Birthday Cake!

My little monsters are turning 1 in just 4 weeks...it doesn't seem possible!  How on earth did we go from this:

Aaron left, Alex right

To this! In just a few short months? 

It should be noted that this was the best picture I could get of both of them together in the last three days.  Each and every shot seems to have at least one blurry spot due to the constant motion these two are always in.

Anyway, back to the cake at hand.  I decided that even though we are not doing a huge birthday bash, just 2 sets of grandparents and one proud set of parents, I did want to make a cake for each boy.  "Smash" cakes are hugely popular right now and I think they look like a lot of fun.  The baby is basically given his own cake to do with what he pleases.  I'm sure rubbing it in their hair and feeding some to the dogs will be top priorities with my two. :)  

I wanted the cakes to be bigger than cup cakes but a LOT smaller than a regular cake.  After some searching and a trip to the craft store, I found these.  The Wilton mini tasty fill cake pans are 4" in diameter and 1 1/4" tall.  Each pan (set comes with four) has an indentation so you can add a filling and then put two cakes together to make a 4" x 2 1/2" cake!  Perfect!  The other day I tested them out to make sure I had the baking times right for these little pans. After all, I don't want my little guys first cakes to be dry or under-cooked!

Simple White Cake, adapted from allrecipes

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 extra large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Grease and flour the pans.  This is a super easy cake to make, the only trick is to really make sure and beat it well so it is nice and fluffy.  First cream the butter and sugar until very fluffy!  Then add in the eggs one at a time, beating WELL.  Now add the extracts, beat some more, the flour and baking powder, beat some more, then finally the milk. Stir in the milk so you don't get splashed. :)  The batter should be nice and fluffy by the end.  Pour it into your prepared pans.  The recipe says that for a 9 x 9 pan, bake 30-40 minutes and for cupcakes bake 20-25.  My little cakes took 20 minutes.  You'll know they are done when the top springs back when lightly touched.  

I was pretty impressed by these little pans!  First time out and they didn't stick and the cakes were cooked perfectly.  Since I am not always the best baker, (remember the brownies?) I was super excited.  Here are some pictures of the process.

I filled them with whipped cream

With the icing and sprinkles

And the middle!

The final cakes will look a lot like this one.  Butercream icing, some primary colored sprinkles, and a number one candle to top it off.  I'm hoping they will look classic and fun; baby friendly without a whole lot of fussiness.  Cause babies just prefer messiness anyway! ;)