined to be that momma who saved a few extra bucks and bakes the most perfect pink smash cake ever! Well.... that surely wasn't the case. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't cry. My whole heart (and not to mention a ton of frosting) was put into that cake. I finally admitted defeat when the wall of strawberry frosting literally jumped off my cake and onto the floor.

Never fear, Little Miss loved her store bought butterfly cake just as much (it tasted pretty good too). It made for really good Smash Cake photos.  Pictures are posted here.
In the mean time, I thought I would give out a few tips to the non-baker based on my experience.

1. DO YOUR RESEARCH

Honestly, I thought I did. I knew you were supposed to stick the cake layers together with frosting. I even knew to cut the top bulge off each layer so that the pieces fit easier. But there was so much information I didn't know. I thought making a cake was common sense. I guess not. I will just stick to cupcakes from now on.

2. SPRAY THE DANG PANS

Oh my gosh!!! How in the world did I forget this step! This is the reason I blame my cake failing. If I had just sprayed the pans before hand I wouldn't have had the cake fall completely apart. I first lost the bottoms when I tried dumping out the cake because the bottom half stuck to the pan. Blah, Rookie mistake.

3. KNOW WHAT A CRUMB COAT IS

My bad, it's not my fault my resources failed to mention a crumb coat (I can hear my baker friends laughing at my face right about now).  A crumb coat is a very THIN layer of frosting that is used to hold in the cake crumbs before you add on globs and globs of frosting. This is probably the reason why my frosting was so eager to leap onto the floor.

4. START SMALL

I was feeling ambitious and tried making a three layered cake. Bad idea Jen, very bad. Most things take practice before you can become pro. The next time I try making a cake I will start off with a two layer cake and if that fails, I will stick to cupcakes.