VANILLA VANILLA SMASH CAKE

‘Smash cake’ may sound like a weird idea: get a perfectly good cake, then take photos of your toddler making a real mess of it! It is usually done around the child’s first birthday, with photos taken to mark the milestone. It is often the first time the child has eaten much cake and is allowed to do whatever they want with it — face-planting into it, putting icing in their hair, or knocking the whole thing over and then crawling through it.

MAKES TWO 18 CM (7 INCH), THREE-LAYER ROUND CAKES

420 g (15 oz) butter

60 g (2¼ oz) liquid glucose

600 g (1 lb 5 oz) sugar

8 eggs

900 g (2 lb) plain (all-purpose) flour

40 g (1½ oz) baking powder

10 g (¼ oz) sea salt

400 ml (14 fl oz) water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

creamy vanilla frosting; you’ll need 2–3 quantities, depending on the final decoration you choose

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºC/Gas 4). Line two 18 cm (7 inch) round cake tins with baking paper.

Using electric beaters, cream the butter, glucose and sugar until pale and creamy. Slowly add the eggs one at a time, beating well each time.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in batches, alternating with the water and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overmix.

Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To assemble, cut each cake into three equal layers using a sharp knife or cake leveller. Place the first layer of each cake onto a cake board and pipe the frosting onto the cake. Place the next cake layer on top, and pipe the frosting over. Place the final cake layer on top and give each whole cake a fine coating of frosting; this is called ‘dirty ice’, and allows the crumbs to be trapped so they will not get into the final icing layer.

Once you have dirty-iced the cakes, allow the icing to firm up for 5 minutes in the fridge and you are ready to cover.

Get creative with a piping bag and nozzle and decorate the sides and top of the cake with any piped frosting decoration you like. Avoid using royal icing for the finish, as it is too firm for a child to smash. Think soft!

SMASHING GOOD TIPS

Vanilla is one of the best all-round cakes. You can turn it into something spectacular by adding a splash of lemon juice or a pinch of cinnamon to the batter, and filling the finished cake with jams, curds or caramel.

The cakes can be baked a day ahead; they’ll be easier to layer and assemble if you do.

We would advise parents to avoid chocolate cake at all times, and red icing is probably best avoided too — we don’t want those perfect birthday photos looking like something from a horror film!